THIS GUY’S CREATIVE COOKING SKILLS WILL SURPRISE YOU

We have never seen a guy who has such awe-inspiring cooking skills. We mean, apart from the ones we see a far off on TV, we had never seen and known one that can make local dishes, intercontinental dishes and everything in between… Until we virtually met Denis Barika in a food group we created called, “Cameroonian Foodies.” Denis, who goes by the pseudonym, Lapiro possesses an unusual culinary aptitude. This Cameroonian dude not only knows his way but the in and out of the kitchen. When you look at his food pictures, you would think he has received topnotch culinary training. The shocker is he hasn’t. The former Business Analyst and MBA holder is just passionate about cooking with no strings attached.

After drooling over his pictures on Facebook for a while, we decided to settle down for a chit-chat with him. He tells us all about how he learnt to cook, his woman’s reaction to his constant cooking and the lovely reward he got for making dinner for a family. Enjoy!
First, why do you call yourself Lapiro? We call myself Lapiro because “Lapiro” is our favourite musician. But our name is Denis.
Who taught you to cook? No one really taught us how to cook. We used to watch our mom cook and we were always the one peeling the Maggi cubes because after doing that we will eat the wrap. Our mom was a stay home mom, she cooked two meals everyday. So we can say our mom had a great role in our love and attachment for cooking.


At what age did you begin cooking? We started cooking when we were 9 that’s when i was like in class 6, primary school. Our mom would cook the groundnut soup and we would boil the rice. In our house we only ate Ndop rice i don’t know if its because i was born in Ndop or what. If you are familiar with Ndop rice you will know you need extra skill to cook it otherwise you’ll end up with fufu in the name of rice.

Then when we were 11, we went to form one. We lived with our uncle because we had to leave the village to go to secondary school.It was just our uncle and our cousin at home and that’s when we decided that we will do the cooking while he will always do the cleaning, and just like that we came to know how to cook almost everything.
You do a lot of food art too. Have you thought about pursuing a food-related career?

We have people telling us everyday that we are in the wrong field and we should go to culinary school. And yeah, we do a lot of food art. We're really good with making things with our hands. Back home, we used to have 10/10 for handwork in primary school. If you know what cross-stitch is believe us, we can make a complete set for a living room. That is what our mom did as a stay home mom and we learned how to do it too.

Lapiro wrote: “We made her with vegetables. she loves carrots, leeks, celery, green beans, parsley, and her earrings are radish; we think she just got her eyebrows done, and ohhhhh she’s got cute lips!!!.”
Lapiro wrote: “Where we get the time to be doing faces on eggs, we don’t know!!!! That’s how you know you spend too much time in the kitchen……… and we love it!”
Lapriro’s dyed deviled eggs. Purple!

Our cousin has a baby shower coming up on Saturday (that’s today). We offered to do their fruit table. it’s going to be the first time we ever do something for a big occasion. We will definitely post pictures and a video on our group. We have faith that we will make something unique and nice, a little different from what most people have done for their baby shower parties. You guys wish us luck haha.

Hahaha we know your work will be spectacular!

We have had a family here invite us over to come and make dinner for them at home. We went there that evening and made them a three course meal and served them. We made rice and Chicken Stew and we also made Eru. For dessert, we made them strawberries and yogurt and served it in cups we made out of apples. It was a really good experience. We felt like some high-class chef and we enjoyed doing it because the wife had a big and well-equipped kitchen. We were excited in her kitchen like a kid in a candy store. When it was time for us to leave, the husband compensated us with $250. Our jaws dropped because we wasn’t even expecting anything. The following day, he sent us a picture of his wife eating the Eru from the pot captioned, “this is how you know the chef did a good job”. We were so excited.
How does your woman feel about you doing a lot of cooking? Well, she likes the fact that we are always in the kitchen. At first she wasn’t comfortable then she realized that that’s just who we are and we will not stay out of the kitchen. Not because we are trying to prove anything but because of our love for food. She knows that we don’t like food that is more that two days old. We don’t care if it was in the fridge the whole time; we will freeze it and cook something else. She’s still in school so we do most of the cooking but we think it’s just because we have a passion for it not because she doesn’t have time to cook lol.

You seem to have a thing for photography too. Where did that passion come from? Oh yes! We love photography! We're taking that after our dad. He loves photography too and always took pictures of us when i was growing up. Now i sit back and cherish all the visual memories. We gave him a really good camera as a gift and that guy takes it everywhere. The best thing is he tells us he does not have to buy camera film anymore with him having a camera that uses a memory card.

We take a picture everyday. We choose a color every week and take pictures of things pertaining to that color. i have had a picture of ours featured on explore on Flickr. That made us so excited and boosted our passion for taking pictures. We did not do professional photography, neither did i go to school for it. We are just good with our hands and creativity we guess.

Would you encourage other men to cook too? We would encourage them to cook. There is just something about cooking and setting the table for your woman when she is about to get home. She thinks she will have to come home and cook but then when she gets there everything is all set. All she needs to do is take a shower and eat.

Men, wona don hear? Cook for your woman so she will just get home, take a shower and eat.

Hope you enjoyed reading this interview as much as we enjoyed conducting it.

Thank you for speaking with us, Lapiro! May your culinary skills take you to places you have never dreamed of.

Now over to you, readers. Is there a man in your life that cooks? What’s your perception about men that can cook?