Nahvi Ifoda, the winner of the just concluded Knorr Taste Quest Season 4, is still in happy mood. Apart from the opportunity to showcase his cooking skills to the world, he went home with N5 million and N100, 000 worth of shopping vouchers.
In a chat with The Point, Ifoda said words were not enough to describe his feeling when he was declared the winner of the cooking reality show some weeks ago.
The graduate of Applied Zoology said, “Being on such a stage was not something I have ever envisaged in my life. I have been in the food business for a year and it has been a struggle. I was doing side jobs, looking for opportunities for me to showcase my skills.”
According to him, cooking has always been part and parcel of him but he did not see reasons to take it professionally.
“I was doing other things, but I have always loved to be in the kitchen. At some point in my life, I needed a direction and something to hold on to. I finished from Federal University of Technology, Owerri, and I was running an information technology company with a friend, but I later dropped everything to pursue a career in the culinary industry.
“I always tell people that I am not a professional cook. I have never been to a cooking school and no one taught me. Everything I know, I learnt them myself, though I always saw my mum doing things in the kitchen,” Ifoda said.
In Ifoda’s family, they are four children. He has two sisters. But he said he was even a better cook than his sisters.
He also said that winning the competition has changed a lot about him. Most importantly, it has given him a platform to compete in an industry where he was previously nobody.
He added, “This is a step closer to the dream I have for myself. People look at me differently anywhere I go and I command more respect now. My plan is now to advance my career, get more skills and make myself more marketable than I was before the show.”
While maintaining that his girlfriend, who he met while in 100 level at the university, was his biggest motivation during the show, he promised that nothing on earth would make him leave her for another. “It is only right for her to be rewarded for her perseverance,” he said.