GTCO Exposes Children To Innovation, Entrepreneurship At Food & Drinks Festival
By Oki Samson, Trek Africa Newspaper
Hundreds of children dressed in their school uniforms were treated to a culinary masterclass at the recent GTCO food and drink festival which was held at the GTCentre, Plot 1, Water Corporation Drive, Oniru, Lagos. This is so as to raise a new, brilliant generation of chefs, technologists, innovators, and entrepreneurs who will excel in the multimillion dollar food industry.
The Kids Pizza masterclass was hosted by an international chef, Cristian Duhalde. The chef who enjoys working with children noted that children are spongy. His motivation, ‘they are more interested in learning and I think it’s very good to start teaching the children early. Even if you don’t want to become a chef or something, at least you have the knowledge about the food, hospitality business, cooking, and baking, which is very important.’
Duhalde who has about 3 decades of experience in the food business added: ‘I consider myself very lucky to choose what I love. Sometimes people follow Careers because of your parents, brother or maybe you want to follow someone and then you realize it’s not yours. For me, I have the passion for Cooking, I love the ingredients. I love serving people. I love to see people happy sitting together to eat.’
The chef, Cristian Duhalde advised the children to do whatever they want with love and to have commitment to it. ‘If you want to be a chef, you will have commitment to what you want. Sometimes you get tired of dealing with people, but you do not give up, you never get tired of cooking. Try to work in a restaurant to see what the life of a chef is really, because it can be difficult. But if you really love what you do, it will be easy.’
Some of the children who attended the session were highly impressed at the unique opportunity that GTCO offered them. 9-year-old Haruna Abisola who is attending the GTCO Food and Drink festival for the third time stated that ‘I learnt how to make pizza the easy way with tomato sauce. I would love to be a chef in the future but, I think that it’s very expensive to operate. I want to encourage people to eat good food and keep their mind open. Thank you to GTCO.’
12-year-old Abiola Temilolowa who is attending for the first time learned how ‘to make pizza, pizza sauce, toppings on it, and other interesting things. I want to thank GTB for this, a lot of people are coming and enjoying it.’
Praise O. who is 14 and second time at the GTCO event enjoyed the masterclass, and says ‘it was very nice. The pizza was also yummy and cheesy in my mouth. I love it. I see myself as a chef in the future owning a restaurant, making different kinds of foods like pizza, donuts, all those things that people love. Yes, and people patronizing me while also creating jobs for them.’
Kelechi Grace who is 13 and attending for the third time noted that ‘the masterclass was educating and creative. It doesn’t have to be peperica pizza. The current measurement for making pizza is in a gram for the dough, and is 25 milligrams for each.’
‘I appreciate GTCO for the love they have shown us. They have taught us different things. We have had Informative classes about books, how to read, how to understand some different sausages, and so on. A big thank you to GTCO for supporting us in this way.’
