What really happened when my giant jollof pot collapsed – Hilda Baci

Nigerian chef Hilda Baci has opened up on the nerve-wracking moment her custom-made giant pot unexpectedly collapsed during her successful Guinness World Record attempt for cooking the largest pot of jollof rice.

In an interview shared on X by HipTV on Tuesday, Baci described the scare as almost overwhelming. “When we had the mishap with the pot, my first few seconds, my heart was in my hands. I was very scared, very worried,” she said.

But for Baci, the record itself was secondary to feeding the people. “For me, the record was not the most important thing. It was important that people got to taste and enjoy the food we had spent hours making,” she explained, adding that the collapse unexpectedly helped the process.

“I would say it was a good thing that the pot caved because it made food distribution a lot easier… it was a blessing in disguise.”

The dramatic incident occurred on September 12 at the World Jollof Festival in Lagos, where Baci and her team prepared nearly 8,780 kilograms (about 19,356 pounds) of jollof rice in a pot measuring six meters wide and tall, with a capacity of roughly 23,000 litres. As a crane lifted the pot for weighing, one side gave way, and the supporting legs buckled — though miraculously, the food remained intact.

Baci and her team submitted video and photographic evidence of the weighing process to Guinness World Records, which later confirmed her as the official record-holder for the largest pot of jollof rice cooked at one time.

Reflecting on the tense moment, she noted that the team had to act quickly to ensure transparency and proper documentation. “So I reached out to our adjudicator, and I let him know that the pot caved… And he’s like, let’s just proceed… We had to look for different cameras to see if we had a recording, a clear recording of that, because for me, transparency is very, very important. Once we were able to establish that we had a clear recording, it was just straight to the next thing, like to distribute the food.”

Looking back on her achievement as a two-time Guinness World Record holder, Baci said, “It’s just a testament that God is good and I’m a child of grace. When I tell you grace is here and you doubt me, look at my track record. Trust the Lord.”

This latest milestone adds to Baci’s earlier record for the longest cooking marathon by an individual, achieved in May 2023 when she cooked for 93 hours and 11 minutes.