When chef Hilda Baci first broke the Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon, it felt like she’d reached the peak of food stardom. But this year, she surprised Nigerians again when she took to social media to announce another outrageous project: cooking the world’s largest pot of jollof rice.
In a video that quickly went viral, Hilda shared the dimensions of the giant pot she plans to use and casually mentioned that she’s considering 250 bags of rice. If you know anything about Nigerian food culture, you know that’s a jaw-dropper. Jollof rice is already notorious for swallowing ingredients and money at even a small party scale. Multiply that by hundreds of bags, and the costs spiral into millions.
So, how much would it actually cost to pull off this ambitious feat? We investigated, using current Lagos market prices, product equivalents, and Nigerian-style measurements. Here’s the breakdown of what it takes to fuel a pot big enough to feed a city.
Basmati Rice
The backbone of the dish is, of course, rice. Hilda has her eye on 250 bags of 20kg basmati rice. At Lagos market prices, one 10kg bag goes for about ₦50,000. Multiply that by 250, and you’re already staring at ₦12.5 million on rice alone. That’s more than the cost of some cars.
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Tropical Sun Golden Sella
Read Also: 5 Ways to Spot Fake or Low-Quality Rice in Markets
Tomatoes
Instead of fresh tomatoes, Hilda’s team has confirmed she’ll be cooking with 1,583 kg of Gino pastes, which will be a mix of Asun tomato paste, peppered chicken paste, and party jollof paste. That’s a staggering amount, equivalent to approximately 26,000 sachets based on the standard 60g size.
At an average market price of ₦250 per sachet, the paste alone would cost roughly ₦6.6 million. Because Gino is sponsoring the attempt, this bill may be covered, but it still shows the kind of industrial scale we’re dealing with. For perspective, that’s several truckloads of paste, all dedicated to one pot of rice.
1 Carton – 70g X 50 Sachets
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Gino Pepper & Onion Tomato Paste
Peppers (Ata Rodo + Bell)
Jollof rice without pepper? Impossible. Nigerians will tell you pepper is not just seasoning, it’s the heart of the food. Each 20kg bag requires approximately 48 habanero peppers (ata rodo) and a large quantity of bell peppers.
Habanero: Instead of calculating per piece, let’s look at it by the bag. A full bag of habaneros goes for about ₦90,000. Hilda would need about 3 bags to cover her recipe, which brings the total to around ₦270,000
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Ata Rodo
Bell peppers: A pack of 5 sells for about ₦4,900. For 250 bags, you’d need 1,250 peppers total (₦1.225 million).
Combined pepper spend: nearly ₦1.5 million.
Onions
With Nigerian jollof, onions are non-negotiable. They are the foundation, adding sweetness and giving the food balance. Each 20kg bag requires approximately 48 onions, totalling 12,000 onions for the entire pot.
