As celebrity chef Hilda Baci basked in the glow of completing her Guinness World Record attempt for the world’s largest pot of jollof rice—despite a dramatic pot collapse—social media lit up with another familiar name: Chef Dammy. The Ekiti-born culinary sensation, whose 2023 cook-a-thon sparked national frenzy after Baci’s own record-breaking marathon, quickly trended across X, fueled by memes, playful jabs, and poignant reminders of uneven public support.
Baci’s Gino Jollof Festival at Eko Hotel drew over 20,000 fans, where she cooked up 250 bags of rice (about 5,278 kilograms) in a custom 6×6-meter pot holding 22,619 liters, aiming to etch Nigerian jollof into GWR history. Though the pot buckled during weigh-in, a GWR rep sampled the dish and deemed it “delicious,” turning potential heartbreak into cheers. President Tinubu even hailed her effort, calling it a “celebration of Nigerian culinary excellence.”
Enter Chef Dammy (real name: Damilola Adeparausi), whose name surged in searches and posts as netizens drew inevitable parallels. Dammy’s 2023 93-hour cookathon, which briefly overshadowed Baci’s fresh record, drew brutal backlash—accusations of poor hygiene, bullying claims, and eventual withdrawal from the spotlight to attend culinary school. Now, with Baci’s jollof quest complete, X erupted in speculation: Would Dammy counter with her own mega-pot challenge? Memes flooded timelines, from edited images of Dammy “calculating her comeback” to quips like, “Chef Dammy said she was bullied for her cookathon—now Hilda’s jollof gets grace for ‘largest, not tastiest.’ Same scale, abeg!”
One viral thread highlighted the irony: A critic slammed Baci’s jollof as “underdone,” only for fans to clap back, “She aimed for size, not perfection!” Yet Dammy faced no such mercy for her time-focused feat, prompting reflections on bias. “People’s judgments are inconsistent, but your dreams shouldn’t be,” one user advised, racking up over 1,200 likes. Others tied it to the Nigeria-Ghana jollof wars, joking about a 2019 Ghanaian “big pot” inspiring Baci—complete with throwback videos.
Dammy, who has stayed low-key since her training, hasn’t responded to the buzz, but the trend underscores Nigeria’s love-hate with record chasers: fierce support for favorites, swift drags for underdogs. As Baci awaits official GWR certification, the conversation has evolved into a broader chat on grace, growth, and the spice of rivalry. One thing’s sure—this jollof saga is far from over.