Did you ever think when you were a young man that you'd be cooking food for people that we see in movies? >> Absolutely not. You could never have told me even we can go back 10 years.
You could never have told me that. >> Why? Yeah.
Why would you not have believed? >> Because it's not okay. I can I can say this.
I didn't set out to be a chef. All right. Um especially not a chef at this level.
I didn't set out. Food was something that for me just I love to do. It just was like I like to eat.
So I was like, "Oh, I need to learn how to cook if you can eat. " So I think for me, I think it just never dawned on me, oh, you can turn this into a profession. So it kind of found me.
Food was always there, you know. It's it's in our culture. It's traditions.
It's what we do is Nigerian. That's what we do. >> Um, so for me, it just was a side hustle, you know, and then here we are.
>> Here we are. You told me when you were younger, one of your earliest memories of of food and cooking was seeing your dad make >> Yeah. >> breakfast on a Sunday and you were just sat there looking at him thinking this is crazy >> in awe.
Yeah. >> Why would that memory of >> like he was cooking a fry up like why was it so powerful for you? >> I tell you why it was powerful because my dad was a typical Nigerian >> man.
He did not get in the kitchen. That kitchen was not a thing Nigerian men did. Right.
Nigerian men get weighted on hand and foot. You know, the mom wife comes with the bowl of water and the lemon and they wash their hands with the cloth. And it's a it's a it's a ritual, right?
So men don't go in the kitchen, right? So for me, and I'm one of five. Yeah, I'm one of five.
And I'm the only boy. I was a daddy's boy wherever my dad when I was a shadow, you know. Um rest his soul.
And um I wanted to do whatever he did. So every now and again he would just get up and I'm talking this is I probably saw this twice in my lifetime. It wasn't a regular thing like and the one time it it stood out was got in the kitchen and I remember he just did a big traditional like English breakfast not anything crazy but it just was he knew what he was doing and he just got everything together and it was just fascinating to see him crack the eggs into the pan and you know whisk them up and you know chop up the onions and and whatever and then the tomatoes and I remember he taught me how to fry an egg where you chuck the oil over the egg the egg yolk and to this day I still don't like that But it just was an aesthetic I remember watching him doing and I see see the egg transform, you know, has that layer over it once he chuck me all over it.
>> For me, that just was fascinating. I just stood back in awe and that is one of the earliest memories I have of wanting to cook. >> Wow.
>> Yeah. >> But that didn't lead you to like jump into culinary school, did it? Your life.
>> No, it's it's just child was >> Yeah. >> challenging. It was um you know our family had a lot of ups and downs um growing up.
You know we moved house god knows how many times. Yeah I probably I've lost count how many times in my early teen teenage years. Um so no cooking wasn't like I said earlier on cooking wasn't a thing where I thought oh this is going to be a career.
And look I'm Nigerian. In a Nigerian household academics comes first. There's no such thing as culinary arts or you know art.
What do you mean art? Art care. No, that's not a thing in our community.
It's education, education, education. I was naturally gifted with intellect. I was an A student.
Didn't really have to study if I'm honest with you. It came to me naturally. So, I could go in and, you know, go to school and I'd get A's.
So, that was my trajectory. the typical standard, you know, go to school, get good grades, pass your GCSEs, pass your A levels, go into university. That was the trajectory.
