La cheffe nigériane Hilda Baci tente de cuisiner la plus grande marmite de thiébou dieune au monde
With 200 bags of basmati rice, weighing 20 kilograms each, 500 cartons of tomato paste, 600 kilograms of onions, and 750 kilograms of oil, Nigerian chef Hilda Baci is attempting to cook the largest pot of jollof rice, a popular West African dish, ever in Lagos.
Rice simmered in an often spicy tomato sauce and served with meat or fish, jollof rice is emblematic of Africa's most populous country, but also of its neighbors.
To take on this challenge - without a duly certified world record holder at the moment - and prepare jollof rice "Made in Nigeria", the chef uses a red pot "6 meters wide, 1.1 meters high and 1.3 meters deep", the 28-year-old explained to AFP.
This large "stainless steel" pot was made in "southwestern Nigeria," Hilda Baci said.
Late Friday afternoon, nearly 8,000 people gathered in a parking lot to witness the preparations, which are expected to last several hours. Some 20,000 people have registered, the young chef announced on social media.
Hilda Baci surrounded herself with a team of around ten people dressed in red, wearing hairnets and surgical masks, and armed with five wooden sticks to help her stir the various ingredients.
"Nigerians eat it all the time. At home, in restaurants, even at parties, there's always jollof rice," Bello Fatima Temitope, 31, a beauty entrepreneur who came with her friends to support the chef, told AFP.
"It's easy to eat. People like its taste and texture. Personally, I like the taste of tomatoes," she says.
On a stage set up near the giant pot, the chef's friends, including influencer Enioluwa Adeoluwa and actress Tomike Adeoye, liven things up with music and dance competitions.
Jollof rice has a common base across the region, consisting of rice, tomatoes, onions, oil, chilies, and spices, but each country—and even each house—has its own flavor signature.
In Nigeria, the dish is generally quite spicy and often accompanied by grilled meat. In its neighboring country of Ghana, it is slightly sweetened by the addition of vegetables such as carrots or bell peppers, and its red color is particularly pronounced. In some parts of Liberia, it is not uncommon to incorporate shrimp or other seafood. In Mali, banana is often added to create a unique sweet and savory blend.
In 2023, Hilda Baci already achieved a record recognized by the famous Guinness Book of Records, that of the longest solo cooking session, after spending 93 hours and 11 minutes standing up non-stop preparing local dishes.
Jollof rice has its roots in the ancient Wolof Empire, also known as the Jolof Empire, which stretched from present-day Senegal to Mauritania and Gambia.
In the 14th century, the area was renowned for its rice cultivation and the inhabitants prepared a dish based on rice, fish, seafood and vegetables, known as thiébou dieune.
With the expansion and migration of the Wolof across West Africa, this culinary tradition spread far beyond its homelands.
Jollof today gives rise to some rivalries, particularly between Nigeria and Ghana, each claiming the "best recipe".
In 2021, Senegalese jollof rice, called thiébou dieune or ceebu jën (fish rice, in Wolof), was listed as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO.
To have her achievement validated by Guinness World Records, Hilda Baci and her team must provide proof, with photos and videos.
"The weight of the final dish will have to be given before it is distributed. And we have to weigh everything at once," Oreoluwa Mobolaji Atinmo, marketing director of GBfoods Nigeria, a food company that sponsors Hilda Baci, told AFP.
The chef will then have to wait several days before receiving a response from the British world records arbiter.
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