Hilda Bassey breaks Guinness record of world longest cooking marathon

A Nigerian Chef, Hilda Bassey, popularly known as Hilda Baci has set a new Guiness world record for the longest cooking marathon by a single individual with over 96 hours of non-stop cooking.

Hilda Baci breaks Lata Tondon’s record, the Indian who completed the task in 87 hours, 45 minutes and 00 secs in Rewa, India in 2019.

In an attempt to clinch this record, the 27-year-old graduate on Thursday set up a four-day ‘cook-a-thon’ at Amore Gardens, Lekki, Lagos State.

She tagged the cooking project “Cook-a-thon”, a phrase literally coined from the word “marathon”

To break the record, Hilda Baci cooked for 96 hours, using extra 9 hours to break the world record as the first human on earth to spend such an amount of time in a cooking marathon.

The challenge received massive support from Nigerians who visited the garden in thousands to cheer her up and have a taste of the record breaking chef’s meal.

Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari on Monday hailed the resilience and describing it as a global feat.

Read Also:Global Feat: Nigerian Leader Hails Hilda Bassey

Others followed on various social media handle to give their words of encouragement.

On Sunday, Nigeria’s President-elect, Bola Tinubu, drummed his support for chef Hilda Baci by joining her Instagram live video. Tinubu commented, “IDAN doesn’t break, she breaks records. We’re rooting for you, Hilda.”

The screenshot of the Instagram Live was shared on Tinubu’s Instagram story on Sunday.

‘Idan’ is a trending slang on social media, used to hail someone with exceptional capabilities and prowess.

Also, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, paid a special visit to the venue of the cook-a-thon to celebrate and commend the talented chef.

Huge congratulations to Chef Hilda Baci on breaking the Guinness World Record for the longest hours spent cooking.

I had the privilege of visiting and tasting her amazing dishes yesterday. The flavor, passion and dedication she puts into her work are unparalleled.

Hilda,… pic.twitter.com/bjLOJbXKbo

— Babajide Sanwo-Olu (@jidesanwoolu) May 15, 2023

Several Nigerian celebrities such as Tiwa Savage, Spyro, Banky-W among others also visited the venue to encourage the chef.

Social media handle, Instagram also verified Chef Hilda. On Sunday night only, she got over 18,000 Live views on her IG handle.

The record breaking chef completed the target time frame on Monday 15th May, 2023 to beat the last record.

Nigerians who have made it to the list of those in the Guinness World Records include Stephen Keshi, Vincent Okezie, Fela Kuti, Blessing Okagbere, and Wizkid.

Earlier this year in February, a 16-year-old Nigerian senior secondary school student, Gbenga Ezekiel, made it to the Guinness World Record for the most skips in a minute on one leg.

Similarly, 23 years old Divine Ikubor, popularly known as Rema, made it to the Guinness World Records with his hit song ‘Calm Down’ earlier this month.

 

What you should know about the competition

Chef Hilda Baci had to fill some conditions to enable her break the world class record of the longest cooking chef, some of which are:

1. 1. She must stand to cook; she is not permitted to sit while cooking.
   2. She’s not allowed to take coffee, stimulants, or any energy drink to artificially boost her energy and bodily strength while cooking.
   3. She’s allowed to eat food, drink water or fruit juice, and take glucose.
   4. She cooks round the clock, no sleep (Morning, afternoon, evening, and night. So, for 4 nights, she won’t sleep).
   5. She has just 5 minutes’ rest per hour [meaning for every 1 hour, she is entitled to just 5 minutes rest or break, that’s an hour break in every 12 hours]. Other sources claim she gets a 30-minute break every 6 hours, she spends the 30mins in a medical van which is just close by, within which she can nap, use the restroom, and also get a medical assessment or checkup by the medical team available on the spot.
   6. Whatever she cooks is shared to the people at the venue for FREE. She is not selling the food.
   7. She cooks different meals simultaneously. She is at liberty to cook any meal she likes. There are no restrictions as to what she can cook or not cook. The World Record title is about cooking within a time frame, not about what is cooked. As long as she is cooking, she is on track.
   8. Every meal cooked and every plate served is recorded.

Most of the food items, ingredients, utensils, etc she used for this project are provided by her sponsors therefore, the money expended on this project is not 100% from Hilda or her Food brand.

Hilda’s mum is also a chef. She owes a food brand called “Calabar Pot”.