Chef Gbolabo Adebakin, popularly known as Captain Gibbs, has revealed that the team behind Hilda Baci’s Guinness World Record cook-a-thon spent a week preparing for a four-day cooking marathon.

Adebakin, the Convener of The Nigeria Food Summit, said the behind-the-scenes work involved menu planning, logistics, staff welfare and strict compliance with Guinness World Records rules. NigerianEntrepreneur Support

He made the disclosure in an interview with NairametricsTV titled “The Chef Who Wants to Standardise Nigeria’s Food Industry,” which went viral on Thursday.According to Adebakin, the first record attempt in May 2023 required extensive planning, even though the actual cooking lasted “a hundred and something hours.”

“The first one, for example, a lot of us didn’t sleep. And I know, on the Guinness World Record, it was, I think it was four days, because that’s like a hundred and something hours. It was one week for us, for the people behind the scenes. It was one week because we have to prep before the cooking starts,” he said.

He explained that planning for thousands of meals over four days was far more complex than for a one-day event. “If you are doing like an event for maybe a hundred people, you can do your prep in a day. We’re doing an event for four days. Now imagine how much prep we need for that,” he added.

Adebakin said he initially booked a hotel near the venue to rest but ended up staying throughout the marathon.

“I thought that I was going to be able to sleep. So I got like a hotel close by. But the first day that I went to go and change, maybe just refresh and stuff. Secondly, I surrendered.

I stayed there throughout the entire thing, and it was worth it. No regrets,” he said.Speaking on the second attempt, Adebakin said it was more demanding and required large-scale systems for food preparation and distribution.

“For the second one, for example, that one was even crazier. We had like two big makis, one for the prep and another for the distribution of food,” he said. “We designed the menu.

We knew she was very particular about a lot of things. Hilda doesn’t play. So one of the first things that she mentioned was that she wanted it to be Nigerian food,” he said.

The team also had to factor in cooking times, ingredient shelf life and storage.

“We were saying, what kind of meals can you cook for two minutes, for five minutes, for 20 minutes, because you’re going to stop at 20 minutes mark,” he said.

Adebakin added that they developed timetables, recipes and procurement plans, while also planning staff schedules and safety.

“We’re also ensuring that no one is going to die on our watch. So we’re designing the timetable for the staff as well, and the welfare for the staff as well,” he said.

He noted that vendors, farmers and market suppliers were on standby to provide fresh ingredients. “Everybody was on point, right? They were standing by, ready to supply us with the right products, the freshest of ingredients,” he said.

Hilda Baci broke the Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon by an individual in May 2023, after cooking for 93 hours and 11 minutes in Lagos, surpassing the previous record.

Her feat drew global attention and sparked renewed interest in Nigerian cuisine.