Moriri Art Gallery in Port Harcourt, which trended recently for using art to fight the soot menace, has turned to food as a gateway to the heart of the Niger Delta culture.
On this, the director of the centre, Kayode Adeoti, said one cannot appreciate the art and culture of a people without their food line. In that case, Moriri and Chef Tega is a new name turning heads in the middle class life in the Garden City.
This must be why a rising caterer, Oghenetega Lois Itulua, known as Chef Tega, has taken the grounds of Moriri Gallery to exhibit the food line of the Niger Delta. The connection between food and art began when Moriri began what it called telling the story of Nigeria with akara (bean cake).
Most expatriate persons giving account of their stay in Nigeria usually mention Akara and pepper soup as some of the delicacies they will never forget. The story of Nigeria and akara and pepper soup is told almost everywhere on the streets of London, Canada and America.
Now, it is time to take expatriates and other Nigerians through the food-line of the ethnicities of the Niger Delta.
Leading the food charge is Chef Tega who has trained in some of the best centres in Nigeria. Her display seems to have set Tom Inko-Tariah Avenue along Genesis zone at Rumuogba Estate on fire. Cars now struggle to find space in the area.
Tega, 28, has a Bachelor of Science in International Relations and a Masters in Peace, Conflict, and Security Studies. The Edo-born food expert hails from Uromi Esan North-East worked in Halliburton, Bell Oil & Gas, once at Princess Medical Centre. She belongs to Exporters Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited in Port Harcourt as well as Chef’s Corner, and many other professional and vocational groups that help enhance her entrepreneurial drive.
Top and middle level personalities and art lovers in the city now take a bite of what Chef Tega can offer. These range from soups such as BangingTega Banga Special, Bellefull Egusi Special, TegaMega Okro Soup, Afang Gang Special.
For protein, the gallery offers protein such as goat meat, beef, fish, and snail. Those who want swallow would have starch, garri, fufu, and semovita. Yet, persons can top up with Orishirishi Tega Native or Rice Special.
Joining the war against soot with their exhibition titled; Say No To Soot, some of the best art experts in the region and beyond that form what Adeoti called ‘constellation of stars’ included Godson Etukakpan who holds a Masters and applies a palette knife as tool. He carved boats that roam the creeks with heavy soot smoke above up in the sky in a piece he called The Marine is Sooty. The piece tries to depict what the marine life looks like on a sooty day; there is no fish catches, everywhere is black.
Innocent Ckiezie showed a gathering of modern girls in a village square with heavy smoke above their heads up in the sky, while Etokapkan showed two palms that have soot-marks all over, the new palm identity in the Garden City.
Chinedu Ogakwu preferred to capture the menace through a piece about a beautiful girl admiring a flower but the air she breathes is polluted.
There was also an exhibition through literary works by university lecturers to catch the menace in words, not just strokes of brush and pencil.
Chef Tega joins the war by showing visitors that after everything, food is important.
Read also: Nestlé Professional takes ‘Business of Food’ to Port Harcourt
Chef Tega speaks
The rising chef said she was determined to display culture by food, display art by food. “We are here for those who want to appreciate our culture by food and art. They have a chance here.”
She said she was obsessed with art when yet a child. “When I was younger, I use to draw, in fact, I was a good artist.”
Now, she finds herself implicating art when preparing food and serving food.
“I love to decorate. I also love to make my food very rich so you get a variety of vitamins and minerals. So, I care for balanced dieting and nutrition.”
She said: “I am ready to give the world a taste of PH; any kind of food, continent, am ready.”
She said she did a lot of self-training and later trained at CrownCrust Culinary School then later went to Ticos Kitchen Culinary School.
I can handle serious food situations and jobs and even cater for an entire city without fear. “I can handle serious food situations and jobs. I can cater for an entire city, and am not shaking.”
At Moriri, she said the experience has been great. “It has been purposeful because I find myself doing what I love doing and doing it passionately. It has exposed me as I have met a lot of persons.
Food, a unifier
The chef said: “Food is like a unifier. It brings a lot of people together. So, through food, I have met the high and the mighty. I have made a lot of friends and new partners. I have also met some beautiful clients.”
She said her firm is now ready to serve them after the Moriri exposure. “We already take orders. If you make orders, we either use my delivery guys or you send yours.”
She has some advice on food and the Niger Delta for persons involved in the food slanted to the ethnicities in the oil region so as to make it to remain unique and attractive. “I love and appreciate culture, going back home, every other person in the kitchen and food industry should protect the food culture of the people to reflect the cuisines of the distant past.
“Do not just concentrate on what the West eats. The resources are plenty in the rivers; snails, fish, and all other things we want. It’s good we go back to what we know and rediscover our food reservoir.”
Chef Tega, CEO of CrownCrust Services, has big dreams. “I want to own one of the biggest food centres in the world. Any person in the world can visit and we serve him what he wants: American dishes, Indian, Chinese meals, Yoruba, Brazil, etc.”
The woman with strong heart says she has no fears about the invasion of the food industry by foreigners. “Good food has its own market. I am not stopping here. I will learn more and push higher, but keeping the cultural touch as the Chef Tega brand. I will experiment, explore and do more. We will research more.
“Chef Tega is a brand and we are here to give you the best; that I can assure you.”
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