Celebrity chef Hilda Baci has opened up about a tense moment during her recent Guinness World Record attempt when a giant custom-made pot of jollof rice unexpectedly collapsed.
In a video shared on X by HipTV on Tuesday, Baci recounted the incident, which occurred while the pot was being lifted for weighing.
The dramatic moment took place during her record-setting effort on September 12, 2025, at the World Jollof Festival in Lagos.
“When we had the mishap with the pot, in my first few seconds, my heart was in my hands. I was very scared, very worried,” she said.
Despite the initial fear, Baci said the accident ultimately helped streamline food distribution to the crowd gathered at the venue.
“For me, the record was not the most important thing. People needed to get to taste and enjoy the food we had spent hours making.
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,” she explained.
During the attempt, Baci’s team cooked nearly 8,780 kilograms of jollof rice in a pot measuring six meters in both height and width, with a capacity of approximately 23,000 liters.
She highlighted that even after the pot collapse, her focus remained on ensuring the food was shared and enjoyed, emphasizing the significance of the moment beyond the record itself.
Baci also stressed the importance of transparency throughout the process and detailed her communication with the Guinness World Records adjudicator after the incident.
“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.
So once we were able to establish that we had a clear recording of that, it was just straight to the next thing, like to distribute the food,” she said.
Guinness World Records later confirmed Baci as the official record-holder for the largest pot of jollof rice cooked in a single attempt.
Reflecting on her success, she credited her faith for the outcome.
“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,” she declared.
This latest milestone adds to Baci’s earlier Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon by an individual, which she achieved in May 2023 after cooking continuously for 93 hours and 11 minutes.
