For a couple of years now, 13-year-old Kenyan chef Alvin Keffer's sheer grit in chasing his dreams has been a source of inspiration for both the young and the old.
Since stepping into the kitchen as a professional chef, Keffer, who is popularly known as Keff The Wonderboy Chef, has whipped out a countless number of delicious dishes and, at some point, landed job at KTN.
His journey kicked off when he was aged 7 years when he attempted to prepare breakfast for his mother with the aim of surprising her in bed.
After an intense childhood of studying his mother's every move in the kitchen, Keffer tried to make a plate of scrambled eggs for her which turned out delicious.
"My mum smelled something nice cooking from the kitchen. She saw me cooking and was surprised. But first, she wanted to see if I had burned anything or if the house was on fire.
"When she tasted my eggs, she congratulated me and told me that I have a talent for cooking," recounted the teenager in an interview with Yahoo! News.
Noticing his potential, Keffer's mother encourage him to explore his interests - a move that resulted in a series of videos marketed via social media, especially on Facebook.
He used the free time during the pandemic to horn his skills through studying recipe videos, including those of his mentor and global chef phenomenon Gordon Ramsay.
"As a parent, sometimes we sit and think that our kids can't teach us, but it's actually the opposite. We learn a lot from our children, and I'd say for sure he's taught me a lot. There are a lot of things that I can now cook because I've learnt from him," explained Perry, Keffer's mother.
Soon after, the efforts paid off when KTN's Club Kiboko, a children entertainment show, reached out to the family to have him be a part of the show.
"I was kind of afraid because it was my first time being on camera, but I started getting courage when people would congratulate me because they saw me on TV.
"When kids would tell me that they wanted to cook too. I felt happy because I was inspiring kids my age, which is hard," he explained.
In is school, Keffer also started a cooking club and attracted nearly half of the students in the school to be a part of - hence dismantling the long-held belief that boys should not be allowed in the kitchen.
So inspirational is Keffer's journey that he won an Africa Kids Awards under the content creator category in May 2021 due to his prowess in culinary arts.
