I come from a family of seasoned cooks, bakers and eatery owners and my attempt to do something different didn’t succeed

My name is Jennifer Chinenye Ezeani, nee Okeke, and I run Uto Nri Restaurant at 8 Ishielu Street, off Nza Street, Independence Layout, Enugu.

You may find it interesting that everyone in my family cooks or bakes or has a restaurant.

Let us start with my father. Although he later became a mechanic, he was a cook during the colonial period, and I learnt that it was while working for the colonialists that he  got John as his baptismal name.  His family name is Okeke and he hailed from Nkpor Uno in the Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State. 

My mother, Josephine Ogochukwu Okeke, was a cook, and it was she who had named her restaurant in Nnewi as Uto Nri but I was the one who, with my knowledge of branding, later registered it in August 2021 as a company with the Corporate Affairs Commission, and using it for my restaurant business in Enugu. 

My mum was born into a family of cooks. So, was also her mum and her stepmother. All my mum’s sisters are in the business of cooking.

Since my mum’s death on 28 October 2018, three of my siblings, our eldest, the third and fourth, and their spouses, have been managing the bakery in Nnewi called Mollas Choice Confectionery which has at least three hundred workers, and the products are supplied to everywhere in Nnewi and places such as Awka, Ekwulobia and Oko.  

I had managed the bakery after my national youth service year in Benue State, which coincidentally was also where my husband, Johnpaul Chukwuemeka Ezeani, had served several years earlier. We got married on 7 April 2012, but we had been childhood friends and neighbours in Nnewi. Although four years my senior, we attended same nursery, primary and secondary schools and university.  He studied archaeology and tourism at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), and is into domestic tourism. He is also a good cook; my mum trained him in some aspects of catering. I started noticing his affection for me when I was in Primary Five and he was helping me with my assignments and guiding me in the areas I was then not good in, such as history and English Language. 

One of my brothers runs Puco lin restaurant in Cambodia with his wife. 

The one I am senior to, our youngest, just started his own in the United Kingdom, also with his wife. It is called De Martins. 

I started cooking at the age of nine years. It was Christmas day and my senior sister who was supposed to have cooked white rice and ofe akwu, also known as banga soup,  became ill, so my mum said that she could not be making snacks, grilling chicken and still cook the rice and ofe akwu, She said that she was waiting for me to get to ten years before I started cooking, but it was now time to step into the kitchen to cook the rice and ofe akwu. When I finished it was marvellously wonderful, even if I say so myself. The only correction my mum gave to me had to do with the quantity of salt I used. That day I learnt how to use the tip of my fingers to add salt to food while cooking. Before that day, I had just been watching the processes while also helping with cutting of vegetables and the like. At the age of six, I was kneading dough for the meat pies being sold in the bakery.  I forced myself into learning it because I was being over-pampered and excluded from chores after I suffered a terrible bout of chickenpox which nearly disfigured me. So, I forced myself to do it because I also wanted my mum to sing praises of me as I had heard her do for my senior ones. My mother was used to praising children. When I cooked that Christmas Day rice, she gave me a name, Osonneme, which means I do like my mother. Like mother, like daughter. 

Although I taught during my youth service, I still found time to prepare isiewu on order, because there were many goats in the area. I also baked birthday cakes, also on order, while my friend, Nonye, joined in decorating them. 

I studied law at UNN, but I did not go to law school. I studied law to have a knowledge of it; I was eager to enter business, but my mother said that I should come and manage the bakery. While managing the bakery, I learnt of the introduction of the Peace and Conflict Resolution course at the National Open University in Abagana, and I decided to go for it. I completed the degree course just before my mother died. Thereafter, I went and took employment in the Customer Service Department of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC). 

EEDC posted me to Ogbaru, and I was there for about a year.

My initial plan was to do a white-collar job before doing anything that has to do with food but I found that whatever I was doing, the food business kept calling me. At EEDC, during their Customer Service Week, I was the one who baked the cake. 

I had to give in, after I delivered my second child, a boy, in September 2020. 

I got in fully into the restaurant business on 21 November 2021, with the opening of this facility. I believe that God will make everything work out well. I know where I am coming from and where I am going. 

My first child is nine years old and she cooks noodles for herself and her brother, with some guidance in the use of gas cooker. You know that during our own time, we used charcoal and all that. But she will get there.