From akara, (bean cakes) to Boli (roasted plantain) and roasted fish to flavoured garri (cassava flakes) and many more, visitors from across the world had a feel of fresh African food at the recently concluded GTCO Food & Drink Festival.
Visitors from across the world were thrilled at the variety of food Africa has as vendors came in numbers with various dishes, packaged food, fruits of all kinds and drinks.
Romy Gill, a world class Indian chef from the UK told BusinessDay that she was quite fascinated about Nigerian food and how they taste so good.
“I see that from the food I have tasted here, it shows Africans and Nigerians care about the people. They are very welcoming. I am loving Nigeria” she said.
Speaking during her masterclasses session at the GTCO Food &Drink , Gill said she wanted to show to people that they can make Indian food very easily at home.
“I made Chicken and Samosa. This is an Indian street food. We made other Indian cuisines, including the Indian tea. We also made rice. We had simple ingredients which had great nutritional value,” she said.
The Indian chef explained that the Indian street food is not quick as it comes with layers of flavours. “If you are going to have samosa chart, you will have nine different layers,” she said.
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She explained that in the UK, Indian food is the top food. “People love Indian food. For my food, I have the home cooking and people in England love Indian food. UK is the most multi-cultural place in the world. We have people from different countries making good food. It is not just Indian food, even Chinese, Japanese, Mexico, Nigeria foods are available in UK. There are so many lovely chefs doing lovely things,”Gill said.
She said the food industry is growing and social media has made things easy with people travelling around the world to learn cuisines from other continents.
“People are now aware and they can stay together and learn. Social media is great and you can see what is happening around the world.”
At this year’s GTCO Food and Drink Festival, there were over 200 vendor stalls where everything food were showcased.
The cooking masterclasses had world class chefs from across various continents with cuisines carefully chosen from all around the world.
For the three days the event lasted, the world class amusement arena thrilled thousands of children.
Oyinade Adegite, Group head, Corporate and External Affairs, said the event is a family event where provisions were made for the adult shoppers, as well as a well-fitted play area also designed to add another layer of excitement for children to keep them meaningfully engaged.
Adegite said, “It’s an open event for all, including street children. For some of them, it is going to be the fun of a lifetime while for others, it will be something they will be enjoying regularly”.
August DeWindt, an entrepreneur and founder of John’s Juice and Co-Owner of Fluffy’s NYC, in her session demonstrated how she make cooking fun at home in a live video on Tiktok, saying her consistency and quality content was the secret behind her growth of over three million followers in six months.
The GTCO Food & Drink Festival brings together the greatest minds on the global culinary stage, industrious Nigerian small food business owners, a world class, state-of-the-art children’s play area, merging them all to give attendees the most memorable food and drink event.
The event which held at GTCentre, Plot 1 Water Corporation Drive, Oniru, Victoria Island, Lagos, provided a 3-day weekend of food and endless celebration.
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