Male Chef Wins Fame by Defying Gender Roles to Improve Cuisine in Cameroon

BUEA, CAMEROON – “Whenever I look at my time clocking 12 noon, I think of nothing but ‘fufu’ and ‘eru,’” says Robert Alemanji, an accountant who works in Buea, the capital of Cameroon’s Southwest region.

Fufu is a traditional West African porridge that locals make from cassava flour and often serve with a leafy green called eru.

To satisfy Alemanji’s midday craving for the popular dish, he goes to John Agbor Tabe’s roadside restaurant, he says. There he joins the usual crowd of enthusiastic customers. He is always willing to wait longer for the chef’s famed food.

Tabe is unlike other cooks in Buea for two reasons: He takes customer service seriously. And he is a male.

Tabe is bound to be a better chef than a woman is because his wife takes care of the household activities, Alemanji says. This enables Tabe to dedicate his time and energy to honing his craft.

Tabe is one of Buea’s few professional male cooks. In Cameroon, where traditional gender roles are strict but slowly evolving, society still considers cooking – like cleaning and caregiving – a women’s profession.

Tabe did not intend to become a cook, he says. But unlike many boys, he took the time to learn the culinary arts from his mother. After dropping out of school following grade six and trying unsuccessfully as an adult to travel to the United States to make a fortune, he refocused his energies locally.

He saw an opportunity when he noticed that restaurant chefs and street vendors in Buea did not take the time to cook well, he says. Because there were few dining options in the town, chefs could expect customers to eat whatever they served them.

So in 2004, Tabe decided to open his own restaurant using savings from working in another eatery, he says. In doing so, he joined a small number of male cooks with their own restaurants in the town. Most male chefs work in hotels, and only about three own restaurants.

Despite Tabe’s unconventional gender, customers routinely pack his restaurant, he says. It is an old, plank house with several wooden benches inside.

After Tabe appeared on a cooking program on television station STV 2 Cameroon in 2011, the fame of the male cook from Buea spread throughout the country.

People hired him to cook his famous fufu and eru among his other dishes at graduation and marriage ceremonies, he says. He even received contracts outside Buea.

“The first time I was hired in Bamenda to cook fufu and eru, I was scared,” he says, referring to the capital of Cameroon’s Northwest region.

He was cooking alongside graduates from catering schools, and he had not had any formal training, he says. But he was able to find faith in himself.

“I relaxed and said to myself that they have seen something special in the way I cook,” he says.

Now, he believes in his “cooking spoon,” or his ability to cook, he says. Other chefs – even women – do not threaten or challenge him. But some still tease him for working in a woman’s profession.

“Some even ask if I am not ashamed, being a male cook,” he says.

He tells his detractors that lazy men cannot be chefs. Most men never take the time to learn cooking from their mothers and disdain the art without trying it, he says.

It is unusual that Tabe performs a woman’s job, says Toufic Olabi, a high school teacher.

But Tabe says being male enables him to take the time to perform his job well.

“I take all my time in cooking,” Tabe says. “Because women have their various activities that they carry [out] at home, which may cause them to hurry while cooking. But for me, my wife does all other activities in the house.”

His wife, Irene Tabe, also prepares the ingredients to assist him in his cooking. Her husband is a better cook than she is, but he appreciates all she does to assist him, she says.

Olabi says he travels to Tabe’s restaurant about five times a week and always runs into his students there. He attributes the mad rush for the chef’s food to his extra effort and neat appearance. He wears a clean apron and a hair scarf to serve the food.

“I cannot say how many times I meet my students in Korobo’s eating joint,” Olabi says, using a popular nickname for Tabe.

Tabe has no rival in preparing fufu and eru, says Gilian Ngefor, a female chef in Buea who often eats at Tabe’s restaurant.

“I feel threatened whenever I eat Agbor’s fufu and eru,” she says.

To learn his secrets, she once visited his kitchen to observe his cooking methods, she says. In return, Tabe samples her food at her restaurant and provide tips when something is wrong.

But she does not believe that being male makes Tabe a better cook, she says. Nor does she think it is unusual that he cooks, asserting that everybody has the right to do so.

Tabe’s success may even inspire other young men to enter the food business, Alemanji says.

Gender roles are changing in Cameroon, says Barbara Ayamba Tabe, the cook’s youngest sister. Other men now cook for themselves, so it is not unusual for her brother to cook for others and to sell his food.

His culinary success has benefited his entire extended family, she says. She cannot count the number of times he has given her financial support.

“Brother Agbor is a kind-hearted person,” she says. “He is God’s gift to this family.”

Currently, there are six family members living with him and his wife – their three children plus relatives. Tabe pays to send all the children in the household to school and takes care of family finances with profits from his restaurant, his wife says.

"He cares for me like any other man would care for his wife," she says. "I am proud to have him as my husband."

But even with his success, Tabe says he still struggles. The famous chef and his family live in a dilapidated wooden house, and his restaurant is modest.

Many customers tell him that they wish he would open a larger restaurant, he says. They ask him to increase the quantity of his food and to employ a staff.

He hopes he can do this one day to further support his family, he says.

“I still hope to open a bigger restaurant in the future if only I have the finance,” he says. “My heart is filled with joy seeing my family succeed.”