Chef harps on empowering youth with culinary skills

By Stanley Onyekwere

Founder, Dine and Pack Culinary Training Centre, Chef Aishatu Gamalia, has stressed the need to encourage youth especially students in secondary schools across Abuja, the Federal Capita Territory (FCT) to adopt culinary skills, as part of vocational skills that can help them become self reliant in the future.
Gamalia, popularly known as Chef Mimi, opined that learning a skill had become necessary given the harsh economic reality in the country, where white collar jobs are no longer readily available.
Making this point recently, on the sideline of the 2023 Interschool Cooking Competition, in Abuja, Chef Mini however, cautioned parents and guardians of the dangers of failing to equip their children with skills, as according to her, the 21st century requires young people with vocational skill and not just paper qualifications.
She noted that the essence of the competition, which is its second edition, was conceptualised to introduce students in the various schools in the FCT, to vocational skill, through cooking.
According to her: “My passion for cooking triggered this. I’m passionate about teaching children how to cook. We have the mini-chef competition where children from five years cook on stages like this.
“For me, it’s about creating awareness that you have to be equipped with a skill no matter what it is. It can be cooking, tailoring, hair dressing, we just have to be equipped with a skill in our hands because the world is shifting from the regular nine to five, to what you can really do with your hands.
“For me, I believe what you can do with you hands, no one can take that away from you”, Chef Mimi stressed.
Similarly, Founder of Helpline Foundation for the Needy, Abuja, Dr. Jumai Ahmadu, applauded the organisers for the initiative, which according to her, brings young minds together to enhance their culinary skills.
Ahmadu, who was represented by Damaris Yakubu, the Foundation’s Programme officer, opined that such a competition is capable of redirecting and refocusing young minds.
“I will advise these young children to see this beyond being a competition, but rather an opportunity to showcase their skills and do much more wherever they find themselves”, stated.
Four schools, including Model Secondary School, Maitama, Government Girls Secondary School Dutse,Government Secondary School, Kubwa and Command Day Secondary School, participated in the 2023 edition of the competition with students displaying their culinary skills at various stages of the competition.