By Vera Wisdom-Bassey
Women were generally believed to be more skillful at culinary services. For this reason, in the past, almost all the restaurants, eateries and food joints in Nigeria were operated by women. Hardly would you find men running restaurants. Although in many parts of the world most chefs are men, women were the ones in charge here. Well, no thanks to the current economic downturn in this part of the world, some men are beginning to present a counter-narrative to the phenomenon by taking to the job of cooking and serving food. It is unlike before when they assisted their wives or elder sisters to do so. And, this is attracting some attention.
This is the case with an eatery in Obalande, Lagos. Located directly opposite the Lagos State Transport Corporation office, under a flyover, it is run by a four-man team, all smartly turned out. You soon found out that they were brothers from the same parents in Ebonyi State.
Men cook with a difference
You also learnt that the place came into full operation after the demolition of a similar flourishing food service centre at Maroko, following the order of Brigadier Raji Rasaki, the then military governor of Lagos State. Nduwu, the owner and main operator revealed that initially the business was not doing well. But it picked up when his three other siblings joined. According to him, while one of them is engaged in washing plates and selling food to customers, the other is in charge of making soup, and the third pounds yam and prepares eba.
With things made easier by this division of labour, they are able to serve their clients faster with whatever food they need at any given time – rice, beans, plantain, eba, pounded yam, semovita, etc, with assorted soups.
“We always have customers trooping to this place because of the satisfactory treatment we give to them,” Nduwu said.
Olukunle Adu, who operates an eatery at Atan in Ogun State, said he wakes up very early to prepare food for sale. But unlike Nduwu and his brothers, he is the sole owner of the business. He explained that before daybreak, he would have finished cooking. He would then come out to arrange the tables or to get the place set for the business of the day. Located opposite his eatery is a hotel from where call-girls come from time to time to buy food from him. They seem to be his biggest customers.
He revealed that he went into the business when he suddenly realised after leaving secondary school that there was no money to pursue further education. So he contented himself with being an eatery operator. On how he acquired the culinary skills required by the business, he claimed to have learnt them from his mother.
He said: “I grew up to love food business. My mother operated a food canteen in this area for years. She is still doing fine. But I decided to open my own, and take it to another location where patronage would be assured. I love food business. And I never feel discouraged about it because it is very profitable though it is also very engaging. I have a friend who took interest in food business as a result of my involvement in my mother’s business.”
These men are making a living out of the kitchen job, cooking for others, including women, with delicacies that satiate palates. Scores of clients throng their canteens daily to have a taste of their foods and to pay for doing so.
Adamu who hails from Kano State, is another. According to him, he learnt cooking from his late boss, Musa who is based in Zuba, Abuja. After the training, he opened a food centre over there before later moving down to Lagos to continue with the business. With his experience in cooking, he chose to be an itinerant food vendor, moving from place to place in the mega city.
Asked why he went into the business instead of looking for other jobs suitable for men to do, Adamu, who plies his trade at Maza-Maza, Mile 2, Lagos, said: “Cooking is really my hubby and I am happy that I am doing it. The business is good. But at times we experience low period. Whenever that time comes, I feel worried and consider relocating to another place where things are better.”
He confessed that the fluctuating fortunes of the business affects him as a family man and that is why he is in constant search for greener pastures. He said: “Now that I am in Lagos, business is going well and I am happy. If business does not go fine, I will move to another place.”
Adamu sells tuwo shinkafa, a common delicacy among Hausas. He also sells rice and spaghetti with egg . His makeshift canteen is a point of gathering for Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo clients. While acknowledging this fact, he noted: “Men and women, boys and girls and a few other buyers come here to buy my food. They say they like my food. I am the one that does the cooking, but sometimes I tell some other people that they should join me. At other times, I would hire some female cook to cook for me. And after finishing cooking, they would bring the food to me and I would serve my customers.
The reporter sought to know what particular food that his customers demand more; he said it is rice and tuwo shinkafa. “I sell them quite well,” he said in his smattering English. “Although I do sell Hausa food, I am happy to see Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo people come here to buy my food. But I believe those who come to buy food the most are the Yoruba and Igbo people who have lived in the North before coming to Lagos.”
You asked whether he cooks for his family at home. He answered: “No, that will be too much for me after cooking from morning till evening for customers. My wife is at home while I am here cooking to make money for them. She’s the one that cooks at home. She can cook too. While I do this business is so my children can go to school. I didn’t attend school; that is why they must go to school.”
Proof of pudding in the eating
Emmanuel Udoh, a security guard with one of the organisations around Atan described Olukunle Adu’s food as a special one because he cooks his meal as skilfully as a woman, noting that the caterer takes his time to prepare food, including native ones. He said the fact that a fellow man could make great food like a woman has kept him going there to eat.
But Iyabo, a tomatoes seller who eats at the canteen confessed that as a woman she cannot cook as well as Olukunle is doing. According to her, he takes his time to cook, and he is always on time to prepare his meal. She said: “That’s why many of the prostitutes around the hotel are his friends and they buy things from him, not minding the fact that he is a man.”
Nkem, an Igbo woman noted that the first time she ate Adu’s food, it was somebody who bought it for her. But after noticing that it was tasty, she made it a point of duty to always patronise him. She said: “Since then I have never stopped eating there.”
A female customer, who ate at the eatery located at Obalende, said she was not only impressed with the quantity and quality of the food served her, but also with the speed with which they serve people and the cleanliness of the place. On service, she noted: “I entered their canteen to eat rice. One of them was attending to a customer. But when he came to me, he asked: ‘Madam, wetin you want?’ I said rice, beans and fish. He quickly dished out the food and handed it over to me with a spoon. In fact, his service was ok. And when I tasted the food, it was ok. I was like, ‘ah, men too can cook!’ It used to be said that whatever a man can do, a woman can also do. But on this area, I can say that whatever a woman can do, a man can also do.”