Guinness World Records (GWR) has confirmed Nigerian celebrity chef Hilda Baci’s successful attempt at cooking the ‘Largest Serving of Nigerian-Style Jollof Rice’ on Monday.
Baci completed a nine-hour open-air cooking session on Saturday at Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, where she prepared 200 units of 20-kg bags of rice.
The record-breaking attempt, which took nine months of planning and two months of pot fabrication, was organised in collaboration with Gino Nigeria.
In a statement published on its website, GWR announced that Hilda, together with Gino Nigeria, cooked the largest serving of Nigerian-style jollof rice — an astonishing 8,780 kg (19,356 lb 9 oz) of the dish.
GWR noted that thousands of people attended the event, with live performers entertaining the crowd.
The organisation added that the record had strict rules requiring specific ingredients, and Hilda carefully measured and documented every item she added to the dish.
Several notable personalities attended the event, including Nollywood actress Funke Akindele, who joined Baci at the cooking station, and the First Lady of Ogun State, Bamidele Abiodun.
Other attendees included dancer Kaffy, Tomike Adeoye, Enioluwa, Peller, Veekee James, Femi Atere, Samuel Banks, Alex Unusual, Folagbade Banks, and Spyro.
According to GWR, the ingredients cooked in the gigantic pot included 4,000 kg of washed basmati rice (which constitutes at least 80 per cent of the total weight), 164 kg of fresh goat meat, 220 kg of Gino Asun and peppered chicken cubes, and 600 kg of her signature jollof pepper mix
“Largest serving of Nigerian-style jollof rice – 8,780 kg (19,356 lb 9 oz) achieved by Hilda Baci and Gino in Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. She said it took ‘nine hours of fire, passion and teamwork’ and 1,200 kg of gas to create the 16,600 plates of rice ‘served with joy, love and community’.
“Hilda and Gino Nigeria also had to follow strict rules when it came to the distribution of the food, with none of it allowed to be wasted. A video posted to Hilda’s Instagram account shows the jollof rice being served up to all the hungry people who’d gathered in support and had to suffer through all those amazing smells before finally being able to dig in”, the statement added.
According to GWR, there is a record for the largest serving of Ghanaian-style jollof rice, but it currently has no holder.
This is the 28-year-old chef’s second Guinness attempt.
In May 2023, she became the official holder of the longest cooking marathon after clocking 93 hours, 11 minutes.
The longest cooking marathon is a highly competitive record, and has been broken twice since Hilda claimed the record.
Alan Fisher (Ireland) cooked for 119 hr 57 min 16 sec in October 2023 then Evette Quoibia (Australia) cooked for 140 hr 11 min 11 sec in February 2024.
Born on 20 September 1995 in Akwa Ibom State, Baci studied sociology at Madonna University, Okija.
