How long do you think you could cook without stopping? 2 hours? Maybe 6? Well, one Brampton chef is trying to cook for 18 straight days.

Chef Beauty Obasuyi moved to Canada from Nigeria in 2009 and founded the restaurant Naija Jollof. At multiple locations around the GTA, you can try hard-to-find African dishes like black-eyed pea fritters and stewed goat.

Now, Obasuyi has an even more ambitious new goal: she hopes to set the Guinness world record for the longest cooking marathon (individual).

Her original plan was to cook for 8 days non-stop for a total of 192 hours. The time to beat was set by Irish chef Alan Fisher, who cooked 5 days straight (roughly 119 hours). She began the clock at midnight on January 10th.

But just as Obasuyi began cooking, news came from Ghana that another chef may have already beat her proposed time... forcing Obasuyi to go for even longer.

Intense competition

On January 10th, Chef Failatu Abdul-Razak announced the completion of her 227-hour cooking marathon, beating Obasuyi's proposed time by a little over 35 hours. The attempt is currently under review by Guinness World Records.

The competition had Obasuyi's fans worried.

One Instagram user wrote, "You have a long way to go because Faila did 227 hours."

"Go girl, but there is another Ghanaian who is planning to cook for 15 days nonstop she is on day 8 so you need to do more," wrote another.

Not to be outdone, Obasuyi tells blogTO her new goal is now 18 days, setting her up for an unbelievable 432 hours of non-stop cooking.

Her heartwarming motivation

Besides her growing success as a restaurateur, Obasuyi considers herself a philanthropist. She hopes by achieving this world record, she can make a tangible difference to people experiencing food insecurity.

It's a cause close to her heart: when Obasuyi arrived in Canada, she was a refugee and single mother struggling to make ends meet.

"I started from the ground up," she says. "I was in shelters with my two young sons. I worked my way up to becoming a real estate agent, then a restaurant owner."

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One way she's achieving this is by donating all the food cooked in her marathon. Meals are being given away for free out of the Brampton Naija Jollof location. She's even partnered with local organizations to help get her food to those who need it most.

148 hours in

As of 7 a.m. on January 16th, Obasuyi has been cooking for over 148 hours.

Brampton chef Beauty Obasuyi celebrates reaching 148 hours in her non-stop cooking marathon, getting closer to her goal of breaking a Guinness world record! - 📹 beauty_obasuyi via Instagram pic.twitter.com/dmlulbDaXu

— blogTO (@blogTO) January 16, 2024

When asked about her biggest challenge so far, she says, "It's not been easy to have such a short amount of rest time. As you can imagine, the human body is accustomed to at least a couple of hours of rest."

Luckily, she's being cheered on by thousands of fans.

"You've got this mama," wrote one Instagram user. "Impossibility is only a thing of the mind."

Obasuyi says the support is really helping. "Seeing the community enjoying this event and the food is what motivates me," she says.

With her new goal, Obasuyi still has 284 hours of cooking to go. 

How to watch

If you want to watch and cheer on Chef Beauty, you can see her daily livestreams on her YouTube channel.

When asked what she was going to do after her marathon was over, Obasuyi had a simple answer. "What I enjoy doing: cooking!"