Nigerian celebrity chef and Guinness World Record holder Hilda Baci has explained why she cooked 200 bags of rice instead of her initial target of 250 during her attempt to set a new record for the largest serving of Nigerian-style jollof rice.
Hilda, who rose to fame in 2023 with her record-breaking cook-a-thon, launched her latest culinary challenge at the Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos. The event attracted a huge turnout of food lovers, celebrities, and dignitaries eager to witness the feat.
Kicking off on Friday morning, the challenge quickly turned into a carnival-like celebration, filled with music, dancing, and the presence of notable figures such as Nollywood star Funke Akindele, dancer Kaffy, and Ogun State First Lady, Bamidele Abiodun.
Speaking to newsmen at the venue, Baci explained that her decision to scale down the rice was purely technical.
She said the measuring crane and scale designed to weigh the final dish had a limit of 20,000 kilogrammes, including the weight of the custom-made pot.
“If you notice when we started we weighed the pot and we need to weigh every single thing that goes into the pot when we’re done.
“The goal was that by the time I was done making 5,000 kilogrammes I was hoping to achieve about 17,000 to 18,000 kilogrammes. Right now, if I include the weight of the pot, that’s about 20,000.
She explained that the crane and measuring equipment could only handle up to 20,000 kilogrammes, including the pot, so she reduced the quantity slightly to stay within the limit, cutting down by about a thousand kilogrammes for safety.
An Ambitious Culinary Challenge
Speaking further, Hilda noted that the 200 bags of rice she cooked weighed a total of 4,000 kilogrammes, which was still sufficient to feed about 20,000 people.
Hilda emphasized that despite reducing the number of bags, the scale of the project remained impressive and impactful, as the meal could still serve thousands.
She described the effort as the most ambitious challenge of her career, revealing that it required nearly a year of detailed planning before it could be executed.
“Honestly, Gino and I figuring this whole thing out was hectic. Figuring out how to fabricate the pots, it took Mr. Ayo two months to figure out and fabricate the pots.
“Then it took us about nine months to plan this event and it took us almost nine hours to make the entire meal,” she revealed.
She added that despite the stress, the process had been rewarding, “It was challenging but very exciting at the same time.
“We’re not done because we need to distribute the food and make sure that everybody that has come here eats to their satisfaction.
“So we’re still on it but so far I’m very happy, you know, with where we are and what we’ve been able to achieve today,” Baci said.
Interestingly, Baci revealed that the project was not initially conceived as a Guinness World Record attempt, but about a food experience for Nigerians.
“When I came up with this idea, I did not think about it as a world record, quite frankly,” she admitted.
Rather, she framed the feat as an opportunity to bring people together and feed as many as possible.
“I mean, have you looked around? There’s a lot of you. Some of you came with your cooler, so we need to make sure everybody’s fed.
“We’re feeding the nation,” she said.
Guinness World Record, a London-based record body itself joined the excitement online, posting a message of encouragement with a video of the event on X ( Formerly Twitter).
It wrote,”What’s cookin’?
“Best of luck to @hildabacicooks who’s attempting a new record for the largest serving of Nigerian style jollof rice today.”
The acknowledgment comes only two years after Guinness officially recognized Baci’s 2023 cook-a-thon, a feat that earned her international acclaim and motivated many young Nigerians to pursue opportunities in the culinary world.
