You have a fresh platform after breaking arecord; what has been happening to youand for you as a brand and as a food contentcreator?
I’ve pretty much stayed doing whatI know how to do, which is creatingcontent, working on my class recipes,setting the ball rolling, and all theother things I had planned, like finding a space for the restaurant expansionbecause we’re opening up a bigger space.Obviously, there are lots of meetings, photoshoots, and interviews like the one we’rehaving now, so it’s just balancing out the extradeliverables that I now have and continuingwhat I used to do before.
What has changed since breaking a GuinnessWorld Record? Who was Hilda Baci beforewinning this cooking record, and who are younow? Personally and all?
Personally, I wouldn’t say anything haschanged; maybe I’m a bit more consciousnow in terms of just my environment and what’s going on around me, but in terms ofmy career, obviously, I have a lot more work todo, I’m in talks with a lot more brands, and I’mhaving more serious conversations. I have a lotmore responsibility.So I’m just curious to know how much your lifehas changed. I’m sure it has changed career-wise, business-wise, personally.
How do youfind yourself right now compared to how itwas before? What’s the difference?
A lot of things have changed. Obviously, lotsof people now know me and know what IIlook like. And sometimes I forget—honestly, Iactually forget. So when I go somewhere and Inotice that everybody’s looking at me, there’sobviously that. My social media has prettymuch blown up, so lots of people are on mysocial media when I post a picture, a video,or even a story. I think the only thing that haspretty much stayed the same are my friends.Like, my friends are still the same, they still yabme the same, they are not all over me, youknow, they’re honestly still the same people.And I think that helps with keeping everythingelse, like, maybe my personal life, verygrounded, you know.But work-wise, I have a lot more deliverables,like, every day. I used to see it in movies, andbefore you know it, this is my life.
In movies,they’ll be like, Oh, she has become successful;the next day she’s asking her assistant, whatam I doing today? And you know, one day Iwas actually asking my assigned assistant, Oh,what am I doing on Thursday?And they just don’t know, like, Really, you? Like,this is you; wow, you know. So now it’s weird,like, I have a calendar; I have a lot of things. ButI constantly feel like this, so I don’t know if thisis a good or bad thing.
I have a severe case ofimposter syndrome.And even before the cook-a-thon, whenmy business page had blown up, that wassomething I still struggled with. So every time Ihave so much to do, I have media rounds, andthere’s something telling me, Don’t get used tothis. It may not always be like this. I guess that’strying to keep me humble, but it also tries tostop me from basking in the experience of allthe changes. But I’m starting to understandthat that’s not the case. Accepting it is not abad thing. Obviously, lots of people are lookingfor me. So there’s that as well. So it’s just, it’snice, you know, there’s a lot of positive changeand a few negative changes as well.
Why/What inspired you to set your sightson winning a world record? It couldn’t havebeen easy. What challenges did you face inpreparing for it?
I just honestly felt like it was time because,again, I have had thoughts about it awhile back, and I knew that I wanted to dosomething out of the ordinary; I wanted topush forward my limits and my boundaries;and I also wanted to be known for somethingthat was very In line with what I do. It wasimportant for me to be regarded andrespected in my field, which is the culinaryindustry as well. This was one sure way toactually express that aspect of myself andjust show my tenacity and, basically, mycraftsmanship as well.
That’s one reason,obviously, and there are lots of other reasonsthat I did this, but in terms of challenges,putting the team together, we had a lot ofphysical challenges with the space becausewe built a functional kitchen with drainage andrunning water on a stage that wasn’t meantfor that, so I think we had different challengesin terms of production, in terms of basicallyputting the entire event itself together.
For me,during the events or during the attempt, justfighting through my inner demons—anxienxiety,fear of failure, physical exhaustion, and justpushing my body through its natural limitswas definitely very challenging, and being to this idea of what a cookor a chef looks like.
To nowcome and say, Oh, I do this,and I’m really good at it, and Ihave something to offer, youactually have to go the extramile to let people know thatyeah, “this is what I’m about,”you understand.So it was just all that, and Iremember being passed upfor a speaking engagementjust because of how I looked,and I guess they were juston the assumption that thatwas all and there’s probablynothing up there and it’s notright, but just going by howour culture and how societyhas been with the perception,I can understand where thatcomes from, and that’s why itwas even more important tome to constantly prove that itgoes beyond that. You can’tjust look someone in the faceand say, This is all they are.People are changing, growing,evolving, and learning, andthere’s always somethingto offer. There’s alwayssomething upstairs if you givethat person a chance.
What have been the highs and lows of thisrecord-breaking cooking season for you?
There are so many highs just coming out—I wouldn’t call it a triple but more like a hundredpercent increase in my social media—havingpeople that are willing to fight for me, thatcare for me, that try to understand me, thatsupport me—that’s very amazing. You know,there’s getting to work with brands that I’velooked up to, admired, or respected, andthere’s getting to work with people thatI have respected as well.
Just seeing anopportunity for my business and my brandto grow—those are definitely highs. Then forthe lows of navigating through becoming acelebrity or becoming someone who is wellknown or popularly known, It can be a bit of astruggle in terms of just now understandingand accepting that you are no longer justrepresenting yourself, but it’s important thatyou make a conscious effort, not necessarilyto change who you are, but to be more carefulin terms of understanding that things can betaken out of context and trying to articulateyourself. It’s a bit more stressful and is abit more difficult now to be able to do thatbecause I’m well aware that I am no longerHilda of before But I am Hilda, the recordbreaker.
What inspires you?
I don’t want to lie, the fear of being broke,the fear of being broke definitely inspires me. There’s a kind of lifestyle that I want tolive, there’s a life I want for my children, myparents, and my family in general, and I feellike it’s my responsibility to make that happen.like nobody’s going to make it happen for meso that definitely pushes me.
Another thing isjust seeing how hard my mom has worked to get us to the point that we are because shewas very intentional about all her kids in termsof how we schooled and everything, so she sacrificed a lot of things and deprived herselfof a lot of things when she was much youngerjust to make sure that we had the best ofeducation, so I feel like it’s important that I’mable to reward her when she can still enjoywhat that reward is so that definitely pushesme.
My brother definitely inspires me as well;he’s a very content, very honest, very drivenperson, and he’s very comfortable with whohe is. So that sort of pushes me to remain trueto myself in whatever happens or whateverchanges around me or with me. So there arequite a number of things, but top of my list ismy fear of being broke.
What would you say, or how do you feel aboutbeing an inspiration to many people?
It feels good, but it also comes with a lot of pressure.I definitelyhave tobe honestabout thatbecause it’s just the way Christianity is whereyou can justput all yourproblemson God andexpect thatyou knowhe’s goingto just solveeverythingfor you It’sjust easierto say, oh,I’m lookingup to thisperson sowhatever this person does is fine, like, Oh, if thisperson can’t do this, this means I can’t do it, too,so that means that it comes with a lot of pressureon me because now I know that there are peoplelooking up to me and that means I need toconstantly show them that you know what thesethings are possible And you can push throughyour limits.
You can push through whateverbarriers are set in front of you, whether by yourselfor by society.To achieve whatever it is you want to achieve,being able to do that every single day, everywaking day, definitely comes with a lot ofpressure.What do you think this win means for womenwho are perceived a certain way because of howthey look/dress?
A lot of people tend to believe what people sayabout them, but that’s not me because I believewhat’s in my head and not what you say aboutme, so just being able to do this I feel like I’vegotten the opportunity to show people that itgoes beyond what people say and what theycan see and it’s important that the responsibilityis on you to actually prove that that’s not thecase.
I get that you don’t need to do anythingto prove to anybody but again, it feels verygratifying for someone that has said to me “Oh she can’t be on this panel because she lookslike this” to now come back and say they wantme to do this speaking engagement or thatspeaking engagement is definitely very gratifyingto actually have that feeling. So everyone prettymuch owes it to themselves, and maybe seeingme do it would motivate them to know, Yeah, I cando it too, like they can do it as well, and I just wantwomen to understand that you don’t have to looka certain way to have a lot of value to offer or a lotof things to bring to the table. If you have a lot tooffer, it goes beyond how you look.
You have a bit of work experience and didn’t just“blow up…”2018, 2017.
I was doing a breakfast segment on a TV show, but that wasn’t enough, and I needed to work. So, I got a second job. And that job wasat a breakfast company. It was called BreakfastKing. So,they just gota contractto makelunch for aninsurancecompany. Ithink therewere about150 or 200staff.The ownerof thecompanywas myfriend. Hereached outto me andsaid, Is thissomethingyou cando? And Isaid yes. So I used to call it lunch division manager. Everytime I had a new job, I had a fancy name for it.But primarily, my job was to cook.
So, I wascooking for like 200 people every day. Therewas a menu. So, maybe today it would belike jollof rice, coconut rice, or afang soup. So,I would make thefood. I would followthem to the islandbecause we were inSurulere at the time.So, I would go to theisland, and I wouldserve the food. Likesharing the food.(It was LinkageAssurance). Theystill know me. Someof them came forthe cookathon.Then I would comeback and go to themarket.So, I would be upat 3 a.m. to cook. Then I would go and do myshow because it was a breakfast show. So, inthe morning, I would do my show, come back,and go to the island. So I did that for about ayear.
Then I got the opportunity to have myshow on Pop Central TV.The “Dine On A Budget” show So, when I wasdoing that show, I remember saying I couldn’tafford the house. And a lot of people said I wasusing the poverty narrative. But what it meantwas that I had quit my other job on the TVstation at the breakfast company.Pop Central was on the island. It was a liveshow. It was every week. I didn’t have a placeto stay because where I was staying prior tothis was owned by the TV station that I wasworking for. So, I used to come to Lagos, do theshow, and go back to Abuja.I couldn’t afford a place on the island then. So,my producer at the time endedup becoming my closest friend.
One day, I was rushing to leavethe station. And she asked, Whyam I always rushing out? And Itold her, I don’t have anywhereto stay, and I have to go backto Abuja. Because I won’t beable to sleep here. I don’t haveanywhere to sleep. She was like,Come to my house. We weren’teven friends at the time. Wehad known each other for twomonths. She was primarily myproducer. I stayed with her forthree months until I was ableto save up enough to get myfirst apartment. So, while I wasdoing that show, I got a job asan offline store manager for a fashion retail company. So, I wassimultaneously doing the liveshow as well.I was still trying to act too.
I remember acting. I was in onemovie. A multi-channel silentfactory movie was called DreamChaser. I auditioned and got therole. I remember my boss tellingme that if I was going to do thatmovie, I should just quit my job.So I was sneaking around. I wassaying I wasn’t feeling fine. Iwouldn’t come to work. So, I couldgo on set to shoot. My brotherwas the assistant director. Hetried to make sure that I would domy scenes.And go back to work. So, I didthat for another year. Eventually,I decided that I couldn’t continuelike this. Let me start this foodbusiness. My brother and myfriend Evelyn told me that I shouldtake this food business seriously.I used to cook. I didn’t have apage. My friends would tell theirfriends that Hilda is a very goodcook. You can order from her. Ididn’t have a kitchen. I would goto their house with my friend, whorecommended me to them, justfor safety. I would cook there. I would makethe food for them. They would pay me. Then Iwould leave. I was doing that. I was saving up.Eventually, I got a few things, like foodstuff andkitchenware, and then I started. It was aroundthe lockdownperiod. That was when I started.When I started, Iused to post. Eventhe food that I makefor my friends. Iwould post it on mypage.My brother and Iwere living together.He would be hypingthe food. If you goto my page, you willsee the videos. Heis talking about thefood. Little by little,my page startedto grow. I used to share recipes there too. In6 months or so, I saved up. My brother and Iput money together. We moved to a muchbigger apartment. It had a nice kitchen. I couldnow afford to attend to more customers. I justkept building this business from there. Then Istarted my cooking career. I did a couple ofcooking classes.I had around 30 students. I charged 15,000Naira for the class. I was happy to share theknowledge I had. Eventually, from there, it justkept growing. If I am going to be selling tosingle people, I have to open a restaurant. Istarted saving up to open a restaurant. That ishow I opened Amiko’s by Hilda. I started savingup to open a restaurant. I am so happy. When Iopened Amiko’s by Hilda, I already had around1,000 students. I think I have already trainedover 1,000 students. A lot of my students came.The celebrities that used to come to my showcame as well. When people say that I know alot of celebrities, I say that I don’t just know thecelebrities.When I had the cooking show, I used to DMthem. I remember I DM-ed P-Square. When thecooking show was happening, he saw my DMand said, I saw it.I DM-ed Nse Ikpe Etim and said, I would likeyou to come to my show. She came to myshow. That was my first encounter with her. I invited her. I was so fortunate that she agreedto come. She came for the show. She was veryhappy. She liked the food. When people cameto the show, they really liked the food. That waswhen I realized that I could cook.
Let’s talk about your right-hand chef, ChefSunny…
Chef Sunny wasn’t supposed to be the onlyperson assisting me. The culinary teamconsisted of over 30 people. I had over 30chefs and kitchen assistants. They weresupposed to assist me. I had a lot of fear andanxiety that first day.Chef Sunny was the person I started with. Heis the head chef at the restaurant. He alreadyknows how I like everything prepped. He knows how most of my recipes go. I had alreadygotten comfortable with him. He was veryencouraging and helpful. He was talking to me.When I started being scared, he said, “Don’tworry, you can do it”.
If he was allowed to cook,he was willing to get into it as well.I remember crying in the caravan. I said I can’tdo this. I need him. I don’t want anyone else.I said they should go and ask him if he couldstay longer. The fact that you dream that youhave to stand for 4 days doesn’t mean otherpeople need to stand for 4 days with you.They asked him, If he still wants you there, doyou think you can do a couple more hours?He said, Yes, he is going to stay there untilwhenever. That was how I went back.
Eventually, I ended up having just threeassistants. Chef Sunny, Chef Lola, and ChefChizuru from Rent-A-Chef were the only threepeople I ended up being comfortable with.The only reason one of them had to leave wasbecause it was clear that he was physicallyexhausted and tired, but he still wouldn’t leave.He still wanted to be there. I didn’t have accessto my phone. He didn’t have access to his phone.
It’s not like he knew that he was blowingup.Lola did not know that. I guess the people thatwere on the stage with us knew because theyhad access to Instagram and Twitter. None ofus knew what was going on. It was just sharing.It was very genuine. It was the same wayduring the dry run. It’s just that during the dryrun, I had more than one assistant becausethat was the dry run. They were prepping in theother kitchen, and there was nobody standingthere with me.
They were just bringing what Ineeded. But again, this is not a dry run.This is the main thing. Honestly, he was sohelpful. Not just him, but the three of them. Thereason why I was comfortable with three ofthem being there Lola had actually been myprocurement person. She does all our buyingand shopping. She had gone to the market four times in four days. There were a lot ofthings we had to buy. The cost of ingredient was running into millions of Naira. It was oneperson handling the entire purchase.It was a lot of things. We had to order a fewthings. She did all of those market runs andwas still willing to stay on stage. I rememberher holding me up when the cramps (I was onmy period the whole cook-a-thon) got reallybad. When they came to tell me that the foodwas not tasty, she was the one they sent tocome and tell me that they were not reallyeating it. Maybe you need to taste it.Chef Chizuru is also a very neat cook. That’sthe thing. I think that’s what’s most importantto me. They were cleaning and working, andthey just knew. Sometimes, before I even ask,I’m asking what I’m cooking next. They hadan understanding. They studied the menuthat we had created. They were working withit. They were so driven. Oh my God! Angels inhuman form that’s it. I always say that theyattract what you want. I’m saying that’s whatthey love. Lola has worked with me for over twoyears. That’s why they felt that they would beable to do that.
For anyone who is trying to find their way-looking up to you, what tips can you sharewith them?
So I say this to my students a lot that just start;don’t wait for it to be perfect Because peoplesee me now and just assume that I droppedfrom the sky, but that wasn’t the case, therewas an entire journey. Unfortunately, there wasno Tiktok for me to film content when I did myfirst empty house and all that but just start;don’t wait for it to be perfect There’s beauty ingrowth, like there’s a lot of beauty in growth,because, in truth, you will not appreciate howfar you’ve come unless you can look back atwhere you’re coming from.
So honestly, justkeep at it. Every day strive to improve your craft, improve your mental health, andimprove your vocabulary; just make ita conscious effort that you need to belearning something every day, whetherit’s in entertainment, fashion, or politics.Just make a conscious effort to learnand grow because you don’t know it all.It’s important to also have a teachablespirit, ask questions where you’re notsure and don’t jump to conclusions,don’t just assume, don’t take a little bitof knowledge and then think you knowIt’s all. It’s important to constantly learnand grow because that’s the only wayyou’ll be able to build something better.It’s important that you evolve.
You’reconstantly evolving and changing withtime.Plans for the future?
The Cook-a-thon being, like, a party that you don’t have to pay for is somethingthat I want to try to retain. So, that’ssomething, because I feel like the morepeople get to try Nigerian food, the morepeople want to learn how to make it, andthe more people want to even try theserecipes.
Because I feel like Nigerian foodis really good food. And the beauty ofNigerian food or Nigerian recipes is thatyou can tweak them, adjust them, andeven with other foreign recipes, you canalways add a Nigerian touch to themwithout losing their essence and all that.I intend to do that. I’m working on a book aswell. And with that book, I intend to tell differentstories—basically, things about my childhood—that translate to a particular recipe. So, itjust gives a larger understanding of me as aperson.
And, you know, I feel like once you readthings like that, it will prompt you to want toeven try them, make them, and experiencethem yourself.So, in any little way that I can, I already teachpeople to cook. And that’s something that Iintend to keep doing. it would further driveconversations about Nigerian cuisine, and stuffin general. I understand and appreciate that Ihave started a trend.
We have seen a lot of other Cook-a-thon/attempts after yours. How do you feel aboutthem?
You know, in AMVCA, they will say they willaward you the Trailblazer award because youstarted something, you started a movement.And for people to want to do this, it meansthis was so successful that it prompted themto see that, okay, I can try it too, and I can doit too. And that’s a good thing for me. That’scommendable, in my opinion. Right? But then,on the other hand, is seeing how much workI put in and how much effort and how manypeople have actually come together to do thisand do it properly.
No one has a monopoly onthese things.Because I’m a huge advocate for what’s worthdoing, it’s worth doing well. And because Ireally like to share what I know and what I’velearned, I’m looking for somebody who isactually very keen on doing this and who asksthe right questions. I remember when I wantedto do the cook-a-thon, I strongly consideredDM-ing the Indian chef. The only reason whyI didn’t DM her was just because I didn’t thinkshe was going to respond to me. And then justeven seeing how she responded to the cook-a-thon and how she was very supportive andfriendly. Now we follow each other. I wouldcomment on her post.
I now feel like if I hadactually DMed her, maybe she would haveresponded.Because for me, I would happily ask herquestions like, You’ve had this thing for fiveyears, could you please tell me the things youencountered? This is what I think you shouldlook out for. And that’s honestly somethingthat I’m happy to share. That’s informationthat I’m happy to share. But then the humanpart of me is, Oh, it took me this long to do thisthing. Like, you know, thinking that you can justwake up in the morning and do it, I don’t thinkyou fully understand the greatness or howpowerful this is.For some people, it’s just a Guinness WorldRecord attempt. But for me, it goes beyondthat because I said something.
I said, Oh, Iwant to be the Guinness World Record holder.And I took my time. I know how much effort ittook, not just from me, but from everybody,even from Nigerians in general. Because it wasthe attention that Nigerians gave it that madethe results come out as fast as it did. Becauseit just garnered so much interest, right?
Andif I didn’t do my due diligence, and I didn’t dothe right thing, and if God wasn’t on my side, itwouldn’t have been this successful. And I feellike if you’re going to put in that much of yourphysical strength, and put your life on the linelike that, you owe it to yourself to do it properly.Right? So, again, I can understand where a lotof the backlash comes from.Especially when people compare what otherpeople are doing to what I’m doing.
I know thatby opening yourself up to comparisons, say,if you want to do something that somebodyelse has done, especially in such a shortperiod of time, you’re opening yourself up toa lot of comparisons. And that’s somethingthat you need to accept and understand that,you know what, I’m doing this thing withinone month, two months, three months of thisperson doing this and being successful at it.
