A 27-year-old foodpreneur and TV producer, Hilda Effiong Bassey, popularly known as Hilda Baci, has taken the world by storm in the longest individual cooking marathon

A 27-year-old foodpreneur and TV producer, Hilda Effiong Bassey, popularly known as Hilda Baci, has taken the world by storm in the longest individual cooking marathon.

Setting a 96-hour record for herself, Baci went further to achieve a 100-hour cooking feat to beat the current record of 87 hours, 45 minutes set by Lata Tondon from India in 2019.

Baci embarked on a 4-day cooking marathon tagged the ‘Hilda Baci Cookathon’ which began at 4pm on May 11 and ended at 10 pm on May 15, 2023 at Amore Gardens, Lekki in Lagos. Cooking over 100 meals and feeding over a thousand people, Baci did well to showcase her culinary skills using various local and intercontinental recipes to put Nigeria on the global culinary map.

Baci said: “In the beginning when I started the attempt, the first day was the hardest. I almost gave up a couple of times. As time went on, my family, friends, followers and in general the public that turned up for my attempt sort of became part of the dream and journey. Even when I wanted to give up and I saw how much people have invested their time, it dawned on me more that I wasn’t just doing this for myself.

“As soon as my 100-hour attempt was complete, I knew I couldn’t just leave without thanking everyone that supported me on this journey. Their love, presence and support were important to me both – online and offline. It helped me get through those days, those hours, those difficult moments. It was very important to me.

“I was through a lot of stress, and honestly speaking, my body didn’t feel well. My body failed me so many times, especially on the first day. Every time it did, I cried to God. I can remember that on the second day, people stayed in the rain and had an entire worship session. They stayed there, prayed and cried with me through all these hours just begging God for strength.”

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