Food is my passion

Milliam Murigi @millymur1

When Linda Alusa was a domestic manager for about five years, she used to spend most of her time in the kitchen.

Though at first, she was doing it for fun, now she is minting money from her food business.

Alusa, the proprietor of Linda’s Kitchen has been offering home-based catering services since 2018, serving corporates and individuals despite never having attended any catering class.

She says watching her mother cook since she was a child made her want to try out her hand on it.

She remembers helping her mother in the kitchen and when she grew up, couldn’t wait to fully venture into this art.

“Cooking is an art full of creativity, where you dance in your kitchen, mix your imagination with a twist, and put together a delicious meal.

This is why not everyone in this world loves to cook,” she starts.

The 30-year-old chef reveals that growing up, she wanted to become a journalist but her dream never came to be.

She couldn’t join university despite her exemplary results as her parents couldn’t afford to pay her school fees.

Since she couldn’t sit back and watch her parents tire all day, she opted to look for a job.

Luckily, she secured one as an untrained teacher, a position she held for a year before relocating to Nairobi.

“I used to get Sh 2,000 per month. Though this was enough for my needs. I wanted to earn more to lift my family from the abject poverty they were living in.

That is why after working there for a year I relocated to Nairobi to look for greener pastures,” she explains.

 In Nairobi, she joined her sister in Kawangware, and it didn’t take her long time before she secured another job in another school as a boarding mistress and a kindergarten teacher.

Fresh start 

With better pay of about Sh6,000, she was comfortable working there. She dedicated all her time to her job.

Unfortunately, the school closed its doors and she was rendered jobless in 2012.

“I didn’t see that coming, so I wasn’t prepared at all. With no job and bills to pay, I had to look for another opportunity that was readily available; that is how I ended up as a domestic manager,” says Linda

She worked for several employers unsuccessfully before securing a similar job in Dubai in 2016.

With a starting salary of about Sh15,000, she thought that, finally, God had remembered her, but five months later she was fired after she requested for a pay increment.

Back home, she got yet another job as a domestic manager, but this time round as a day bug.

While there, she started serving high-end visitors who always complimented her cooking skills.

She also ventured into a clothing business something she was doing part-time.

And since we are living in a digital world, she started posting photos of her meals on Facebook.

Though she hadn’t envisioned it as a business opportunity, she started receiving inquiries and that is when she realised she could turn her hobby into business.

She says, “I used to get a lot of orders, especially for samosas from different people though not on a regular basis.

I would prepare them after work and deliver them early in the morning before reporting to work.”

In 2018, she was fired and she vowed to never get employed again. From her savings, she rented a house bought the necessities and she was ready to start life afresh.

She also decided to concentrate on her clothing business and food business full-time.

Then she was selling dera, a long Somali garment for women, and her business was doing well.

Since she didn’t have regular customers for her food business, she used to manage the two effortlessly.

However, by January 2019, the clothing business was not woking out well, and the food business came in handy.

She incorporated house calls in her services. The business kept growing and she was content, until she was tasked to offer catering services at a birthday party.

Since the client was offering everything required, even the cooking equipment, it was easy for her to handle that order. She hired two girls and they managed everything quite well.

“At first the client didn’t believe I would handle such an order,  but she was impressed.

Through her, I started getting referrals and that is how I incorporated parties and indoor events onto my service list,” says Linda.

Cuisine experimentation 

A few months later another challenge emerged. She was contacted to offer catering services for about 100 persons during a traditional wedding ceremony.

With no cooking equipment and utensils under her name at first, she panicked.

But her saving grace came in the name of Naomi Njoroge, her mentor in the industry. 

Naomi took her through the process even costing, which initially was a challenge, gifted her some equipment, and the rest she sold to her at a lower price.

“For less than Sh5,000 I got everything from chaffing dishes, sufurias, plates, mugs, spoons, table cloths among others. This could have cost me not less than Sh15,000,” she says.

Naomi also accompanied her on that material day and her presence earned Linda more respect.

She gained more confidence and started marketing her services aggressively, especially on social media.

This has earned her a name in the food business and now she can cater for any kind of gathering comfortably.

She has been ploughing back the profit to ensure she has all the equipment and utensils required.

“As the CEO, what motivates me is to help other people earn a living. I never knew that one day I would be the boss and a role model. Currently, I have a team of 14 employees,” she adds.

Now with Covid-19 restrictions, her catering business has taken the backbench and she is back to selling dera. She restricts her services to deliveries and house calls.  

And since there are many different types of food in different cuisines all over the world and most of them are available online for download, she uses those recipes and YouTube to learn, but adds a personal touch to those recipes and tries out different styles and versions of them.

“There is nothing wrong with a little bit of experimentation while cooking, as long as what you make is edible.

I find cooking a very relaxing task to be engaged in. I have never felt stressed when cooking.

Actually, cooking puts me in a much-relaxed mood than sitting on the couch and watching a movie,” she says in conclusion.