Hilda Baci, Guinness Book of Record holder in cooking has said she failed to get into Big Brother Naija (BBN) reality show five times before the cook-a-thon.

Baci, in an interview on Tacha’s ‘The Big Friday Show,’ a radio programme, said she tried to get on Big Brother Naija for a while and was unsuccessful.

She said she auditioned for about four or five times before given up.

According to her, the plan for the cook-a-thon was still in the pipeline then, saying that her goal was to go to Big Brother and then come out and do the cook-a-thon.

Baci said she guessed “God just knew, he was like you know what, this is fine just focus on this, this is going to take a lot more from you.”

Baci is a Nigerian chef, restaurateur, actress, and the current holder of the Guinness World Record for marathon cooking (Cook-athon) with 93 hours 11 minutes, setting a new record after surpassing Indian chef Lata Tondon 87 hours, 45 minutes cooking marathon in 2023.

To set a new record of the longest cooking marathon, Hilda was originally set to cook for 96 hours but later extended her goal to a 100 hours cooking marathon.

High profile Nigerians who visited Hilda include Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Lead Pastor of Harvester International, Bolaji Idowu; Nigerian award-winning singer, Tiwa Savage, Tim Godfrey, Ice Prince.

The former Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo also called to cheer Hilda up during the cook-a-thon.

Hilda received huge support fan base from Nigerians who trooped to the venue of the cooking competition, while others kept trending her name on Social Media.