Award-winning chef, Hilda Baci made a historic feat by cooking Asun Jollof rice within nine hours on Friday, September 12, 2025, to the admiration of more than twenty thousand fans and well-wishers at the Guinness World Records Gino Jollof Rice Festival, held on the grounds of Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos.
The delectable young chef, who made history in the 2023 Cook-A-Thon, declared after the cooking contest that it took her almost nine hours to accomplish this expedition, with cheers from celebs like Funke Akindele, influencers Enioluwa and Tomike Adeoye, and other dignitaries.
Speaking further on the process, Hilda, who received maximum support from her family and a great team, including her mother who kept cheering and praying for her amidst the frenzy and party-like crowd , said it took two months to make the biggest pot for the global challenge, as it had to pass the test of time.
She added that she used 200 bags of rice to the cooking as against the initial plan to utilise 250 bags of rice as earlier announced.
“I was inspired to make the largest cooking and chose jollof rice as it’s our food in Nigeria. I used 168 kgs of goat meat for the cooking as I had to remove the bones of the meat and this reduced the kilograms. I decided to make Asun Jollof rice for this.
“I used 1200kg of tomato paste which is 500 cartons of Gino tomato paste, 600kg of onions, 6000 litres of water, 700kgs of oil and other seasonings to make it the food special.
“All the products used in the Jollof Rice cooking are locally made. We bought everything in this country including the cooking pot which was made here and it took us two months to finish making the biggest pot and we had to test it to ensure the durability,” she said in an interview in pidgin.
The feat of cooking with the largest pot, began on Friday and was completed at night in the presence of officials of the Guinness World Records for assessment and would make an announcement after ensuring that the celebrity chef followed the guidelines.
