A Mzuzu University Esther Maziya, has won a grand prize of K5 million in the 2022 Illovo Sugar Everyday Chef competition.
Maziya who is just 18-years is currently studying Culinary Arts at Mzuzu University.
Maziya scored 104 points out of 150 points to beat seven other contestants with Pacharo Tembo coming out as the runner-up (K2 million) and Hope Mazuwa on third place taking home K1 million.
The online cooking competition was initiated in August last year in which the contestants used Illovo Sugar’s refined and dark demerara sugar as part of their ingredients.
At the grand finale of the competition on Wednesday at Sunbird Mount Soche Hotel in Blantyre, Illovo Sugar Malawi Managing Director, Lekani Katandula said: “The first campaign proved to be a success and therefore, it is by popular demand that we decided to bring it back this yea
“The Everyday Chef Campaign approach brings forth an important shift in terms of how the business interacts with its consumers. It is important that the business continues to find and promote new and innovative ways of interacting with our consumers.
“We launched the Everyday Chef campaign with this in mind. The main objective of the campaign was the facilitation of simultaneous direct engagement with our consumers across the country.
“What was clear to us last year from the onset of the promotion was that this could only be possible using technology,” Katandula said, adding that the campaign was purposely designed to include online elements to break the geographical barriers for participation.
The promotion was primarily run through the Tseketseke brand Facebook (FB) page and supported by other exciting offline activities such as food truck activations and in-store promotions held in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.
“I am pleased to say that this has proved successful, evidenced by the geographical profiles of the participants, winners, and finalists, both from last year’s and this year’s promotion.said Katandula.
He added “The main aim of the interactions and engagements was to educate and learn from our consumers on the multiple uses of our white refined and dark demerara sugars.”
The Everyday Chef campaign has run for the past eight weeks and Katandula further said what has been apparent to the business in these eight weeks “is the sense of brand affinity demonstrated by the content generated on the Tsketseke brand Facebook page.
“Additionally, the campaign page received over 90,000 comments on the competition posts that included entry recipe posts, entrants tagging friends and family to gain votes and others asking for recipe inspiration.”
The finalists came from all corners of Malawi, validating that the use of technology eliminates geographical barriers, whose judges were Ipyana Mwagomba, Thobekile Nthinda, Dyson Chikolera, Portia Alimoyo, and Nelson Dhiba.
Katandula said was impressed that these individuals were passionate about food, building their communities and have a strong desire to improve their lives and the lives of their families.
The inaugural K5 million winner was Lilongwe-based business woman, Manase Munthali, runner-up was Chinsinsi Daudi with K2 million while Hajrah Kusweje was third with K1 million.