What actually prompted you into cooking?

What actually prompted me into catering is PASSSION. My mum was a great cook that people always come to eat in our house. I developed the love for cooking because I love good food. Partly , I can say that passion drove me into this and also my Mum was a good cook. She influenced me also, as the only girl in the family having a mother that her taste for good food is superb, there is nothing I could have done rather, to fall in line. And that fall in line is what I am basically doing. So these are the things that made me love cooking. Also Growing up, I noticed that people loved my cooking a lot and I most times do this with pleasure without minding the stress that is always associated with cooking, such as cutting the leaves, the oils and the stains. Cooking can be stressful,especially most African food,but that is by the way. Then, people that are close to me noticed the enthusiasm in me about cooking /food and advised that I can go into catering. That was how it all started.



As a mother of two, how are you juggling the two jobs?

Motherhood is a full time job and is for life. Managing both of them has not really been easy cos it requires full attention. With God on our side, all things are possible. Also, I think that women naturally are gifted with multitasking abilities. It is in built-thing and God has made us that way. Though, it can be overwhelming, but we still give God the glory.I am also a professional banker, Mind you and I still do my banking work.

What are the few challenges that you have encountered doing this business?

Well, every business in Nigeria has challenges, I think publicity is one thing. Just like in every other thing we do in life. Here,people are a bit scary, not that they don’t want good food but where to get wholly made food. We have seen a lot of short cuts in food and catering industry, take for instance, a situation that colouring is being added to the red oil to make it more appealing or a situation that people use some weird seasoning to make their soup sweeter. These are few short cuts that most caterers employ. Though this step that they take makes money for them,but it is injurious to health. The negative effect and it has a spill over effect on us that offer quality and wholesome meals for families. So I think that the main challenge is publicity. By this, I mean, how will people know that I offer wholesome meals? You know they won’t be there in the kitchen with you. So it takes a whole lot of time to let them know this and we hope they give us a trial. I think publicity is one key thing. Also publicity in the area that, people are going to quick fix restaurants and eating junks. This is evident in the type of sicknesses around such as diabetes and a whole lot of funny stuff. Well, some can be attributed to what they eat. In a city like Lagos, where everybody is on the move,what we do is that we let the family outsource their meals with us. We cook what the family eats for the whole week and send it to them over the weekend. They can refrigerate it. .... https://etimesafrica./2016/08/17/catering-business-shouldnt-an-all-comers-affair/