It is often said that the world can be explored through food. For Gina Ojo, food is more than sustenance or adventure; it is a repository of history, culture and identity. Through her television programme Foodies and Spice, the lawyer-turned-media executive has spent over a decade documenting indigenous Nigerian cuisines and preserving the stories behind them, writes Vanessa Obioha.
It is easy to tell what one is passionate about by what they talk about or share most on social media. For Gina Ojo, the CEO of Geenamore and Associates, it is mostly food and travel. Her love for food dates back to her childhood, where, surprisingly, she was a picky eater.
“As a child, I loved food, but the number of foods I ate could be counted on one hand,” she said in a recent encounter. “However, when I was eight, my grandmother introduced me to cooking my own food because I was picky. After successfully making my own soup (Scentleaves soup), I began to explore.”
That exploration gave her the freedom to try new tastes, textures and anything that crossed her mind.
“Some will come out right, and the day it doesn’t work, I will not eat it. The rest of the family may want to manage it, but I will never eat food that doesn’t sit right with me, even if I cooked it. I don’t know how to manage bad-tasting food.”
