The event is scheduled for September in Lagos.
Celebrated Nigerian Chef Hilda Baci has unveiled details of her latest ambitious project, an attempt to cook the largest pot of Nigerian jollof rice.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that Baci first announced the endeavour on Instagram in August, disclosing that it would require a colossal pot measuring six metres in both width and height.
She explained that the feat, scheduled for 12 September at Muri Okunola Park in Victoria Island, Lagos, had been two years in the making.
Follow us on WhatsApp | LinkedIn for the latest headlines
Baci expressed immense joy that the vision was finally coming to life, describing it as the fulfilment of a long-held dream.
She said the project is more than just a culinary challenge; it is conceived as a cultural festival, celebrating Nigerian food, music, and community spirit.
However, in a video posted on her Instagram page on Monday, Baci revealed that the specially designed pot has a volume of 22,619 litres and is expected to be filled up to 80 per cent capacity.
Breaking down the quantities and ingredients required for the cook-off, she disclosed: "I will need 264.20 kg of rice to fill my pot up by 80%. I am making the executive decision to do 250 bags because we are using Gino. For one kg of rice, you would need between 0.20 and 0.35, but because it's Nigerian Jollof, I'm going to use 0.30. To find out how many kilograms of tomato paste I will need for this quantity of rice, I'll multiply 0.30 by the total kg of rice that you are trying to make, which is 5.278.
"That means I will need 1,583 kilogrammes of Gino tomato paste. The Gino that I'm using for this production is a combination of our Gino tomato paste, our Gino pepper chicken paste, and our Gino Patsy Jollof paste. So for this 1,583 kg, we are going to share it evenly. And all that is going to come together to make the most delicious, largest pot of Nigerian Assumed Jollof rice that you have ever tasted."
Ingredients
She further explained that she would need garlic, ginger, fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, curry, and other ingredients to make the jollof rice palatable.
The chef also noted that the pot used for the feat measured six metres in width, about 1.1 metres in height, and 1.3 metres in depth, which causes the pot to cave in.
"The centre point is 1.3 meters deep, and the edge is 1.1 meters, you know, like the height is 1.1 meters. My goal is to fill this pot up by at least 75 to 80 per cent. The volume of the pot is 22,619 litres", she said.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
In June 2023, this newspaper reported that Guinness World Records (GWR) recognised Hilda Baci as the record holder for the longest individual cooking marathon.
Although Baci set out to achieve a 100-hour target, GWR officials later explained that a slight error on her part affected the final tally.
She cooked more than 100 pots of food over four days, surpassing the previous record of 87 hours and 45 minutes set in 2019 by Indian chef Lata Tondon.
However, Baci's reign as record holder proved short-lived. She was later dethroned by Irish chef Alan Fisher, who cooked continuously for 119 hours and 57 minutes, 24 hours longer than Baci's record.
