After a long night of anticipation, tension filled the air when Chef Hilda Baci’s gigantic jollof rice pot was finally ready to be weighed.
As a caterpillar lifted the towering cauldron, it squeezed on one side, forcing its cover loose and drawing gasps from the restless crowd.

A further attempt with a blue lifting sling strap bent the pot’s legs, prompting Hilda’s team to wave frantically for the caterpillar operator to stop. The scene left Baci visibly distressed as she circled the pot shortly, watching anxiously while officials worked to stabilise the weighing process. Moments later, they packed the cooked rice into coolers and served it in plastic takeaways to the crowd who had waited patiently through the night.

Some guests, weary from the long hours, lay on the floor while clinging to hopes of tasting the record-breaking jollof dish. Earlier, Hilda explained delays in serving were due to the rice needing time to cook evenly, given the scale of the massive pot. Two years after her Guinness World Record cook-a-thon, Baci is chasing yet another milestone with the “world’s largest pot of Nigerian jollof rice.”

The free event, Gino World Jollof Festival with Hilda Baci, kicked off at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, with over 20,000 participants registered. Crowd control was a challenge from the start, as fans scrambled for space inside the venue, which buzzed with music, dance, and celebrity appearances. They fabricated the six-metre-wide custom pot in Southwest Nigeria over three months, and it holds 22,619 litres.

Initially, Baci planned to use 5,000 kilogrammes of basmati rice but scaled it down to 4,000 kilogrammes, or 200 bags, due to weighing limits.

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