Abigail Mbuzi is an Accountant by profession and a 36 year old single mother of 3 boys and after more than 10years in the corporate world, struggling to make ends meet and with personal debt spiraling out of control, she decided she had had enough of hand to mouth living. There was need to do something drastic to change her fortunes and the future for her boys.
She sold her car, moved her children from expensive private schools, moved out of the big house she was renting to move to her parent’s house and registered a business in the culinary arena and she says,
“I have always loved food, grew up around food. My mother had a catering business and I kind of ‘caught the bug’.”
An African Sunset was born after a number of attempts to do different businesses, and has the Brand Woman/ Brand Man conferences and the Master Cook TV shows under its umbrella.
On the show and on set is where she has the most fun. Meeting different people and hearing their food stories but, what she loves the most is teaching the kids how to cook.
“As soon as Schools close we start production on the kids cooking classes show. After we are done with filming, we spend a few weeks editing the shows before the actual airing on TV.”
A “Day in the life of Abigail” usually starts with prayer and reading of the word. Then transits to social media status updates, responding to messages and emails. Then to cleaning the house, feeding her dog and cat. All with some music so she can psych herself up to be happy and bubbly all day. In between, there is some writing of food articles for a number of magazines.
As for her biggest success so far Abigail finds this a hard question having so many things on her goals list that have not been crossed out yet, but at the same time, she is so grateful for how far her team have come and how the business has grown.
“We celebrate all the small successes as they mean so much to us, especially when you have been pushing for something for a long time and you finally get a breakthrough. I think I am amazed at how far we have come with Master cook. It started off as a parking lot competition and grew into a nationwide competition that begins to air on an International TV station from May.”
There are two more shows in the brand – The Kids Show on Diamond TV and the Celebrity Show on Muvi TV. And there is for sale a master cooks recipe magazine (with all the recipes and info from the shows), branded aprons, chefs jackets, chopping boards and utensils. At the end of May finally the doors will open to the Master Cook Cooking Academy where adults and kids can go and learn how to cook, corporates can host team building events and the kids get master cook themed kids parties.
In 5 years Abigail says,
“Anyone who knows me will tell you I am a BIG dreamer. In the next five years I plan to grow and expand our restaurant chain across the country (the restaurant will be opening later this year). We want to take the Master cook brand across the African Continent and start a TV station that is just completely about African Cuisine!”
How do you relax after a long day? Is a question Abigail answers with?
“I actually like to cook a lot. When I am stressed I will put on my favorite music, with a glass of wine in hand and cook up a storm!”
food is our common ground, a universal experience
James Beard
