Come Experience Jollof Rice with Atare Foods by Shakirat Edoho
I was late. I had no excuse but a mental fumble by 30 minutes of our scheduled time due to my usual hourly meetings.. As I turned the corner into the parking lot, I saw her immediately looking at her phone, smiling while sipping from the famous Starbucks pink drink. I hurried to her side and we settled in for a quick chat after her gracious welcome.
Shakirat Edoho, a name synonymous with culinary excellence and food innovation, is the dynamic force behind Atare Foods and the renowned 9jafoodie blog. With her remarkable expertise in Nigerian cuisine and an unyielding dedication to promoting healthy eating habits, Shakirat has captured the hearts and taste buds of countless food enthusiasts worldwide. I was fortunate enough to have her agree to a drink session with me.
To know more about her journey, I hope you enjoy our conversation below!
Q: Let’s talk about your journey. What inspired you to start blogging as 9ja Foodie?
Shakirat Edoho:
“It’s just really finding a voice that sounds like mine. It’s important to us to tell our stories because otherwise, the people can tell it, who would not necessarily tell it right. The journey for me started because I’d read an article from a super popular food blog, and they said something about how African food is made with poor qualities of meat and ingredients. And this was not even in the 90s; this was in the 2000s and was a reference point for many people. It was one of the first articles that came up when you Googled African food.
And for me, that was just a narrative that was written from the perspective of somebody who maybe went on a safari and fed some kids in some village and thought that was representative of what Africans eat. My dad always says, “If there’s something that you don’t like, if you can fix it, fix it, or you keep quiet about it.” For me, it was an opportunity for me just to start sharing what my food heritage because it was beautiful. It wasn’t really poor quality or goat or whatever it was that they said. So that’s kind of the origin story of starting 9JA Foodie.”
Q: Did you start before you had kids or after you had kids?
Shakirat Edoho:
“I started before, way before. I was studying. In the third year of university. I mean, I didn’t even know what I was doing. I used to cook a lot, and I had three roommates who were all Nigerians. I would go to the Asian market and experiment with ingredients. It kind of started from there, just me cooking stuff and putting it online. Everything looks so unprofessional, and in retrospect, I’m so shy about all of that now, but that was how I started, then it grew from that.”
Q: How did you juggle having your first child as your business expanded?
Shakirat Edoho:
“It was extremely rough. But I would say that I have the best support system in my husband because he’s never been the one to say, “Oh, it’s your job to do this or that.” He’s very hands-on even without a kid. That was something that I know that not everybody has. I recognized my privilege point from there, but it was just making sure that I knew what I wanted to do. If I wanted to do two recipes for that week, how could I possibly incorporate it in the family meal instead of cooking something and then letting it go to waste.
There was a lot of planning with the young kid and only taking on the things that I knew I could and leaving out things that I knew I couldn’t take on. Prioritizing that way was how I was able to juggle it. There were other opportunities that I probably could have taken, but I couldn’t take them just because I didn’t have the time to complete them.”
Q: What else would you attribute as a support system?
Shakirat Edoho:
“I joined some accelerators, so definitely doing that helped. Really, I think social media can be helpful, but sometimes it’s not helpful. For me, it was good to see other women in food and see what they were doing and how they were doing it. Reading. It’s really helped me a lot in terms of understanding the space that I’m in. And then friends and family, of course, having them to bounce ideas about when things are going well, but especially when things are not going well. And then just having honest conversations about why, because sometimes you doubt yourself. So being able to have honest conversations about what it was that I wanted to do, why I wasn’t there yet, and still getting encouragement.”
Q: In addition, when you had your first child, you were working full time and blogging. How difficult was that time period in your life, and how did you navigate it?
Shakirat Edoho:
“Lots of prioritizing and planning my time. Usually, I would create a plan, and I guess now it is called a content calendar, and I would plan four weeks ahead of time. If I wanted to shoot, say, three soup recipes, can I possibly make that the meal prep for the house? When I would cook it, it would be, “Okay, I’m making something for the blog, but I’m also making something for the family.”
And then not sleeping a lot. it’s not good advice, but I think at that point in time, it was like, “Okay, do you want to sleep for eight hours, or do you want to sleep for fewer hours and have extra time to get things done?” It was a lot of not-so-good decisions regarding sleep and rest, but I think it was important that I got things done and didn’t neglect my duties as a mum.”
Q: Tell me about what inspired your new venture Atare Foods.
Shakirat Edoho:
“I say that it’s a vision of a thousand years. I’ve always wanted to have food products because food is an important way to share culture. It’s a way to let other people in that don’t necessarily understand what you’re about. We all eat, we all want to experience food, we travel for food. I always wanted a range of African food products that first, you can recommend due to its high standards. I wanted it to be international standard quality food. I had that dream very long time ago, but it wasn’t something that I was able to accomplish early on because there were just so many layers, so many complexities.”
First, I was working on it at first just researching. Then I joined a few accelerators to understand the process a little bit better and then finally this year, we launched the brand Atare foods and so far, it’s going great.
Q: As cooking involves a creative process while accounting primarily deals with numbers, can you suggest how you mentally navigate this duality? How did you integrate both sides of your brain while juggling working full-time and on your blog?
Shakirat Edoho:
“I don’t think it’s very different. In accounting, especially management accounting, you need to be analytical. You need to be able to solve problems, you need to anticipate what’s coming, and you need to plan for it. When you’re creative, it’s almost the same. It’s not just the ability to create something, it’s anticipating trends. What do you think is going to happen three months from now?
I did accounting as a means to an end. It wasn’t a dream, I never dreamt of working in accounting for the rest of my life.”
Q: When you finally decided to leave your nine-to-five, how did you feel knowing that, saying, “The security blanket is gone? I’m going to do this full-time now.”
Shakirat Edoho:
“It was a very scary decision. I was at the top of my career, I was doing well professionally, I was where I wanted to be as a CPA . Leaving all that behind was very scary. I knew within myself that I had something to offer, and I knew that nobody else was doing what I wanted to do. But leaving something that was comfortable, that was stable and going into something that you can’t predict your revenues from month to month was a scary decision.
You must constantly market yourself. You must constantly put yourself out there. It was a tough decision, but I knew I had something to offer, and I was really intent on offering it.”
Q: Despite the challenges posed by caring for children, if a woman is determined to pursue her entrepreneurial aspirations. What advice or guidance would you offer to her?
Shakirat Edoho:
“Understand your why. If you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing. You will always be frustrated. Even if you don’t have toddlers, you will be. Having children is just another layer of complexity. Understanding your why is really what keeps you going on days when you don’t feel like continuing. Why are you doing it? Are you doing it because you want freedom for your time? Is it because you no longer want to do the old professional nine-to-five? Is it because you really have something to offer in that space? It’s important for you to understand and be firm in why you’re doing it because that propels you further.
Q: What has been your most difficult challenge so far in this process?
Shakirat Edoho:
“Lots of challenges. I would say that I feel like being an immigrant in this space, there’s a bit of a disadvantage in that you don’t initially have the access or the network you’re supposed to. As immigrants, we don’t have that access. We don’t have that reference point of an uncle who owned a store and understands how to get into retail.
I think that just navigating those things when you can see how fast others can do it, it’s one of the most frustrating things for me, personally, because I know what I want. I know what I need to do, but sometimes not having that network of people who have done it before and having to start from scratch, it can be discouraging.”
Q: Could you tell me more about what you mean by lack of access to a network? How did that hinder you?
Shakirat Edoho:
“I could’ve launched maybe almost two years ago, but I wanted to make sure that what I was producing was suitable for the North American market, not just for local sale.
One of the most important aspects of it was just having somebody to help me navigate what that looks like. For example, if you are looking for a federal facility that can do A, B, C, and D, what does that look like? Where do you go? Who do you talk to? What is the expense that is associated? Some companies we approached didn’t even bother to call back.
Connection via a warm intro is always better received. You can find many things on Google, but in most instances, without connection or introduction, it’s a different reception.
Self-navigating slows you down. You cannot build as fast or go as fast as your competition.”
Q: What do you hope to pass along to your kids about why you going through this, so why not a nine-to-five? Why did you choose the entrepreneur route? What do you want them to learn?
Shakirat Edoho:
“Definitely that whatever dreams you have, they’re valid if you’re willing to do the work. No one else is ever going to do the work that you do. It’s going to be tough, and nothing is easy, but if you have a dream and you are willing to work on it, it’s possible for you to accomplish your dreams. That’s just the basic thing for me.”
Q: As an entrepreneur and a mother, how do you prioritize self-care amidst the demands of running a business and taking care of your family? What specific strategies or practices do you implement to ensure your well-being and avoid burnout?
Shakirat Edoho:
Sleep. Honestly. When I do have extra time, what I want to do is sleep. It’s difficult for me to kind of turn it off. That’s probably true for most entrepreneurs, right? It’s difficult. I just remembered something; I want to put it on my to-do list. Even if it’s 4 am or 11:30 PM, it’s difficult.
Just me being able to shut my brain down and sleep, I think that’s one. Two, being able to spend quality time with my family. Like quality time, meaning I am not on the phone or trying to work.
Actual quality time where we go for a walk in the park, or we take the kids to go ride bicycles or we go to a park or whatever it is.
Being able to spend quality time with my family when I’m not thinking about work. I think for me, that’s the ultimate dream.
Jollof rice is a beloved meal by individuals of West African heritage. Enjoyed by both young and old, it is also a controversial meal that countries playfully compete to declare their cooking method creates the best in Africa. By prioritizing quality and sustainability, Atare Foods is quickly becoming a trusted name for sauces and snacks. By using Jollof Now, you can experience a diverse range of flavours, textures, and a simplified cooking way of Jollof Rice the Nigerian way. When you are ready to experience Jollof Rice, look no further than www.atarefoods.com. All products are available online for quick and fast delivery. Trust me, you wouldn’t be disappointed!
