—Ibadan celeb caterer who has served presidents, governors
Pastor Mrs Olufunmi Adegbile holds a Ph.D in Educational Technology. But she has been running Royal Spices, a delicacy catering service company that caters for people in the top echelon of the society for 27 years. A pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), she also sits atop Royal Spices Academy, training chefs for hotels, top rated restaurants and kitchens in the country. In this interview with BISI OLADELE and PELUMI IBRAHIM, Dr. Adegbile revealed how her passion for tasteful presentation of food led her into establishing Royal Spices, a company that offered her the opportunity to cater for several governors and three presidents. Excerpts:
Can you share with us your educational background?
I studied Theatre Arts in my first degree. I hold three Master’s degrees and PhD in Educational Technology.
How did you get into food business?
I have always been in food business. Immediately after the arts thing, I worked briefly with First Bank. From there I realised that banking work was too routine. There was not much excitement and I decided to take up some courses in Computing, took some exams in Data Processing. Then, I decided to set up a computer firm. It was while leaving banking into having a computer firm that the food business occurred to me. When I attended parties, I saw people using funny-looking plates, wet plates, serving food in wet plates, throwing wet spoons inside wet plates and putting all sorts on top of it as though the food was for a dog. I started querying the presentation. Actually, the presentation of food attracted me into food business. I am talking about pre- 1991, because I took off in 1991. The table covers then were not good enough in my own estimate. They used blue-chek, pink-chek. I was asking such questions as, why school uniforms of children be on the table? Why not white clothes like what we see in hotels’ restaurants? Why can’t full cutleries be used? Why can’t the cutleries be packaged? I continued to these queries until my husband reminded me about what my mother used to say, that when you complain too much about a particular situation or thing, you should do something about it. So, I decided to do something about it by adding colours to my friends’ events – naming ceremonies etc. What ever event, I would go there, pick about two or three tables on my own, set them up the way I should. I believed the legs of the tables should be well covered. Then, we were using metal tables. Some of the legs looked funny to me. I would be wondering how I would eat the food because that was where my attention would be.
So, I introduced into kitchen business, at least in this environment, covering of table legs, covering of the cutleries and selling food as a total package. I tried to add serviettes, you know, it makes it so colourful and everybody would go to such tables, and they would face the celebrant or whoever owned the event and ask why she didn’t decorate all the tables the way I did. They used to explain that I took it upon myself to decorate that way. Then, guests would ask why the celebrant failed to request me to decorate every table on a pay basis. ‘She doesn’t do it for business,’ they would reply. ‘Then, pay her to do it,’ some of the guests would say. So, that was how I got into the business. I started collecting money to do it, and that was how, over the years, it evolved. We evolved from using plain colours to covering the legs of the tables different from the white on top of it. We now match the serviette inside the cup with whatever we used in covering the table. So that was how we got here.
How has it been doing food business since 1991?
Food business, like our current slogan in Royal Spices Academy, food business is big business.
How big is it?
Very big. Every aspect of food means money. Outdoor catering, there are different aspects to it. There is the continental aspect; there is the local aspect; there is the finger food – our asun – and things like that, which we do corporately. We now use a whole cow for asun. We also have our local meal. Amala has become so popular. We now have amala.com One can specialise in it. You make amala for 500 out of the guests at an event, serving it steaming hot. We even serve our roasted plantain as finger food. We also package food. We have tried to be different from the way we package. Don’t forget that I said what attracted me was the presentation, that is packaging. That’s an aspect I’m talking about. There’s also the desert. We are all getting more exposed. Serving alone is business.
If I could stay put in food business in the last 27 years, preferring it to my PhD, doing it full-time, rather than to stay in academic world full-time, it confirms that food business is big business. I do academic work as part-time. I am an adjunct lecturer but I will prefer to stay full-time in food business.
After you started yours, basically on better ways to present food, would you say there are others that have done the same within the last 27 years?
They are not just few, they are many, and they are thriving in there own areas too. They are many and that’s what gave me the confidence to set up an academy with the purpose of kitchen hospitality management where you teach, not just another typical Nigerian kitchen school but an academy that has about eight different departments.
This academy opened six months ago and before we knew it, companies were here to recruit them even before completing their first three months on the programme. They are being taken by well established organisations.
You have been in the food business for the past 27 years. What would you say this business has taken away from you and what would you say it has added to you?
If it were not for the food business, I would have been a professor. But I’m not too far away from it because I love to impact lives and I realised that being in this food business I’m still impacting lives, coupled with the fact that I am also a pastor. So, I have not missed much. Well, another thing it has taken away from me is my quiet life.
You love a quiet life?
Yes. I love to just be in my own corner. Before this business, I didn’t talk to people. When you talked to me, I took my time in answering you and I brought that into food business. But I started hearing, ‘She’s arrogant; she doesn’t talk to people’. For me, I would rather conserve the energy to talk for work. But the feedback I started getting has changed me. So, I go out of my way to interact. But it is never in my character that when I am somewhere I first of all go about, greeting people, saying ‘Hello’ to this, saying ‘Hello’ to that. In fact, naturally, I wouldn’t want anybody to know that I am where I am seated but because of the feedback I started getting, I had to learn how to say ‘Good afternoon sir!’ It humbled me the more. You cannot thrive in food business in Nigeria if you don’t learn to be extra humble because of the perception of people.
So, what has this business added to you?
A lot, a lot that I wouldn’t want to mention. A lot.
Well, you have mentioned one. It actually taught you humility.
Yes. Because I believe the fact that you just do what you have to do and move on, so far you have seen your food, you have seen your table set, you have seen that, and things are going on well, I don’t have to start hobnobbing. But I learnt that hobnobbing is the major part of this business. It has added to me.
I have met a lot of people through this business and it has taken me to places. It has connected me to people. The Bible says that a man that is diligent in his work will not stand before mean men but before kings. I have serviced through
Royal Spices about three presidents of this nation and several governors. There was a time we were the official caterer for about five different government houses at the same time. I am very very glad to say that currently, we are the official caterer for Oyo State Government, even though we have some other caterers that have joined us.
What does it take to be able to cater for special occasions, for kings and queens, the noble in the society?
For kings and queens? Hmm. A lot of patience and planning, good planning and getting good hands to manage the event itself. Getting the food ready is not an issue because you already have recipes. It’s when you don’t have your recipes; that is, caterers should have their recipes for jollof rice, for fried rice, for this, for that. So, you must have your own recipes. So, it’s the act of management of this event that really matters because it’s a live performance. That’s why you need a lot of planning for that day.
So, it’s not just so much about cooking?
No. Cooking is just an aspect. The moment you develop your recipe, you start working with your cooks, chefs; you let them know and you see that they follow your recipes and you put somebody in charge to ensure your recipes are well followed. That’s all. It’s the ability to now manage this event that is key.
You know, we started when people did not fully understand this issue of total package; when you will see some Nigerians who will get up and be saying, ‘We have not eaten.’ ‘Where is our food?’ They cannot wait. Generally, Nigerians are forever in a hurry for whatever they are doing in their lives, forever in a hurry! So, everybody wants to be fed at the same time. If you have about
1,000 people to serve and you have about five serving points, and you have looked at it for 5,000, five serving points should take you about 40 minutes and you see people after 10 minutes, getting up and saying, ‘We have not been served; we have been sitting here.’ That’s why you need a lot of patience.
What are the most horrible experiences people in this business should expect to face?
When we started, it was not common to see a graduate caterer, carrying coolers about events, serving people. It was like an absurd thing. Some asked me, ‘What kind of problem do you have, Funmi,that you are here serving people? What is it; is it that bad?’
A lot of my friends turned their backs on me. In fact, I will say as far as some people are concerned till now, when they hear she has a Ph.D, they say, ‘Really?’ Gone are those days when people that were into catering were lowly people, never-do-well people. After some years, I saw some people coming to beg me to teach them, that they were laid off from Central Bank etc. They began to follow me out. They are established today.
People will try to look down on you a lot. But their opinion will not put food on your table. Who you are should guide you if you know who you are. Do your business very well. I don’t give a damn. People will try and pull you down. They talk harshly sometimes to you. That’s why I said it requires a lot of patience. And when they now see your eyes, see the looks on people’s faces sometimes, after the event and I want to pull out in my own car, and they are by the road side looking for cabs, I could see the expression on the faces of these people that had talked harshly and rudely, with the expression on their faces by the road side with their mouth agape.
Sometimes they meet you in some other places and they would be wondering, is that you the caterer that came to cook the other day? I would say yes, and you are the one that….And sometimes when lam invited as a resource person in some of these management workshops and seminars, I am there to give my lecture and some them will walk up to me to ask if I was the caterer at certain events. I would answer yes. Some of then marvel.
