Nigerian celebrity chef Damilola Adeparusi, popularly known as Chef Dammy, has spoken candidly about the struggles she faced following her rise to fame during her 2023 cook-a-thon attempt.
In a portion of her interview with Instablog9ja, which was posted on Thursday, she claimed that she did not expect the cook-a-thon effort to go viral.
She said, “My interest in cooking started when I began living alone as a student. Even the cookathon, I didn’t know it was going to be viral. I didn’t even tell my parents about it; they just saw me. I was shocked to see myself on social media.”
Chef Dammy also stated that the cyberbullying she experienced left her emotionally drained and overwhelmed, as she wished she could forget the experience.
“If you had asked me this question two years ago or a year ago, I might be crying. But now I’m happy I can talk about this without crying.
“There was a time in my life I was even telling God, ‘Can this wait a bit? Can I at least forget some things?’ I felt overwhelmed. The cyberbullying was just a little compared to what I experienced in real life. I was bullied; I was assaulted. I was broken. Social media broke me,” she said.
Chef Dammy officially commenced her professional culinary training at the Hospitality Business School in Lagos, where she is pursuing a professional chef diploma, the Professional Culinary Art Chef course, on a full scholarship.
The Ekiti State-born chef reached the 120-hour mark in her cook-a-thon, achieving this feat barely a few hours after the Guinness World Records (GWR) certified Chef Hilda Baci, who cooked at a stretch for 100 hours, as the holder for the longest hours in cooking (individual category).
