Tiyan Alile is a Nigerian-American celebrity chef and restaurateur. She established Culinary Academy, the first culinary school in Nigeria.^[1] A few of her former restaurants include a grill at the Ibadan Golf Club and a modernized Nigerian restaurant.^[2] She is the current President of The Culinary Arts Practitioners Association in Nigeria, the founder and promoter of Culinary Academy and the Executive Chef of Tarragon, a fine dining restaurant and wine club. She has been involved in planning a number of events in the hospitality space and delivering masterclasses at the Fiesta of Flavours Food Fairs, the GTBank Food and Drink Fair, the Mzansi Culinary Festival (SA).^[3]

Alile was born in Benin City to a physician father while her mother is a judge. After earning a bachelor's degree in law and working in business law for ten years,^[4] she branched into the food industry in 1993 building on her kitchen experiences with her mother, making cakes and barbecue grills.^[2] She went back to school in 2012 to train in the culinary arts at the L'Academie de Cuisine.^[4]

In high school, Alile had a cupcake store called Tea Time Cupcakes. She officially began working in the culinary arts in 1999 when she started a grill house at Ibadan Golf Club named Tees Hot Bites.^[4][5] Four years later, in 2003, she opened up a Nigerian restaurant called Matchsticks Concepts while she was a food columnist for Genevieve Magazine.^[4] In 2015, Tiyan launched her restaurant called Tarragon (named after her favorite spice), which originally started out as a dinner club.^[2]

Alile is the author of the book, Tale in a pie, which has been described as "the most scandalous story cook book out there".^[6] The book was launched on May 5, 2017 she since has organized various book reading events both locally and internationally.^{[7][better source needed]}

In 2007, Alile began to teach cooking and established Nigeria's first culinary school Culinary Academy in 2012 based in Lagos, Nigeria.^[8][4] The culinary arts education meets international standards while focusing on Nigeria's diverse cuisine. She is also the president of Culinary Arts Practitioners Association of Nigeria.^[5] Tiyan has taught master-classes at the Central Johannesburg College and has also trained one of the students at her academy who was invited to participate in the 2016 Young Chef Olympiad in India^[9] At the 2016 edition of the GTBank Food and Drink Fair, Tiyan, along with other top chefs, taught young and aspiring chefs new culinary skills.^[3] In 2017, she launched her "brainchild" project, the African Young Chefs Competition (AYCC), a platform for young African chefs with a focus on African indigenous cuisine on an international scale.^[10][1]

Alile served as the president to the Rotary club of Victoria Island East from 2013 to 2014.^[11]

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Alile has won several awards, including the Luxury Travel Guide Best Restaurant awards, World Luxury Restaurant Award for fine dining and food presentation and the World Chefs Global Connect.

• Official website