LRR wins NAYCONF cooking competition
By Sulayman Waan
Lower River Region (LRR) emerged the champion of the ongoing National Youth Conference and Festival (NAYCONF)- 2022 cooking competition.
As part of culture and academic activities, this is the first time cooking competition is introduced in the biennial youth gathering. The competition aimed to promote the Gambian heritage cuisines.
Maimuna Camara and Sirre Sanneh won it for LRR. They prepared the amazing Mandinka dish ‘Domoda’ also called ‘Maafe’, a delicious groundnut stew mixed with spices.
West Coast Region emerged as 1st runner up, cooking ‘Caldou’, a famous Gambian dish, while Banjul which prepared Fufu came as 2nd runner up.
Saikou Bojang, President of The Gambia Chiefs Association expressed delight with the inclusion of food and cuisine into NAYCONF.
“As a chef I am happy and humble to witness this great occasion including cooking introduced in the NAYCONF. I am sure this is just the start of the whole process of bring talents especially cuisine in the NAYCONF. I believe having this concept will take our traditional cuisine to a higher level,” he said.
He said the Gambian heritage cuisines are healthy nutritious foods. “Those of you who have participated, I am very much happy that you took us back to the heritage.”
Bakary Y Badjie, Minister of Youths and Sports described the competition as one that will help in encouraging young people to understand the Gambian traditional dishes.
He added that this kind of activities makes NAYCONF-2022 more interesting. “The cooking completion is important because food is part of life. When it comes to traditional foods we are losing grip of its origin. It is good to bring back heritages so that our young people can still know how to prepare them.”
Maimuna Camara, the winner from LRR thanked NAYCONF for providing them the platform to showcase their talent and the delegates for their support. “I thank my organizing committee for their full support and my family who are so very supportive.”
SW/COB/22/12/22
