By Rita Enemuru, Reporting
THE Guinness World Record Breaker (In View), Chef Hilda Bassey (Baci) says the support of Nigerians was what sustained her for the 100 hours she stood in her Cookathon attempt to break the Guinness World Record.
She said this in an interview during Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.
According to Hilda, though, her body failed her at a point in the process of her Cookathon, the prayers, cheering, and support from Nigerians were what saw her through the challenge.
With a grateful smile, the talented and inspiring chef said she owed her success to God, Nigerians, her family and her friends.
She said: “Honestly, I’ll say that it’s the support, I said it quite some times that my body did fail me and at a point, I was pretty much standing on the support from Nigerians and that was what kept me through.
“There were days the public will come and they would pray for me and all that. So, without the help from Nigerians, the help of God and the Holy Spirit, there was no way I would have been able to see this through.
“My friends were very supportive and they came through in their numbers and stood with me for hours so that I wouldn’t feel discouraged.
“I had supporters standing under the rain praying for me and cheering me on. Even till now, I still feel a huge gratitude to Nigerians and to everyone that supported me and has so invested in this project I can’t thank them enough and I don’t take the support for granted. And I owed this to them.”
Sharing on how she embarked on the journey, Hilda said that the dream to embark on the challenge was born five years ago.
She reiterated how she had to work on her mental health by meditating, going to therapy and her diet.
Though she didn’t give the exact figures of what her cookathon journey cost, she affirmed that it was a very, very expensive adventure.
“Other than obviously registering and the approval to attempt the record, there was a lot of planning that took place; I had to work on my mental state so I did a lot of meditation, and therapy; prayed as much as I could, and worked out with a trainer and I did all of that to build my endurance and my cardiovascular strength and I had to work on what I ate.
“In the process leading up to the attempt, there were a lot of things like strategies, we hosted a number of culinary strategy meetings and it took us about six months to plan the actual event, the execution process took about a year and five months from the point where I said this is actually going to happen.
“But the idea itself came to me five years ago and I had to also create a body of work. I wouldn’t say it was because I wanted to do Guinness World Record, but because I felt like it has gotten to the point where this dream was feasible, a lot of things had to happen to me as a person and I think God just put me on that journey that led me to this point.
“I can’t give figures but I can say that it was very, very expensive venture; especially given the skill, it costs a lot of money.
“What I did was host a cooking segment called The Breakfast Show. Some way somehow, even in the other aspect of my career, cooking pretty much shines above all. I will say it’s what God calls me to do because immediately I started my business, and the response to it has been amazing,” she
Reacting to the reports that another chef is already trying to break her yet-to-be-ratified 100 hours cooking record, she said:
“I guess that is the reason for creating a record is for somebody else to break it.
“It may sound cliche but one if the reasons why I did this was to inspire people to dream and just do it. So if people are dreaming and attempting to break the record so soon, it means that I have been able to achieve that dream.
“In the normal human sense of it, they should wait for me to collect my certificate first so that they can actually break the record.
“People say they want to break records that means I have to get my approval so that that is actually the record that they are breaking. It’s a bit exciting to see that you’ve done something and now everybody wants to do it.
“I’m working on establishing my restaurant and it will open soon so, I’m working on making decisions on working with the brands that are planning on working together with me.”
What's your reaction?
