Chop, Chat, Chill: EMEKA FREDERICK

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Our schedule at Winchester was so packed with activities, I never had time to focus on being different. It just wasn’ t a worry,” says Emeka, putting the finishing touches to his menu by his desk. He has just spent the last few weeks preparing for a major event, and another opportunity for Londoners to sample his culinary skills. Captaining industry, or entering into entrepreneurship, is not an immediate attraction to many Wykehamists whilst they are at the school. But through the maturing of the lessons they have learned, and the realisation of the experiences that have moulded them, often enough they find the skills, and leadership, to plant small seeds leading to big things. Still just as busy, Emeka has found some time to regain that focus since leaving Win Coll. Using the medium of tapas, in partnership with his sister Ifeyinwa, he is on a mission to introduce the authentic flavours of Nigerian cuisine to the UK market. Chuku’ s, as a brand, was founded by the pair just over a year ago. Growing up in a Nigerian household together, the sibling duo had been dreaming about sharing their family’ s social dining traditions with the UK for as long as they could remember. It was only after another trip to Nigeria in 2014, aged 24, that he was inspired to act.“ In another life,” says Emeka,“ we would just have ignored it. Winchester taught me to ask myself‘ Who’ s game to do it? It’ s gonna be me!’” For him Chuku’ s is, in no small part, the consolidation of the edge that Winchester taught him that he had. Arriving in the school from Ilford, Essex, he did not share a huge amount in common with the backgrounds of the majority of his cohort, but found his way socially very quickly, thanks in no small part to the same personality that now fronts his restaurant’ s campaign to build culinary bridges.

26 The Wykeham Journal 2016