RANKS AFRICA SPOTLIGHT
From an empty schedule after the airport to the wedding tables of Nigeria’s biggest stars, the founder of Owambe Spicey has built a food brand on trust, creativity and a refusal to quit.
Some businesses begin with a plan. Owambe Spicey began with a free calendar and a lifelong love of cooking.
Odutuyo Oluwaseun, a proud son of Ijebu in Ogun State, had lost his job at the airport and had nothing to fill his days. The kitchen had always been the place where he felt most at home, so it became his way forward. What started as a search for income has grown into a catering and culinary brand that serves some of the most watched celebrations in Nigerian entertainment, and one that has already carried its name to Lusaka, Zambia.
Born on July 12, Oluwaseun describes himself simply as a Christian and a lover of good food. That love, joined to hard work, sits at the centre of everything the brand does.
A Beginning Without Guarantees
Oluwaseun never planned for Owambe Spicey to reach its present size. The early days offered little comfort. “It was a tough beginning,” he recalls, “and I was not sure there would be light at the end of the tunnel.” He kept pushing anyway.
The hardest lesson came first. A new business has no reputation to lean on, and people are slow to hand their money to a name they do not know. “You have to put in every effort to make sure they can trust you with every penny,” he says. Building that trust took time, and finding enough funds to grow the business took longer. Both tests shaped the way he runs the brand today.
There were harder seasons still. At one point the business was moving far slower than he hoped, and his worries were heavy. He counts his refusal to give up as his proudest achievement. “When I look at how far my brand has come,” he says, “I say thank you, Lord.”
The Owambe Spicey Difference
Ask him what sets his brand apart and he answers in three words: creativity, taste and presentation. New ideas arrive constantly, in flavours and in the way food reaches the table. “Every now and then, as a brand, we come up with new innovations,” he says. “In fact, we lead and others follow.”
Growth has come mostly through referrals. When a client is delighted, that client tells others, and each well-served event brings the next introduction. “One good turn deserves another,” he says. “When we do a good job, people are happy, and it helps us grow and meet new people.”
A Guest List Worth Noting
The client list reads like a who’s who of Nigerian entertainment and faith. Owambe Spicey has catered at the weddings of Davido and of Priscilla Ojo, and at the wedding of Davido’s manager, Asa. The brand has also served at the birthday celebrations of Baba Ijebu, Pastor Bolaji Idowu, Dunsin Oyekan and the Vintage CEO, along with many other VVIP occasions.
For him, one moment stands above them all. He was called out of the blue to cater an event in Lusaka, Zambia. “I knew this was God,” he says, “and that he was taking my brand somewhere.” Since then he has travelled to other countries for work, and his brand now carries an international reputation.
The Skills Behind the Success
Owambe Spicey’’s story offers a practical lesson for young entrepreneurs. Several habits stand out.
A Kitchen With a Camera
For Owambe Spicey, the plate is only half the product.Oluwaseun gives equal weight to how the work is seen, and his Instagram page is where that care meets the public. With more than 4,300 posts and over 31,000 followers, the page presents him as a chef and culinary artiste who specialises in fingerfood and grills. It sends clients straight to WhatsApp to book events.
The feed works as a running portfolio. Fingerfood is arranged on branded skewers and picks, so the food carries the brand’s mark to every table. The page organises its highlights with purpose. Collections cover the brand’s platters, its celebrity events, its favourite specialities and a visit to a television station, so a visitor can judge the work in a few taps.
The pinned posts tell the story of the business at a glance. One shows a wedding billed as the biggest of the year. Another captures a well-known guest tackling a turkey to the bone. A third greets Zambia and marks the brand’s arrival abroad. There is humour too, including a reel about guests who sweet-talk vendors so their tables are served first. Anyone who has worked a large event will recognise the joke, and it shows how well Odutuyo understands his trade. The mix of polished plating, star moments and light comedy keeps followers returning and gives new clients proof before they send a single message.
The Table Still to Come
The next item on Odutuyo’s wish list is a restaurant of his own, a proper place where people can sit down and enjoy a taste of the service he has taken to the country’s grandest occasions. After years of feeding other people’s biggest days, he wants a table that is always his.
His advice to anyone with a business idea is short. “Start. There is no perfect timing. Just start and trust in God.”
Owambe Spicey is on Instagram at @owambespicey. Event bookings are handled through WhatsApp.
