Shittu MONSURAT Omowunmi
Food Entrepreneur · Ifako-Ijaiye
8+ years cooking experiencePersonal information
- Full name
- Shittu MONSURAT Omowunmi
- Location
- Ifako-Ijaiye
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 33
- Phone
- 08167638869
- monsooroh2013@gmail.com
- Residential address
- 5 Buyide street off Olokode bus stop, kola road. Agbado ijaiye. Lagos state
- Social handles
- Instagram/facebook: mofoodace TikTok:chef.mo_ace
Applicant profile
- Applicant type
- Food Entrepreneur
- Applicant type other
- —
- Current occupation
- Entrepreneur
- Cooking experience
- 8+ years
Competition experience
- Prior competitions
- No
- Competition details
- —
Competition readiness
- Available throughout competition
- Yes
Entrepreneurship and impact
- Runs a food business
- Yes
- Business name
- Mofoodace
- Business type
- Food vendor
- Years in operation
- 4
- Business challenge
- One major challenge I face is limited finance and visibility.
I have the passion, skills and vision to grow MOFOODACE, but limited capital makes it difficult to invest in better equipment, ingredients, branding, marketing and expansion.
At the same time, reaching a wider audience and attracting new customers remains challenging.
Eko Flavors would give me the platform and exposure to showcase my cooking, preserve traditional flavours and connect with a larger market.
The opportunity would help me overcome some of the financial barriers to growth and take MOFOODACE from a passion-driven business to a stronger, more sustainable food brand.
Culinary journey
I could remember like I’m watching a movie as I’m typing, i cooked egusi soup with water leaf and made semo, as a girl little above 10years that just completed her common entrance, waiting for her placement cooked her first meal to surprise her mother who as gone to hawk, despite staying beside her mother in the kitchen from tender age. I was afraid at first until my mother and her friend complement it. I could see the happiness and joy in my mother face meeting food at home after a very long day and not just ordinary food but the one that satisfy her tastebuds. That was the day my cooking journey started in the family of 12 as the second to the last born of the family that doesn’t hawk but cooked for her parent her siblings morning and evening. Especially during Ramadan I cooked the sahur and Iftar with great joy. I told my parent to enroll me in culinary school but they couldn’t afford, I was told it was your admission money that’s the priority. until I got admitted into the university and I couldn’t afford to eat alone I made friends through my cookings, I couldn’t monetized because I believed in sharing an as the last born for 10plus years what do I need business or money for Im still young and a student my degree is enough and my brothers until reality checked in after graduation. I told my parent I have passion for cooking but they declined. I worked for few years until I married and pursue my passion and love for cooking by owing a food cafeteria as a graduate of Microbiology.
Cooking inspiration
My mother was my inspiration, seeing her cooked different delicacy even out of our tribe Like Ogbona, edikankang etc.
I grew up in a home where we didn’t have a television or a phone.
So, the kitchen was my entertainment.
My mother was my screen, and every dish she cooked was a story.
I watched her turn simple ingredients into meals that carried memories, culture and love. I was fascinated by how she could prepare dishes that many people today hardly know exist.
Epa Koko. Feregede. Efo Riro. Amunitutu. Worowo. Butter leaf soup. Bitterleaf soup.
These were not just meals in our home. They were part of our heritage.
As a Lagos-born girl, I grew up eating and learning about dishes that even many Lagosians hardly know today. I watched my mother cook without measuring cups, without recipes from the internet and without watching cooking videos. She simply knew.
Her hands knew what to add, when to add it and how to make ordinary ingredients taste extraordinary.
I would stay beside her in the kitchen, watching, asking questions and sometimes helping. I didn’t know it then, but those moments were quietly training me.
My inspiration came from my mother, my home and the food culture I grew up around.
Before I knew cooking could become a career, food was already telling me stories.
And those stories became the foundation of the cook I am today.
MOFOODACE is, in many ways, my way of continuing those stories—bringing the flavours I grew up with into the present and making sure that the dishes, memories and traditions that shaped me are not forgotten.
Because for me, cooking has never been just about food.
It has always been about preserving a story, one plate at a time.
Signature dish
MY SIGNATURE DISH: EGUSI SOUP AND SEMO
If there is one dish that carries the story of my cooking journey, it is Egusi soup with waterleaf and semo.
This is more than just a meal to me. It is the dish that takes me back to where everything started.
That is why it became my signature dish.
My Egusi soup is deeply rooted in the kind of cooking I grew up with—rich, comforting, flavourful and made with intention. The waterleaf gives it that beautiful texture and balance, while the semo makes it a complete, satisfying meal.
For me, this dish represents home, motherhood, resilience, love and the beginning of a dream.
Every time I serve it, I am reminded that sometimes, our biggest dreams begin in the smallest kitchens.
Mine began with one pot of Egusi soup, a bowl of semo and a little girl trying to make her mother smile.
And that little girl is still cooking today.
Why I want to participate
I want to participate in Eko Flavors because my cooking journey is deeply connected to the food culture and stories here in Lagos. I am not just bringing a dish; I am bringing a piece of my childhood, my family and the flavours that shaped me.
Growing up in a Lagos home without television or a phone, the kitchen was where I spent my time. I watched my mother prepare traditional dishes like Epa Koko, Feregede, Efo Riro, Amunitutu, Worowo, butter leaf and bitterleaf soups. Many of these dishes are now rarely known, even among people born and raised in Lagos. Eko Flavors is an opportunity for me to tell my story through food, celebrate the culinary heritage that inspired me, and show how a little girl who started cooking for her family can grow into a food entrepreneur and Microbiology graduate who chose to build a future around her passion.
Most importantly, I want people to taste my signature Egusi soup with waterleaf and semo and understand that behind that plate is a story of love, family, resilience and a dream that started in a small kitchen.
I want to participate because I believe Lagos has many food stories worth telling—and I want mine to be one of them.
What winning would mean
Winning would mean more than a prize to me.
It would be a validation of my journey, my passion, and the little girl who started cooking for her family.
It would give MOFOODACE a stronger platform to grow and tell the stories behind our food.
Most importantly, it would remind me that the passion I held onto for years was never a waste.
Winning would mean turning a childhood passion into a legacy.
