Nigerian chef and entrepreneur, Hilda Effiong Bassey, popularly known as Hilda Baci, is on her way to breaking the Guinness World Record for the “longest cooking marathon by an individual”.
This is coming after the chef hit the 85-hour mark on Monday morning, with less than 3 hours remaining to set a new world record.
Below are 20 things to know about her:
1. Her real name is Hilda Bassey Effiong. She is a young Nigerian chef from Akwa Ibom State. She owns a food brand in Lagos called “My Food by Hilda”.
2. She will be cooking for four days non-stop.
3. She must stand to cook, she is not permitted to sit while cooking.
4. She’s not allowed to take coffee, stimulants, or any energy drink to artificially boost her energy and bodily strength while cooking.
5. She’s allowed to eat food, drink water or fruit juice, & take glucose.
6. The cooking is taking place at Amore Gardens, Lekki, Lagos State, Nigeria.
7. She cooks round the clock, no sleep (Morning, afternoon, evening, and night. So, for 4 nights, she won’t sleep)
8. 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. 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.
9. Whatever she cooks is shared with the people at the venue for FREE. She is not selling the food.
10. 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.
11. Every meal cooked and every plate served is recorded. She has cooked over 115 meals so far with almost 3,000 portions if not more by the time you are reading this.
12. She started the cooking on Thursday and is expected to complete the target time frame by the evening of Monday 15th May, 2023.
13. The current holder of the title Hilda seeks to break is an Indian chef Lata Tandon, who set a Guinness World Record for cooking for 87 hours and 45 minutes non-stop in 2019.
14. To break the record, Hilda Baci is attempting to cook 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 cooking a marathon.
15. She tagged the cooking project “Cook-a-thon”, a phrase literally coined from the word “marathon”
16. She appears exhausted already, but the people around her are cheering her on to boost her morale. The Nigerians at the venue say they are available to cheer her on as she cooks round the clock.
17. Most of the food items, ingredients, and utensils used for the project are provided by her sponsors. So, the money expended on this project is not 100% from Hilda or her Food brand.
18. A transport company which is one of her partners is offering a 40% discounted ride to the venue for people who wish to join and cheer her up at the venue.
19. Hilda’s mum is also a chef. She owns a food brand called “Calabar Pot”
20. She is 27 years of age.
