Real Reason Why Men Do Better Than Women In Food Business – Hilda Baci Speaks

Nigerian chef Hilda Baci recently broke the world record for longest cooking time by an individual, and is by far the most talked about chef right now in the nation. During a new interview with The Will Downtown, Hilda Baci was asked about her thoughts on the recent statistics that show that there are more male restaurateurs in the world, and more successful male celebrity chefs than female. Here is what the celebrity chef had to say.

Hilda Baci
Speaking about the statistics of there being more male restaurateurs in the world, and more successful male celebrity chefs than female, Hilda Baci explained why this is and what her thoughts on it are saying:

HILDA BACI: I think it has a lot to do with upbringing because they would say a woman’s place is in the kitchen. My mother is an exception because I watched her train us from selling food. But while there is the belief that a woman is responsible for cooking and taking care of the home, they have made it seem that for a man to do it, it is a big deal. It is extra. So when a man now approaches it, he is approaching it from a business standpoint. It is just like how women take care of the children all the time, but when you see a video of a man taking care of his child, they will start giving him accolades because society feels like it’s a woman’s job and for a man to be doing it, that makes him exceptional, out of this world.

Women never really saw the financial security that was possible with cooking and specialising in this business. We’ve just looked at it like a God-given calling that we have to do. While men look at it as a craft, for women, we’ve just been doing it. But the times are starting to change, and more female chefs are coming into play. It’s a gradual process, which is something I also try to do with my classes because I find that even in the Nigerian food industry, food vendors don’t necessarily regard the service they provide, so because of that, they don’t cost the service properly. And because of that, we don’t have a lot of very successful food vendors in Nigeria, we have sustainable food vendors.

We don’t have many successful food vendors that have gone on to become billionaires from cooking. You can have a woman that has been cooking for 10 years, catering to events every Saturday, but cannot necessarily buy herself a house in Bali or pay for exotic trips abroad. But men do this thing and become billionaires from it. I have come to understand that it is because we don’t see the potential in what we have, so more often than not, we are just doing this business, so it will just be that we are doing something. We don’t actually see that this business can pay for the kind of life you want if done right. Some women do the business so they won’t have to be asking their husbands for money for pads, hair and other petty things.

No, you can do this business for more than just pad and hair money. You can build capital and then use it to invest in other sectors. You can be into the food business and invest in real estate, and prompt you into financial freedom. But a lot of us don’t know and understand that. I try to teach it in my classes the best possible way I can and try to make people shift their perspective, and not just the food business, especially as a woman. As women, they don’t allow us to shine.

Source: Jide Okonjo

Email: elora.akpotosevbe@yahoo.com