Aisha Umar of Aishaz kitchen talks Educational Background, food business, blog, youtube and more.

In this interview, Award winning entrepreneur and food blogger Aisha Umar shares with us how she started her business and How she juggles studies and business together.

Tell us about you.

My name is Aisha, I am from Adamawa state, I went to primary school in Jos and completed my secondary school in Al ‘Amin Intl school, Niger state and I am presently studying Public Health at the University of Debrecen.

Tell us about Aishaz kitchen.

I have had passion for cooking since high school. I had to choose between food/nutrition and Agric, I chose food and nutrition. I was always practicing and was so competitive in food/nutrition. I was also always watching food channels and helping my mom in the kitchen as well.so when I got to the university I started cooking for myself and my friends and I saw that I could make new recipes as well. I started putting up pictures on Instagram and snap chat and I was also sharing my recipe with my friends and they told me how good they thought it was and they advised I started blogging because most of them wanted my recipes and I thought to myself why not? I am actually going to be helping people out with the little I know and three months after I started blogging my friends again advised that I should start the food business because I was always cooking for a lot of people, again why not?. Oh, let’s just say I am surrounded by nice and supportive friends. All thanks to God and the supportive people I have around, we have not gone far but it’s been good Alhamdulillah.

 How do you finance your food business?

Hmmm. My pocket money o!. I took a part of my pocket money to start up and yeah when you put money into something like this it’s only okay to get money back. You just have to always calculate. As a matter of fact, I have learned so much money wise and I am still learning. I now know how to spend and what to spend on. All thanks to God.

How do you juggle school and food business?

Haa! It’s not easy. Trust me but when you have so much passion for a particular thing, you can’t let it be. For you to even focus on other things sometimes you have to know how to put your passion in place. of course, when school is really tough or I feel I need my extra attention in school and I have to take a break, I take a break. When I have exams, my passion sense understands that there won’t be any business until after my exams but when I have less school work I take a lot of orders. Basically, I just get to use my time well.

What are your major challenges?

Cooking is passion, and I just want to do it spontaneously but sometimes I literally forget I have to take pictures and I also have to sit and remember steps and ingredient most especially when I am just trying it for the first time which can be such a struggle. And yea typing as well. I know all the food bloggers out there can relate.

Do you work alone?

When I have normal orders for the weekend, I do that alone but when I have to cater for an event say, about 50 to 200 people I cook with my friends.

 You recently won an award, tell us about it?

Oh, yeah. I didn’t know I was nominated as the “entrepreneur of the year” up until when they sent me a message asking for my picture. My friends ( amongst others) eventually told me they nominated me and I didn’t know I was going to win the award because there were a number of people nominated in that same category. so it was a shocker.

Where do you get your recipe inspiration from?

I watch a lot of cooking channels and videos on youtube and when I do, I try to make it my own way and as much as I love cooking I also love eating out as well. So when I do, I try to figure out what the recipes could be. My mom’s food also inspires me.

If I’m only going to make one dish from your blog, which one should it be?

Hmmmm….It will definitely be my Juicy chicken wings.

You recently launched a Youtube channel, tell us about it.

To be honest, I have always wanted to do youtube because cooking is lots easier when you are shown what exactly to do and I think in a way it reduces the number of questions I get whenever I post on any of the social media platforms.

Any ingredients you can’t stand? Which one can’t you live without?

People will cast me for this, I don’t like stock, Chicken stock, meat stock any stock (laughs). But I try to use them and I also don’t like thyme at all I use other herbs in place of it.

I can’t live without a particular spice I use for grilling. I can’t mention the name. Thou shall protect their business. {laughs} and yea I love Onga as well

What has been your exciting Moment?

When I cooked for The Muslimah celebrity, Habiba Da silva and she genuinely loved it, Basically when I cater for an event and I get to see “satisfactory smiles” on people’s faces. my mom is a kitchen guru herself, last summer she complimented my food. That meant a lot.

 

The most annoying comment you have gotten?

{Laughs}. It was a girl on twitter o!. I posted a picture of fried rice and she said: “ Haa!, this fried rice looks like native jellof..” I was like, what! Can you Imagine! To even think the picture got over a hundred retweets. That got to me.

Share your worst cooking nightmare. Any epic recipe failures?

{laughs}.It was the first time I made moi moi. I didn’t blend it well because I used a blender and I didn’t blend it over and over again so my moi moi came out with a crust. Then the time I added frosting to a hot cake….

what keeps you going?

God, Family, passion and the fact that I know I am helping people in my own little way.

Say something to a girl child.

Just do you, work hard, put God first in all that you do and do things you have passion for.

The most Adventurous Dish you have tried.

It’s An Arabian food in Cairo.

Thank you for taking your time to chat with us. We wish you the very best in life…