The Guinness World Record (GWR) committee said Tuesday that Nigerian chef Hilda Effiong Bassey, also known as Hilda Baci on social media, has been officially recognised as the new record holder for the longest cooking marathon.
Nearly a month after the GWR had looked through the four-day cookathon’s video, the record had been established.
An adjudicator who only went by the name Mark made the announcement in a video uploaded on the official Twitter account of the Guiness World Records on Tuesday. “I can now announce that with a time of 93 hours and 11 minutes, Hilda Baci is the new holder for the Guiness world Records title of the longest cooking marathon,” he said.
The 26-year-old cooked in a makeshift kitchen for four days, starting on Thursday, May 11, and finishing on Monday, May 15, producing almost 100 pots of food, GWR said on its website.
“When I found out, I cried, prayed and screamed,” Bassey told CNN after learning of her record-breaking feat.
“Then I called my mum and we cried some more. I am so happy. Everything and all the hard work was worth it. I said I wanted to be a record holder and now I am. This is for all my team members and for all the hard work,” Bassey added.
Although Bassey cooked for 100 hours, she was penalized for an error in her scheduled rest breaks, according to the world record committee.
“There was a miscalculation when it came to Hilda’s rest breaks, meaning we are unable to award the 100 hours claimed,” the adjudicator said.
The longest cookathon title was previously held by Indian chef Lata Tondon, who cooked for 87 hours and 45 minutes in 2019.
Basey’s record attempt made her star and was so popular that it crashed the GWR site for two days, “due to the immense volume of traffic we received from her legion of loyal fans,” the organization said.
“I also want to thank Nigerians. They are so awesome. The support was so great. We really did something amazing,” Bassey said.