Bianca, in an interview some years ago when they celebrated their wedding anniversary, told General Ojukwu a short, fascinating story about their wedding cake and its preparations.
Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu (then Bianca Onoh) was preparing for her wedding in November 1994. General Ojukwu’s wife celebrated her wedding anniversary by revealing that a pastry chef in Enugu refused to make her wedding cake. The cook thought Bianca was poor and lower class.
A well-meaning friend recommended a qualified pastry chef in Enugu. Even though the friend didn’t know the pastry chef, she offered to make it easier by taking her there. Every time I see this photo, I think of the somewhat funny but sad story of that wedding cake on the left. While I was preparing for the wedding, one of my dear friends told me that there was a lady in Enugu who baked beautiful wedding cakes. In fact, my friend, even though she didn’t know this lady, offered to take me to her house.
Dressed very casually, I decided to park my Mercedes, joined my friend in her car, a beautiful but modest Volkswagen (then known as the Beetle), and drove us to the bakery, when we arrived, a famous pastry chef (whose name I keep for obvious reasons), who was completely unaware of my identity, cast a quizzical look at the car in which we arrived and was not impressed. I told her I needed her to bake my wedding cake and she started making all sorts of excuses.
She initially told me that her cakes were very expensive and that there was no way I could afford to pay for them (25,000 Naira at the time) and offered to refer me to a cheaper bakery, pointing out that that she only baked cakes for important people (I also plan to leave out names like a Union bank manager, a shopkeeper, etc. who were “dignitaries” in her opinion), but I told her that I could afford it.
Then he asked me where the wedding would take place and I said Abuja. She told me that I would have to pay for her transportation to Abuja to bake the cake and that it would be difficult for me to cover these additional costs since she was only traveling by plane and not by car, to which I replied that I would do that.
She raised the issue of hotel accommodation, which I assured her would be taken care of. My friend nudged me and whispered in my ear, “Tell this woman who you are so she can stop asking these useless questions,” and I said no. I was secretly amused, but at the time also amazed at human nature and the opportunities for advancement that, judging by her behavior, this lady clearly wasn’t. What surprised me was that the lady herself was definitely not rich, her car was an old Corolla, the surroundings weren’t luxurious, and she was just one of those people that said to herself, “I definitely belong,” and yet she had that the audacity to despise those she considered not “rich.”
Long story short, she still wasn’t convinced I could afford her services (judging by my casual attire and meager car that wasn’t even mine, meaning I probably didn’t have my own vehicle), and quickly dismissed her we both told me to leave my number and she would call me.
I left him the number under my Igbo Odinaka name and off we went. I never heard from her again.
I simply took advantage of a generous offer from the then Canadian Executive Chef of the Nicon Hilton Abuja (now Transcorp Hilton) who was a master baker and my huge multi-tiered wedding cake was simply made for free as part of a public market to make connections and raise awareness of the Hotel services.
What lesson did you take away from this reader, Kindly share with us.