Miss Mandi: What you see is what you get

You grew up in Toronto, Canada what are some of the (Kenyan) things that you missed out on as a kid?

I missed playing shake to be honest. I was quite good at that game. I was always with the winning team. 

You shared an opinion on bad kissers on Twitter, you’ve had your fair share of bad kissing experience?

They do say you have to kiss a couple of frogs before you get to your prince. With kissing it’s either you’ve got it or you don’t. It’s quite an intimate affair. 

You are not afraid of speaking your mind, does that intimidate people or does it make them a little bit cautious of you?     

Honestly, it makes people jump to all sorts of conclusions about me but I feel people jump to all types of conclusions about people they don’t know personally. 

You’ve expressed some strong opinions on people who think women with power got handed things to them or slept their way up the ladder.

We live in a society where the girl child is educated, she works hard, climbs the ladder of success only to be reduced to the fact that she slept her way to the top. Also, women are allowed to have sex lives. When a man is climbing the ladder of success no one bothers to say ‘they slept their way to the top.’ Why the double standards? And sex is good for one’s health too. 

What’s the best part about being on radio?

There are so many great things about being on radio, like the working hours. The fact that you can share something that relates to someone, informing people, sharing your opinion and getting paid for it and waking up to do what you love is a blessing. 

And the worst?

Honestly, there isn’t a down side to working on radio, maybe when you lose your voice, that usually sucks. 

What is the most memorable awkward moment you’ve had on radio?

I kept confusing the guests name. I am bad with names but I’m working on it. 

You’ve unapologetically made your love of shoes clear in the past, what’s the least pair of shoes a lady should have? How many have you racked up so far?

If I was to say the least pairs of shoes a lady should have, I will sound very privileged. I do think there are basic pairs of heels every lady should own: a nude pump, a black pump and a strappy pair of heels. You can never go wrong with any of these shoes in the closet. Speaking of closets, I have several pairs of heels, I really don’t count. 

You describe yourself as a self-taught home cook, do you consider yourself a foodie too?

I believe the two go hand in hand because you can’t be a self-taught home cook without being a foodie. 

Is the YouTube show The Chop Up an extension of your blog?

The Chop up is a show that I pitched to Capital FM and they gave me the green light to do it because I had already established myself as a self-taught home cook, and I had a following already. 

Any plans to take it to television?

The plan is definitely to have a cooking show on television, it has a way of propelling your brand to a higher level but so does social media. 

Being a public figure, do you think people attack you just by the virtue of you being in the limelight?

Of course they do. We are living in times where everyone feels brave to say whatever they want to you because they are behind a phone or computer. I really do think that people who love to attack public figures must really be miserable. If things are going great in your life then you won’t even have time to attack someone. 

How do you handle criticism?

A lion does not concern themselves with the opinion of sheep. There is positive criticism then there is negative criticism, many people are all about the latter because they are behind a keyboard. Before, I used to really care but with time, I just stopped focusing on that. My goal is to flourish and I can’t let criticism come in between that. 

Let’s talk about the project ‘100 Days of Kenyan Throwdowns’. What is it about and what’s the story behind it?

 I wanted to get better at cooking especially Kenyan food. Kenyan food is amazing; however, I always add my own twist to it and I wanted to show that to the world. The ‘100 days of Kenyan Throwdowns’ is a project I decided to do after doing a little bit of research and seeing how many people have done the 100 days challenge. During my research I stumbled on the giveit100 site and they said ‘When you watch someone perform or score the winning point - you’re only seeing a brief moment of glory. What you don’t see is thousands of hours of preparation. 

What are you hoping to achieve from it?

I am hoping to show people that they can make Kenyan food delicious. That they can pair it with other cuisines in order to get to enjoy best of both foods. 

Ever thought of going to culinary school or is this something that you just want to keep close to you being a self-taught home cook?

I have seriously been thinking about it. You can never have too much knowledge and I’m quite passionate about it as well. 

Which celebrity would you want to cook for?

JasFly aka Jasmine Waters or Dream Hampton, they are amazing writers and I would love to pick their brains over one of my delicious throw downs.