In Lagos last week, Nigerian chef Hilda Baci set a new world record by preparing the largest pot of jollof rice ever made.
Guinness World Records confirmed the feat on social media, announcing that the dish weighed an extraordinary 8,780 kilograms.
The nine-hour cooking marathon nearly ended in disaster when the massive pot cracked while being lifted by a crane for weighing, though the rice itself remained intact.
Baci marked the occasion by expressing gratitude to her team and supporters, saying the achievement was a shared victory rather than hers alone.
Hilda Baci described her latest Guinness World Record as a victory rooted in “unity, love, and collective strength,” telling supporters that the achievement belonged to Nigeria, Africa, and to anyone who believes in food’s power to bring people together.
Her record-breaking jollof rice weighed in at 8,780kg and was prepared with staggering quantities of ingredients: 4,000kg of rice, 500 cartons of tomato paste, 600kg of onions, and 168kg of goat meat. The meal was cooked inside a custom-built steel pot capable of holding 23,000 litres.
The effort drew thousands of spectators in Lagos, many of whom had also followed Baci’s earlier feats—most notably her 2023 Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon, which lasted 93 hours and 11 minutes. That record has since been broken, first by Irish chef Alan Fisher and later by Evette Quoibia of Australia, who currently holds the title with 140 hours and 11 minutes.
Baci said it took her a year to prepare for this attempt. She explained that as Nigeria is known as the “giant of Africa” and jollof rice is one of the continent’s most iconic dishes, it was fitting that Nigerians should hold the record for the largest pot.
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