Hilda Baci had been cooking since last week Thursday when, 4 days later, she set out to beat the Guinness World Record of 87 hours and 45 minutes set in 2019 by Lata Tondon, an Indian chef based in London.
Joy dominated on Monday (May 15) when she achieved her 100th hour goal at around 19:45 GMT
"I wanted to show how hardworking and determined Nigerian youths are and also as a campaign for young African women who are sidelined in society " Hilda Baci said.
As she became a national sensation in the West African nation, thousands who gathered at the scene sang her praises in jubiliation
During her 4 days cook-a-thon, locals and celebrities like the Nigerian singers Tiwa Savage or Burna Boy, cheered her on at the scene through day and night, many more monitored online via several streaming platforms.
The 27 year-old chef and influencer created an Instagram account for the event, called Hilda Baci’s Cookathon, followed by 255K people.
Take 5. Once an hour
The rules are drastic to achieve the longest “cooking marathon”. She has had only five-minute breaks every hour or an accumulated one hour after a stretch of 12 hours for everything else, from bathing to medical checkups and resting.
On the menu of her cook-a-thon : dozens of Nigerian delicacies under supervision, ranging from soups to stew and Jollof rice, one of the most iconic West African dishes, typically made with long-grain rice, tomatoes, onions, spices, vegetables and meat in a single pot.
Hilda Baci said she hoped that the world would learn more about Nigerian cuisines.
After she surpassed the current cooking record, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari tweeted to congratulate the chef.
Her original target was to cook for over 96 hours. “What prompted us or prompted me to change the hours to 100? It wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It was just my friends pretty much talked me into it and psyched me into it like, 'you can actually do 100 hours."
Guinness World Records was not present but tweeted they were aware of the chef's 'amazing' attempt to break the cooking record.“We need to review all the evidence first before officially confirming a record,” the global brand said.
"Hope to see you on Official Site of Guinness Book Of World Record soon" said on social media Chef Lata Tondon, the former record holder.