The Eat Drink Festival isn’t just a weekend to devour ‘delish’ delicacies – although that is unarguably the best thing about it! Hosting about 5, 000 guests, excluding children and about 80 vendors from the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) space was an amazing way to mark the seventh edition of the annual event.
Although it was a food and drink centered program, it featured masterclasses, games and performances by notable artistes.
In other news, Sterling had a build to this event tagged the ‘JollofMaster 2019 where we institutionalized the popular but largely informal Jollof conversations into a national culinary competition. This was because we realized that Jollof rice reunites Nigerians, irrespective of tribe, age and religion, online and offline.
Beyond the usual social media banter, we provided a platform for talented Nigerians to create and serve amazing Jollof meals and be empowered with a cash prize of one million, two hundred thousand and one hundred thousand Nairas for the three winners.
Omotolani Osikoya, popularly known on Instagram as @diaryofakitchenlover emerged the 2019 champion, earning her the national Jollof Master bragging rights, among the very many entries nationwide based on the stipulated criteria of execution, appearance and taste.
During the final cook-off, Benjamin Oni AKA Chef Ben was the first runner up while Hauwa Onifade, also known as the turarigirl, assumed the second runner up position for her unique style of cooking without artificial seasoning and cooking cubes.
In all, the Eat Drink Festival 2019 was not just the home of the IJGBs this year but a hub where the bulk of the Lagos residents assembled to have fun while enjoying the best of food amongst folks that were dear to them.
Enjoy!