Nigeria’s jollof champion and record-breaking chef

Nigerian celebrity chef and double Guinness World Record breaker Hilda Baci makes no secret about what drives her success.

“[It’s] my love for money and the good things in life,” the 30-year-old says unabashedly, laughing on a call from Lagos.

There is nothing bashful about Baci – who has changed the spelling of her last name from the original Bassey. She clearly thrives in the limelight and embraces the glamour that comes with being her country’s most celebrated foody.

But there are really two Hilda Bacis. She admits that there is Hilda Baci the person, which is what her family and partner sees, and then there is Hilda Baci the brand, whose image is carefully curated.

“I’m a businesswoman first, which means that whatever I’m doing, it is important that my business come first,” she says.

Under the My Food by Hilda name, which has more than a million followers on Instagram – along with the 3.2 million on her personal account – she runs a well-known restaurant in Lagos, as well as offering cookery classes and a private chef service.

“It feels good to be an inspiration,” she says, “but it comes with a little bit of pressure because a lot of people now look to me for guidance and answers… I don’t allow that to overwhelm me and lose focus on what I’m trying to achieve.”

The cooking influencer, who was born in Calabar in the south but at five moved to the capital, Abuja, with her mother, older brother and younger sister, got a taste of standing out at an early age.

Baci’s mother ran an eatery opposite the ministry of defence in Abuja and she remembers that after a day at primary school she would go there to help out.

“I always got so many tips because I used to memorise the whole menu and I was very sharp mouthed. So I would shout out: ‘Oh what do you guys want to have? We have fufu, garri, semo,’” she says, mimicking a child’s voice as she lists her country’s staple foods.

The culinary expert first hit the headlines in 2023 with her four-day non-stop cook-a-thon, which at 93 hours and 11 minutes broke a world record. Although her record has since been surpassed, the exploit gained the attention of politicians and celebrities and inspired a craze for feats of endurance across Nigeria.

Then, earlier this month, she set a new Guinness record after cooking more than 8.7 tonnes of the renowned West African dish, jollof rice, in one specially made pot.

Baci’s prominence is not accidental or a flash-in-the-pan.

It is built on an awareness of how to grow her image and is the result of careful planning. For instance, she began thinking about the jollof record more than a year before the event.

And when it came to the initial record, the cook-a-thon, “I thought about the opportunity cost: How does it impact my business? What does this do for my brand?”

But despite this apparent single-minded drive, she did not immediately land on being a chef as a career.

She initially wanted to be a lawyer, then she wanted to study international relations and then eventually she graduated in sociology.

Baci also had ambitions to be an actress and TV presenter – “all the fun, all the glam stuff”.

But it was perhaps as a child seeing how her mother’s life was transformed through making a success from selling food that planted a seed that would later bloom.

At university she began cooking food for organisations and clubs there and found she was good at it.

With her brother she then started a food delivery business, but she also got a job on TV and was drawn to presenting the cooking segment on a breakfast show.

Eventually that led to her own programme – Dine on a Budget – where she interviewed celebrities as she prepared a cheap three-course meal. At the same time, she was working as a private chef.

Her victory in a competition called Jollof Face-Off against a chef from regional rival Ghana also helped raise her profile and netted her $5,000 (£3,700).

All this was building towards establishing the My Food by Hilda brand.

While acknowledging her mother’s influence and thanking her for not forcing her into a white-collar job, as a devout Christian she also feels that God had a role.

“I believe that when you’re doing something that God wants you to be doing, He lets you know, and He makes the response.”

One expectation that she finds she has to constantly bat away is about marriage and fulfilling a gender role.

“Oh my God, every day – in my [social media] comments section… people are asking ‘when are you getting married? When are you getting married?’

“I feel like that’s a thing in this part of the world, where it’s like if you’re not married maybe your achievement is not complete. But I’m grateful for the progress that we’ve been able to make, people like myself and so many other amazing women, without the married title.

“Of course I want to get married, I’m a lover girl, but that’s not something I pressure myself about. My desire to get married is because I’m with somebody I’m happy with and in love with, it’s not because society wants me to get married now.”

But that is Hilda Baci the person. When she thinks about Hilda Baci the brand she has a clear ambition.

“I want to build a legacy that is going to follow me… you know when they say: ‘This company has lasted 100 years’ – that is the vision I have for my business.”

As part of that she wants to open outlets across the world, including in the UK, US, Canada and South Africa, and help make Nigerian cuisine to be as well known worldwide as the Chinese equivalent.

Jollof is already on the map, but with a typical serving of self-belief Baci is also keen to share another rice dish.

“I have a signature coconut rice recipe that I want to go global, I want every household to have it on their menu.”