By Prisca Sam-Duru
Lovers of good food across the continent are in for a sumptuous treat and cultural exploration as ‘Urban Kitchen’ season 4 premieres today.
‘Urban Kitchen’, a 30-minute culinary show on television aimed at teaching Nigerians and Africans in general, how best to make their meals on a budget. It also offers the rest of the world a fresh perspective to the African culture through food using entertainment and world class contents. The show also explores the negotiation strengths of randomly selected cooks, who prepare sumptuous African meals and recipes on a low budget.
Produced by Sate TV Studio, in collaboration with Power Oil, the Season 4 of the show which premieres on 12 television stations across the country, including NTA Ibadan, ITV Benin and Abuja, PRTV Jos, TVC, Kwara TV, ABS Awka, NTA Kaduna, NTA Kano, NTA Akure, ITV Abuja, RSTV PH, CRBC Calabar, promises more thrilling moments with quality production, top celebrity encounters and reviews, as well as more audience participation.
The host introduces the show, giving the background of the cook for the day. She ushers the chef into the studio and discusses the meal of the day. During each episode, the cook is put under financial pressure. Each cook gets to negotiate his or her budget. During the programme, viewers get to watch documentary footages of the cook in the market, negotiating the purchase of ingredients for the meal of the day. The nutritional value of the meal would be reviewed after the preparation by a top African celebrity, with good cooking culture. The appearance of the celebrity comes as a surprise to the cook. Aside teaching viewers how to make meals under a tight budget, the show doubles as a fresh perspective for the world to see African culture using food and entertainment.
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Creator and producer of the show, Omoluku Felix Daodu, explained that Urban Kitchen has grown since its launch in 2017 to become a must-watch for many food lovers, live TV show enthusiasts, and has even been adopted as part of entertainment offerings, highlighting Nigerian culture by some airlines.
He expressed his excitement over the emergence of Power Oil as the official oil brand of the show, adding that the brand resonates with quality, healthy living among other appeals expected to impact the show positively.
According to him, to ensure a successful season, Sate TV Studio has also outsourced the production, marketing and other aspects of the show to Brandslay Global. He further disclosed that the highest safety protocols are in place, with the limiting of production crew and equipment in the studio, insistence on face masks, hand sanitizing and other safety measures in line with social distancing.
The personalities who are ‘celebrities’ in their chosen profession that will feature in various episodes of Urban Kitchen Season 4 he said, include Richard Mofe-Damijo, Jude Chukwuka, former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, Broda Shaggi, and singer/songwriter, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, known professionally as Naira Marley. While celebrities such as, Basketmouth, 9ice, Pasuma, Denrele, Eva and a host of others have been on the show at different times.
Like other seasons, Urban Kitchen Season 4, which is produced by Edhughoro Ejiro Onome, will have 26 episodes and will run for six months. It will also be anchored by Chinonso Arubayi as the hostess.