Tobi Smith Wants To Take Nigerian Food To The World, One Recipe At A Time
Back in 2018, Tobi Smith coined the term, “Fenty Pies”, a descriptor for the glistening range of meat pies he created on his blog All I Do Is Cook. As he did in this hilarious post written back when he worked as a contributor for Zikoko, he found something deliciously relatable to describe the meat pies.
Coined after Rihanna’s range of highlighters under her beauty brand, Fenty Beauty, Tobi says it was not exactly intentional. He was simply inspired by the eggwash used in coating meat pies and how the process was similar to finishing up a proper makeup look with Fenty Beauty highlighter.
Behind-the-scenes of that cheeky post, though, lay uncertainty and a big move that would change the course of Tobi’s life. We sit together over Zoom during the lockdown for the interview, two former Zikoko alums, catching up after four years.
Like his recipes, Smith is laid back, thoughtful and welcoming - but also has a story behind every answer, from his famous Goat Meat Peppersoup Pho that literally took blood, sweat and tears to create, to his childhood across South-Western Nigeria.
A true Yoruba boy who spent most of his younger years in Ogun, Ondo, Lagos and other cities in the south-west, his goal is to always include his heritage in his creations.
Starting out as a blog during his Master’s Degree in Dallas, his career in the culinary world essentially transformed from notepad posts to two catering platforms, All I Do Is Cook and TwoThirtyFour, all specially designed for Nigerians in America, and Canada- according to a recent announcement he made on Twitter.
While All I Do Is Cook focuses on the delivery of meals like Jollof rice, meat pies, soups and stews, TwoThirtyFour on the other hand, created alongside his business partner, Bethany Hadiza, offers fine dining fusion Nigerian food to a younger and energetic client base.
To understand his work and trajectory as a Nigerian food entrepreneur in the diaspora, I had a two-hour chat with him, where we discussed racism, COVID-19, and how he ended up in the ER while cooking.
You seem to be the face of All I Do Is Cook, how did you start this whole thing?
TS: “ I was basically a broke college student and had to cook all my meals because I couldn’t afford to buy fancy food. I would type my recipes into my Notes App and share with colleagues who liked my meals. I did this until a friend suggested putting the recipes on a free WordPress site which is now the blog.”
Just like that?
TS: “ I used to live in Dallas - and people from all over the US would reach out to me to cook a recipe, freeze and send to the airport. In 2018 alone, I was able to deliver 80 meals throughout the whole year. Nigerians love their food fresh and hot so there was a lot to consider regarding shipping food over a thousand miles.”
Very brilliant. I’m glad you’re doing well as a member of CEO Twitter.
TS: “LMAO! Abi now!”
There is an ongoing uprising against systemic racism and police brutality. As a Nigerian whose identity was never shaped by race before moving here, how have you navigated this?
TS: “Even though I wasn’t raised here, I had to come to terms with being ‘black’. When I came to America around 2012/2013, I used to live in an apartment complex in a predominantly white neighbourhood. One night, after work, my friends and I were shooting hoops quietly, since it was at night. Next thing you know, two cops show up and I was a bit apprehensive because I mean, I don’t like cops.”
Mehn, nobody likes cops.
TS: “LMAO! They were super friendly and actually told us that someone in the complex called them to report noise they heard from us “throwing a party”. In grad school, I had the perfect GPA and when I gained access to a grant, one faculty member told me “you guys just come here and just take all of the opportunities” basically saying “you’re not welcome here”.’
Sorry you had to experience that.
TS: “With that, I can’t choose to live in my bubble as someone not raised in America. Because racists don’t see that. They only see the colour of my skin. Before George Floyd’s death happened, a white woman, Amy Cooper called the cops on a black man - and that just reminded me like “Oh shit, that could’ve been me at the court”. So as a Nigerian who wasn’t raised here, imagine being born here and raised with that much violence. We had to take a stand because we stand in solidarity and understand a bit of what if means to be black.”
Let’s leave America and go back in time. How did you start cooking?
TS: “Shit, there was nobody to actually cook for us because my parents used to travel a lot. But what really inspired me was that my mother used to cater for school lunches and supply tuck shops with pastries and zobo. I started helping her in the kitchen around this time with little errands like picking beans and so on.
Before her trips, she’d buy lots of foodstuff like baskets of tomatoes for me to cook while she was away. So, I started experimenting with recipes especially when I discovered Food Network. By 14, I was already cooking proper ogbono and stews.”
That’s really cool.
TS: “In fact, I used to cook to distract myself from my studies. While preparing for my ICAN final exams, one time, one of my friends in Maryland invited me to a housewarming party and we basically went to Spar to get supplies and that was how I catered my first ever event.”
Mad. How did that go?
TS: “First of all, I called my mom to ask for tips and recipes. Next thing you know, I’m frying puff-puff and snacks in the backyard for a crowd of roughly 100 guests. It was surreal because one of the guests, a caterer, came up to me to ask if I had my catering company and I told her I was in school.”
So did this make you less afraid when you started your business?
TS: “It depends on who’s reading this o. But it’s either God helped or luck was just on my side. People basically had trust in me. One very interesting scenario was when a woman from the church I attended in Dallas just walked to me and said “Ahh, I saw your photos on Instagram and I like the way you plated this meal. My birthday is coming up and I’ll be hosting 250 guests.” I told her I couldn’t possibly make that amount of food from my apartment, and she said “Whatever you need to do, hire people, anything. You’re catering my event”.’
Mad!
TS: “That was how I catered my first event in America. Before then, I was simply cooking for friends in my student apartment so it was surreal. I guess my personality also contributed to this sha. I’m not someone to panic in dire situations; well the main thought in my head is “I can’t mess this up”. But in the middle of work, my aim is to solve the problem and get shit done.”
Energy! Describe your relationship with cooking in one simple word.
TS: “Love. I really really love cooking. For me, cooking is not something I do for survival or as a chore, so I fell in love with cooking while trying to distract myself from the fact that I didn’t want to study accounting. It’s love to me because love itself requires a level of dedication, attention to detail.”
Food will not break up with you unprovoked. So I gotta ask abeg, and the people want to know. How did you come up with the “Fenty Pies” things?
TS: “Shit, I don’t know. Now that you asked; I think it’s a factor of how I create my recipes. I used to read a lot of recipes and would get really tired of the long story before the actual recipe. So I just tried to create my own recipes in layman terms. I’d call my friends, discuss the recipes - and then craft blog posts inspired by the conversation.
Since I struggled with people’s recipes, I just had to deconstruct mine for readers, and also ginger them by starting with “this recipe will change your life”, “this is easy to make” and show them a photo in case they’ve forgotten.”
Your transition from research to owning a food delivery and fusion/catering service seems to be well-thought-out. How did you decide to run the businesses full time?
TS: “After working as a supervisor at the biggest resort/casino in America, I made the decision to go back to school in 2018 for my PhD in Data and Information Science with a focus on consumer relation. But I just wasn’t happy deep down. Instead, I started focusing on figuring out how to translate all the cultures I have experienced - Vietnamese, Thai etc and fuse them with Nigerian food.
I got a partner by this time who lived four hours away so I was also driving to work with her in Houston, in addition to school, teaching Marketing, taking orders in Dallas. While juggling so many things, something was suffering and it was my degree. This meant I had to sit down with my parents about dropping out and also rescinding my scholarship.”
How did they take it?
TS: “They were really supportive. My dad was once convinced that I was going to be a doctor, so his support was all the validation I needed. I started with tracking all my sales, blog visits and other metrics and put all my data together by June 2019 and shared with him. At this point, I had bookings from June to December but I didn’t want to disappoint them.”
So you pulled up with the receipts!
TS: “Before? I sent bank account details - the whole nine yards. They’re logical people and I wanted them to rest assured that I knew what I was doing.”
That’s awesome. Let’s go to the fun stuff. What’s the greatest recipe you have created?
TS: *Laughs* “Hold on, I have a lot of favourite recipes so I gotta do a top -three. One of my faves is the Goat Meat Peppersoup Pho. Fun story, I had a cut while opening the can of bean sprouts during the cooking process. I literally received six stitches and even got placed on an IV Drip in the ER.”
Wow, sorry about that.
TS: “Yeah, I’m proud of it because it literally took blood, sweat and tears for me. Another one is the Coconut Milk Herb Turkey Wings, and finally, the Cameroon pepper fish stir fry.”
What’s the most constant ingredient in your pantry/fridge?
TS: “Onions and habaneros. If there’s an apocalypse, there’ll probably be access to dry food like noodles, and these items would make whatever crappy food item bearable.”
Cool. Who do you listen to while cooking?
TS: “This depends on my mood, actually. During recipe development, I go for SDC, Burna Boy, Six-Slack…”
You mean, Black?
TS: “Omo, he spells it as 6-Slack, abeg.”
LMAO, go on…
TS: “Old Kanye, Chike, Odunsi sometimes, alté music and a lot of classical music because I used to play the violin. Oh, I also recently discovered Spanish music since some of our staff are Spanish and I would like to get into their culture.”
Finally. What’s the future looking like? Any plans to open a restaurant soon - even in Nigeria?
TS: “No.”
Not even pop-ups?
TS: “Oh, That’s in the near future. But I’d rather be consulting for restaurants than building one. Never say never, sha. I want to play my part in making Nigerian food a staple worldwide - where Nigerian food is studied in culinary school because our food is as good, if not better than French or German cuisine.”
It was great speaking to you, Tobi. Any questions for me?
TS: “I really love Eat. Drink. Lagos. How’s that going?”
Thanks for asking. It’s fantastic working for a site where you have to speak from a place of authority, and also help people find where to eat in Lagos. Love it!
Read Tobi Smith’s blog via AllIDoIsCook and check out his fusion platform via TwoThirtyFour