The glamorous chef Tee Tande tells all about food and her Passion for cooking

Becoming a chef can be a good career move only if you have love for the act and the right personality.

The glamorous Chef Tee Tande has one goal which is to make Cameroon cuisine known globally. 

With the million varieties of dishes in Cameroon, the glamorous chef cooks in perfection every single dish from the various tribes and regions of Cameroon. From Northwest, West, Southwest, litoral, central, East, North, Far North and beyond Cameroon to another planet. 

All that been said, the beautiful chef took me into her office and prepared a delicious mouthwatering meal. As she was preparing these delicious secret dishes, I asked her a few questions.

1) Who is Tee Tande?

Hahahahahahaha! Tee Tande is the girl next door. I am down to earth and I like to have fun and make people feel comfortable and welcome in my space.  What you see is what you get, the Tee-ing Tee-:). I am an only child, but grew up with a gazillion cousins and family friends.  My academic background is in Public Health with a focus on Health Administration. I have been working at a rehab hospital for over a decade.

When I am not at work, I’m in my kitchen coming up with creative and healthy menus or out on the jogging trail. I love, love music and love to dance, I had to have a surround system in my house for spontaneous dancing. I love to entertain and used to host some memorable parties back in the day.

2) Did you want to be a chef while growing up or did you have other career aspirations? 

Growing up, I wanted to be a journalist and envisioned myself on TV. However, I quickly scratched that off my list when I moved to the United States… Being a chef? 

Hmmmmm, that was never in the cards, however, cooking has been my passion from as early as nine years of age. I loved to cook at home, especially during holidays. If I didn’t like what was cooked that home, I was dared by my mother to go to the kitchen and fix what ever would be satisfactory for my palate. Talk about tough love that has paid off. 

When I had the first opportunity in secondary school, I took Food and Nutrition as an elective. I remember some of my classmates couldn’t wait for class to be over because they wanted to eat my food.  As a matter of fact, one of them still craves for my Kwacoco bible aka Endeley bread. By the way, I took home the Food and Nutrition prize in Form Five.

3) How would you describe your style of cooking?

Healthy, colorful, daring and innovative.  I like to bend the rules and create the extraordinary out of the ordinary. I love to tweak age-old recipes while maintaining their original flavors but embracing healthier standards. I love to add new spices to old dishes. 

For example, adding green pepper to Ndole. I can already hear the “purists” screaming that this is sacrilege hahahahaha! Trust me, green pepper does not take anything away from Ndole, but adds an aroma that is out of this world. Next time try it and let me know how it goes.

4. What is your signature dish?

That is a difficult question, I would rather have folks who have sampled my dishes to tell you which is their favorite.  Anyway, if I must answer, I have quite a few favorites, ranging from Eru, Kwacoco and Ndole to Jollof rice, roasted fish, and sautéed spinach. The list is too long, but you definitely want to eat my Eru and roasted fish!

5. Is there a secret ingredient you love to cook with?

Now, I wouldn’t tell you if it were a secret, would I? Hahaha! 
On a serious note, the ingredients I use depend on what I am cooking. Generally, however, I prefer a specific brand of Maggi which I cannot disclose since it is my little secret... 

6. Is there an African or Cameroonian Chef you truly admire and why?

Off the top of my head I can’t think of a Cameroonian chef, not because there aren’t any, but because most of our best chefs are not celebrated so we never hear about them. We still don’t consider cooking as an art to be celebrated and promoted. Fortunately, this is slowly changing. So, I am sure if you ask me this same question in a couple of years, I will be able to give you a list of Cameroonian celebrity chefs.

7. What is Chef Tee Tande's favourite meal?

I have a few, but I’ll give it to Eru which I can have 365 days a year. 

8. Do you have a guilty food pleasure?

Oh yeah! Corn chaff cooked right with the right type of corn! Not the American sweet corn. I cook mine with fresh corn on the cob (of course after taken the corn off the cob) and some juicy protein (beef, smoked turkey and smoked fish). It is a tedious process if you are serving for more than two, but the final product is mouthwatering.

9. When did you decide to undertake this career?

As I mentioned in my first answer, I have had a career in healthcare for over a decade now, so this is a side gig, a passion…. 

So how did I get here?  

Four years ago I decided to change my lifestyle and lose weight. I started eating healthy and exercising. Since I still wanted to be able to eat my African foods, I began tweaking these dishes to make them healthier.

I lost over 80 pounds within the first two years. During this time, I shared my activities and meals on Facebook. My friends started asking how they too could join in this exciting journey. I started sharing tips, and eventually decided to start a page where I could reach a wider audience.

For years my family and friends urged me to do more with my passion for cooking, and I finally listened to them as I embarked on my food journey. As I asked myself, why not share my journey along with the lessons learned with people who faced the same lifestyle challenges like I once did? 

With that, the Cooking With Terese (CWT) show was born.
This has been an amazing journey thus far. The fans have been great, and family and friends have been extremely supportive. To all of them, I say thank you and hang tight for the best is yet to come.

10. What do you make of CWT’s presence on TV and its huge following on Facebook? 

It has been exciting! Imagine that CWT is shown on broadcast TV in Cameroon!!! That is more than a dream come true! It’s a lot of work and pressure but it is worth every minute. And Facebook?  The CWT page now has close to 50,000 fans from nearly every corner of the world! Simply mindboggling! 

And my fans are not just passive observers but are very interactive on the page. I truly love my fans and I can’t thank them enough for helping me get to where I am today.
And let’s not forget the CWT YouTube channel where all the CWT episodes can be accessed at any time and from anywhere.

11. Finally what is your long-term goal?

My dream is that this girl next door will end up having a huge impact on our community through CWT, and will be able to positively change many lives and lifestyles one small step at a time.  

Thank you so much M.O.T for this interview, it’s been a pleasure indeed!