Ozoz Sokoh keeps putting yummy meals in our bellies and we can’t seem to get enough of her. From being a geologist to becoming a super chef and being featured on CNN African Voices and Food 52, she keeps proving to us that you can get what you want when you go for it.
Just like many people today, Ozoz studied geology in school, but isn’t practising it professionally, but guess what? Her many years of studying prepared her to become one of Nigeria’s finest chefs. “I spend my days now exploring food and its many dimensions, using the tools and skills I built as a geologist— enquiry, scenario building, testing and documenting.” She said.
Thankfully, her parents have been super supportive of her career choice,
“Both my parents have been huge inspirations. From my mother, I learnt the basics, classics and the details—why bitter works in most African soups, to how to use fresh prawn heads to lend the most awesome seafood flavour to a broth and to thicken it. From my dad, I learnt the experimental and love for learning and making everything from scratch be it elubo (yam flour) from the raw yams and plantain, to exploring flavours. My dad would buy several flavours of ice cream and encourage us to mix and match.”
For Ozoz, food isn’t just what we eat to satiate our hunger,
“Food is one way I discover the world and all the ways we’re similar in spite of our differences. My dream has always been to write a cookbook because I loved the beauty of food. Then in 2009, I discovered food writing and started my blog, Kitchen Butterfly. I began to document ingredients and quantities.”
Kitchen butterfly is going places and of course, Ozoz leaves us with the perfect advice,
“You can connect your varied interests into one. Remember that a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. Keep a master list of your goals, no matter how ‘random’ and impossible they seem and always be prepared for that YES.”
Read the full interview here.
Source: Tribune.
