Nigerian celebrity chef and double Guinness World Record breaker Hilda Baci makes no secret about what drives her success.
"[It's] my love for money and the good things in life," the 30-year-old says unabashedly, laughing on a call from Lagos.
There is nothing bashful about Baci - who has changed the spelling of her last name from the original Bassey. She clearly thrives in the limelight and embraces the glamour that comes with being her country's most celebrated foody.
But there are really two Hilda Bacis. She admits that there is Hilda Baci the person, which is what her family and partner sees, and then there is Hilda Baci the brand, whose image is carefully curated.
"I'm a businesswoman first, which means that whatever I'm doing, it is important that my business come first," she says.
Under the My Food by Hilda name, which has more than a million followers on Instagram - along with the 3.2 million on her personal account - she runs a well-known restaurant in Lagos, as well as offering cookery classes and a private chef service.
"It feels good to be an inspiration," she says, "but it comes with a little bit of pressure because a lot of people now look to me for guidance and answers... I don't allow that to overwhelm me and lose focus on what I'm trying to achieve."
The cooking influencer, who was born in Calabar in the south but at five moved to the capital, Abuja, with her mother, older brother and younger sister, got a taste of standing out at an early age.
Baci's mother ran an eatery opposite the ministry of defence in Abuja and she remembers that after a day at primary school she would go there to help out.
"I always got so many tips because I used to memorise the whole menu and I was very sharp mouthed. So I would shout out: 'Oh what do you guys want to have? We have fufu, garri, semo,'" she says, mimicking a child's voice as she lists her country's staple foods.
The culinary expert first hit the headlines in 2023 with her four-day non-stop cook-a-thon, which at 93 hours and 11 minutes broke a world record. Although her record has since been surpassed, the exploit gained the attention of politicians and celebrities and inspired a craze for feats of endurance across Nigeria.
Then, earlier this month, she set a new Guinness record after cooking more than 8.7 tonnes of the renowned West African dish, jollof rice, in one specially made pot.
[SRC] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crl50yrgpj7o