Nigerian Guinness World Record holder, Hilda Effiong Bassey, popularly known as Chef Hilda Baci, has claimed that she started the trend of Nigerians attempting to break records.
CorrectNG recalls that Baci embarked on four-day cooking marathon which was concluded at the 100th hour and she was subsequently confirmed by Guinness World Records. The Lagos-based chef began the competition on Thursday, May 11, 2023 at 4pm and finished on May 15.
Speaking in a recent interview with CNN, she said the reason people started to jump on the trend was because of how successful her cook-a-thon turned out. Baci, who is not the first Nigerian to break a record, insisted that she is a “trailblazer”.
The 26-year-old chef added that she did not only inspire Nigerians attempting to break Guinness records, but also motivated those in other sectors.
Hilda Baci said; “I feel I started a trend or like I am pretty much a trailblazer because only a trailblazer will start something and other people will want to do it.
“It is because it was successful. It was properly done. And just seeing how good it is, people are now inspired to say, I wanna try this as well. It just means that I’ve inspired something.
“On social media and in the news, everyone is just seeing people that are trying to break Guinness Records. Other people are trying to break barriers in their lives and businesses as well. So, I think I have inspired a lot of people to push through their own limitations.”
Meanwhile, in June 2023, Guinness World Records confirmed Hilda Baci as the new record holder for longest cooking marathon by an individual.
The announcement was made through its official Twitter account after reviewing the evidence on June 13, 2023. Hilda cooked over 110 meals for 100 hours to beat the existing Guinness World Record of 87 hours, 45 minutes and 00 seconds.
GWR however, reduced her time by 7 hours for slightly breaking a rule, and officially accorded her the record time of 93 hours 11 minutes.
“Following a thorough review of all the evidence, Guinness World Records can now confirm that Hilda Effiong Bassey, better known as Hilda Baci, has officially broken the record for the longest cooking marathon (individual), with a time of 93 hours 11 minutes,” it tweeted.
The previous title holder, Indian chef, Lata Tondon broke the record for the longest hours in 2019 after cooking for 87 hours.
