Image Confirming Nigerian Chef, Hilda Baci’s 100-Hour Guinness World Records False

On Monday, May 15, 2023, a Nigerian Chef, Hilda Bassey Effiong, popularly known as Hilda Baci, completed a 100-hour solo cooking in a bid to set a new record as the longest cooking marathon done by an individual.

Hilda reportedly made up to 55 recipes and more than 100 meals at Lekki-Lagos, Nigeria, within the five days she cooked to overtake the current record holder for the longest marathon cooking, Indian chef, Lata Tondon.

Although the Guinness World Records is yet to confirm Hilda’s record, she has received massive encouragement, cheers, and support from all over the world, especially Nigerians, celebrities, and politicians for breaking and setting a new record.

She is yet to receive recognition from Guinness World Records, however a viral social media photo says otherwise.

The photo, which started circulating on social media on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, concluded that Hilda Baci has been confirmed as the holder of a new Guinness World Record for cooking for 100 hours by an individual.

The photo was accompanied by a tweet from an account supposedly belonging to Hilda Baci, @TheHildaBaci, which claimed that the Nigerian chef had made history, and thanked all for the love shown them.

At the time of publishing this fact-check, the tweet had garnered over 3000 comments, 15,000 retweets, and 85,000 likes.

However, Fact-Check Ghana’s checks tell a different story about the Guinness World Record badge of honour for the Nigerian chef.

Using a Google reverse image search, Fact-Check Ghana has verified the picture and found it to be misleading.

The image first appeared online on May 1, 2023, from Canadian education consultant, @Theskillgarage, and has been manipulated as Hilda’s record-holding badge of honour.

Results from the search show that the original photo, which was manipulated and being passed on as Hilda’s, belongs to a Canadian education consultant with the account @Theskillgarage on Facebook, and was first posted on May 1, 2023, wishing their followers a happy new month.

Further checks also show that Guinness World Records is yet to honour the Nigerian Chef.

The tweet from the Guinness World Records Twitter handle on Monday.

On Monday, May 15, 2023, Guinness World Records said in a tweet: “We’re aware of this amazing record attempt, we need to review all the evidence first before officially confirming a record.”

The Facebook post from Guinness World Records affirming the earlier tweet.

On Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at 11:48 am, the Guinness World Records reaffirmed its earlier tweet.

 “Our records team is looking forward to reviewing the evidence from Hilda’s epic cooking marathon.”

Three hours ago, the official handle of Hilda’s solo cooking contest said they were working to upload evidence of her work for review by the Guinness World Records.

An hour later, her management issued a disclaimer about other fake accounts which have emerged following the buzz created around her record-breaking cooking contest.
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From the above evidence, it is clear that the picture is not connected to Guinness World Records honouring the Nigerian chef but rather a doctored image.

The writer of this report, Joseph Kwaku Kpormegbey, was a Fellow of the first cohorts of the Next Generation Investigative Journalism Fellowship at the Media Foundation for West Africa.

Writer’s email: [email protected]

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