In recent weeks the timelines of various social media platforms have been buzzing sparking widespread discussions of Africa’s latest Guinness World Records participants. Not surprisingly they were from one of the continents populated countries which is the country of Nigeria. Hilda Bacci and Chef Dammy were the 2 individuals making this a possibility. This made the headlines of many news portals enjoyable garnering worldwide attention. Also, it led to dramatic discussions because it consisted of two strong women who were virtually going for similar titles. This later would end up as a victory for Nigeria and Africa as a whole. One of the two participants who captured the hearts of many was Hilda Bacci. Hilda per numerous reports had been planning her GWR cooking journey for a year before the commencement of the cooking challenge she applied to partake in.
She did well to promote her participation throughout most media fraternities in Nigeria. She even went out to solicit funds for her uphill battle as a form of preparation and gathered followers on Twitter and Instagram in that regard. We streamed Hilda’s performance on Instagram for 3 days and witnessed everything assuming that everything she endured during that period was fine even though it was not. The world saw Hilda standing straight on her two feet cooking various types of meals in unprecedented fashion. Well, she aimed to beat or surpass the number of hours done by the former Indian holder. Her goal was that simple and that was to beat 87 hours and do it convincingly. Since she was the only one to do the cooking as per rules from the GWR, Hilda gathered all the necessary stuff to aid her cooking and proceeded to cook everything that was edible enough for a human being.
One interesting thing about hers was that she was positioned in an eatery that was covered entirely by transparent glass hence her performance was been seen by people who had come to purchase food. Many ended up staying with her shouting words of encouragement in the process. Hilda’s delicacies included jollof, pasta, eba, and moi moi. She was reported to have added continental dishes to her list of intended meals at one point. This also gave it a global appeal. Now most of the meals she cooked were either been enjoyed by the people present a lot. She had friends come over the entire time. Due to Hilda’s staunch support at the time. She was all over Twitter with her flyers and videos. Her meals were recorded and sent to media platforms that felt the need to broadcast her progress too. After days of cooking Hilda had a celebrity entourage storm her eatery in Lagos.
This according to pundits was the defining moment in her performance. She took strength from the popular faces and finished in a record of 100 hours. At this juncture, she had surpassed Chef Lata Tondon making her the holder despite not being confirmed as of yet. During this period many Nigerian enthusiasts pressured the Record Company to announce their star as a winner because all the indications were clear that she was the new messiah in terms of cooking. Even Lata had to come out to Hilda’s nerves with words of encouragement. According to her, she got a response months after surpassing the record at the time.2 weeks passed by with her fate still hanging and she began thanking dignitaries who showed up at her eatery to support her. Some who ate her food and took photos were instrumental in promoting her throughout the journey hence she was truly appreciative of that and promised to retry the challenge if it went south.
https://twitter.com/hildabacicooks/status/1658004658340745216
Hilda at this point was granting interviews all over the continent and one notable one he had was with AJ Sarpong which revealed that she had been obsessing about achieving a world record from the GWR and hoped to accomplish it hence her partaking in it was just a manifestation to people. While all these happy and beautiful scenes unfolded before our eyes, a chef from Ekiti in Nigeria had begun another cook-a-thon to beat the unannounced record broken by Hilda Bacci. This woman was Chef Dammy. Now Chef Dammy had obviously been following Hilda’s journey hence we believe she began her cooking challenge after Hilda beat the once-achieved 87 hours by Tondon. She held hers at an eatery in Ekiti as well following similar promotional patterns such as streaming on the internet. Creating accounts for all socials preferably on Twitter and Instagram.
Chef Dammy per information from her camp had gone on to become a national point of interest since she was trying to beat this newly set record from her compatriot Hilda. She was been visited by her family and friends. Many began to take her extremely seriously when she was visited by her University Chancellor in the course of the challenge. After a brief word of encouragement, Chef Dammy was given various citations and endorsed by her school which to many was commendable. She was announced as a record breaker as well. This was a week after Hilda’s online jubilation. This earned Chef Dammy interviews in Nigeria at some of the most prestigious grounds anyone can think of. She was indeed praised for not holding back despite criticisms of her sleeping for longer hours in the course of the challenge. She was reported to have switched off her gas at some point to take a nap. All this in fact made her a woman to watch by many. After weeks of social rebuttal by both fans of the two cooks, the Guinness World Records had one message to give out and that was to Hilda Bacci.
https://twitter.com/GWR/status/1668557161230659586
After coming out to clear the air on how their team was reviewing her efforts, they announced Hilda as the winner but also added there was a deduction of 7 hours from her efforts however that didn’t stop her from beating the previously held record. Chef Dammy was given a reply after Hilda’s triumph piece from the GWR. Well per the GWR she never applied to them informing them of her decision to participate in the challenge hence her effort could not be reviewed sadly. All the same, they encouraged her to try again in the future and made it clear she was a winner in her own right. So yes it was really an intriguing month for lovers of cook-a-thons because what was witnessed between Hilda and Dammy was a spectacle and many fail to admit the professionalism on the part of Dammy.
We believe she did her best and things could go better in her preparations for her next cook-a-thon. Dammy herself has been asking for funds online to beef up her security since she got a reply from the GWR. In fact, she has started to make this whole scenario exciting for her fans, who appear to love the information on her website. We believe that Hilda Bacci’s narrative will give her more street cred and continue to increase her self-confidence all around the world. She was already giving people delicious meals, but now that she has gained fame, she is much more accessible to a wider range of customers. Hopefully, we will see foreigners patronizing her establishment in Lagos. Before completing their records, Both Hilda and Dammy influenced Chef Faila from Ghana to take part in a historic challenge and complete it.
Hilda, You are truly amazing.