Item 13: An African Food Podcast

Dr. Wanida Lewis is the Founder and CEO of Crescendo Foods, Ghana and West Africa’s first shared commercial kitchen co-working hub located in Accra, Ghana. Dr. Lewis has over ten years’ experience leading initiatives and strategic partnerships throughout the African continent. She has a BS in Chemistry from Saint Augustine’s University, an MS in Analytical Chemistry from North Carolina Central University, and a PhD in Food Science from North Carolina State University.Find Crescendo Foods on Instagram (@crescendo_foods) and online at crescendogh.comPhoto Courtesy of Wanida LewisFollow Item 13 on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @item13podcastDon’t forget to subscribe & leave us a review!Item 13: An African Food Podcast is Powered by Simplecast.

A Queens, NY native, Nkem Oghedo is the founder of Adá, a community & online destination for global Black food culture. Previously, she worked in management consulting and served as the Chief of Staff of wellness tech startup, Care/of. Her professional mission is to create equitable economies in which Black communities thrive. She holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.Find Adá online: https://www.withada.co/And on Instagram @adaexperiencesPhoto Courtesy of Nkem OghedoFollow Item 13 on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @item13podcastDon’t forget to subscribe & leave us a review!Item 13: An African Food Podcast is Powered by Simplecast.

Born in Accra, Ghana but raised in the American South, food was always a large part of Selasie's life. For the past 5 years, Chef Selasie has worked at several well-known fine dining restaurants across the San Francisco - Bay area such as Bird Dog, Mourad, SPQR, Avery and Lazy Bear. She currently works as the Chef de Cuisine at Hi Felicia in downtown Oakland, California.Selasie has also started 2 pop-up dinner series during her time in the Bay. Elade Test Kitchen is a dinner series highlighting modern Ghanaian cuisine. This series focuses on the flavors and food she grew up eating; as well as explore how West African flavors and ingredients influenced the African diaspora. A Hard Pill to Swallow is another dinner series meant to acknowledge, showcase, and support Black folks in the beverage, culinary, restaurant and hospitality industries and services. Both dinner series are a celebration of Black folks, our foodways and our contributions to the food world.Find Selasie and her work on on Instagram:@sdotse89@e

After over a decade spent engaged in humanitarian work with the United Nations and years of self-teaching in the culinary arts, Selassie Atadika completed course work at the Culinary Institute of America. Her company Midunu, a nomadic and private dining enterprise in Accra embodies ‘New African Cuisine’. It celebrates culinary heritage where culture, community and cuisine intersect with environment, sustainability and economy by employing local, seasonal, and underutilized ingredients including traditional grains and proteins to deliver Africa’s bounty to the table. Chef Selassie Atadika uses Ghanaian cocoa and chocolate as a base to feature the flavors and essence of Africa. She launched The Midunu Institute which looks to document and preserve the continent’s culinary heritage. She was a finalist in the 2019 Basque Culinary World Prize, within the top 100 in the Best Chef Awards 2020 - 2021 and 2021 recipient of the La Liste New Destination Champion Award for Africa.Find Midunu Chocolates online and on Inst

This week we're re-broadcasting our episode with Mrs. Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, co-founder of AACE Foods and an expert on social innovation, African agriculture and nutrition, entrepreneurship, and youth development.Ndidi has over 25 years of international development experience and is a recognized serial entrepreneur, author, public speaker, and consultant. Through her work in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, she has shaped policy and led the design and execution of high-impact initiatives focused on strategy, organizational design, ecosystem solutions, and growth. Mrs. Nwuneli serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), AGRA, Nigerian Breweries Plc. (Heineken), Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. India, Fairfax Africa Holdings Canada, Royal DSM Sustainability Board, Netherlands, and the African Philanthropy Forum. She previously served on the Boards of Nestle Nigeria Plc., the World Vegetable Center and Cornerstone Insurance Plc.As the co-founder

This week's guest is Edwina Morgan of Waakye Leaf.The idea for Waakye Leaf was born out of a genuine love for building cultural bridges by sharing traditional African culinary knowledge with the world in the most creative and innovative ways in order to provoke, delight and rouse interest.Established in 2008 by Edwina Morgan, Waakye Leaf is now considered one of London’s leading boutique afro-fusion caterers. They are passionate about creating enjoyable and memorable experiences through food, while setting new standards for quality and excellence. From mouth-watering canapés, delicious bowl food, themed supper clubs to luxury banquets, they offer a truly bespoke service and take pride in working with each of their clients to realize the client's vision.Find Waakye Leaf online: https://www.waakyeleaf.co.uk/ and on Instagram @waakyeleafFollow Item 13 on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @item13podcastDon’t forget to subscribe & leave us a review!Item 13: An African Food Podcast is Powered by Sim

This week's guest is US-based African chef, cookbook author and activist Pierre Thiam.Pierre (who was born and raised in Senegal and now lives in the Bay Area) has dedicated his career to making West African cuisine and ingredients accessible to new audiences in the US and beyond. He’s the executive chef and co-founder of Teranga, his acclaimed fast-casual group of restaurants in New York City, where he sources food directly from African farmers, and is the co-founder of Yolélé, a purpose-driven food business that makes African ingredients available to US home cooks and restaurants, while connecting smallholder farms in West Africa with the global food economy.Pierre is also the author of three cookbooks, including his most recent, The Fonio Cookbook: An Ancient Grain Rediscovered, which highlights simple African-inspired recipes for the home cook such as Fonio Fritters with Sweet Potato, Tamarind Roasted Chicken with Fonio and Fonio Chocolate Cake with Raspberry (among others!).Learn more about Chef Pierre o

Inspired by her daughters, Afua Ayisi started a bottled beverage business featuring herbal teas across the continent. Starting with the roselle hibiscus tea, popularly known in Francophone West Africa as Bissau, the idea is to craft and produce delicious and low caloric ready to drink teas void of artificial preservatives and ingredients.Find Bosuo Foods on Instagram (@bosuofoods) and online at https://www.bosuofoods.com/----Photo Courtesy of Afua AyisiFollow Item 13 on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @item13podcastDon’t forget to subscribe & leave us a review!HRN is home to transformative exchanges about food. Our 35+ member-supported food podcasts empower eaters to cultivate a radically better world. This month, we’re asking you to join us. Become a monthly sustaining member at heritageradionetwork.org/donate.Item 13: An African Food Podcast is Powered by Simplecast.

Samantha Kotey is a corporate attorney, food enthusiast, and cook born and raised in Houston, TX to Ghanaian immigrants. Growing up with a Ghanaian mother who proudly subscribed to traditional West African social norms meant that food was at the forefront of her life from a very young age. Early on, she recognized the insidious pattern of marginalizing Africa, which naturally bled into the realm of food and has resulted in a negative perception of African cuisine.Through her business, Auntie’s Ice Cream, she strives to shift this paradigm and continue to etch the identity of African food in our global food culture. Auntie’s is a vessel through which she can share ingredients, methods, and flavors indigenous to Africa through a universal comfort food.Find Auntie’s on Instagram (@auntieicecream) and online at www.auntiesafricanicecream.comPhoto Courtesy of Samantha KoteyFollow Item 13 on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @item13podcastDon’t forget to subscribe & leave us a review!HRN is home to

EatOkra, in partnership with Dine Diaspora, is providing $10,000 grants for Black women-owned restaurants across the United States. The EatOkra Black Women in Food Grants provide capital for Black women to accelerate growth for their brick-and-mortar restaurants. Aligned with EatOkra’s values, the opportunity will enable these businesses to “spread their wings and embrace their visions for tomorrow.”Tune in to hear more about the grand and application details. Apply by July 17, 2022 using this link: https://www.blackwomeninfood.org/grantsFollow Item 13 on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @item13podcastDon’t forget to subscribe & leave us a review!HRN is home to transformative exchanges about food. Our 35+ member-supported food podcasts empower eaters to cultivate a radically better world. This month, we’re asking you to join us. Become a monthly sustaining member at heritageradionetwork.org/donate.Item 13: An African Food Podcast is Powered by Simplecast.

Back with a new season and can’t wait for you to hear! This week, I’m trying out a new segment/episode format: I3 Items on Item 13 featuring thirteen food-related things I’m eating, reading, watching, participating in, etc. Items featured in this week’s episode:A Mom PotluckPoks SpicesTJ’s Sparkling WatermelonSpice by Miss CookieDounou Cuisine Food TruckA Trip to GhanaGhana Food MovementFood Ambassador OpportunityTop Chef HoustonIron Chef on NetflixKoto LLC PeppersThe Stand by Le MonadeDine Diaspora & Eat Okra----Follow Item 13 on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @item13podcastDon’t forget to subscribe & leave us a review!Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Item 13 by becoming a member!Item 13: An African Food Podcast is Powered by Simplecast. 

This season, we’re showcasing stories from the inaugural class of Changing Narratives Africa Fellowship, a highly selective program for African food entrepreneurs who are ready to scale their brands into global markets. Aderoju Odunsi is an agribusiness specialist and has been an entrepreneur, trainer and Business Development Service provider for over 30 years. She has a particular interest in helping people, especially women to transform ideas into solid businesses. Aderoju is the Founder/CEO of Sorello Food And Beverage Company Ltd, a food processing company with a vision to transform Nigeria’s agricultural produce into world class healthy food products with a product portfolio of Nigeria’s 1st NAFDAC registered Sorrel (Zobo) juice, Vegetable juices, Herbal teas, Spices and Superfoods. She is also the Principal Consultant at Experiential Consult Ltd through which she trains, coaches and mentors on Business Management in Nigeria and across Africa. She has won several awards in recognition of her industry by

This season, we’re showcasing stories from the inaugural class of Changing Narratives Africa Fellowship, a highly selective program for African food entrepreneurs who are ready to scale their brands into global markets. This week’s guest is Temi Jebutu, a Nigerian Agribusiness professional with over 17 years of experience in Operations Management working with multinational and international organizations. He is currently the Managing Director of AACE Food Processing and Distribution Limited which produces spices, seasonings, snacks and complementary foods for local and international markets. Temi joined AACE Foods in 2014 and has led the growth of the organization by introducing innovative and nutritious products, improving the livelihoods of over 10,000 smallholder farmers in the company’s supply chain and displacing imports through promoting local sourcing. AACE Foods’ pioneering efforts have been recognized and supported by the Africa Diaspora Marketplace, Innovations Against Poverty (IAP), the Africa Ente

This season, we’re showcasing stories from the inaugural class of Changing Narratives Africa Fellowship, a highly selective program for African food entrepreneurs who are ready to scale their brands into global markets.This week’s guest is Ebun Feludu. She runs JAM The Coconut Food Company- a family legacy business that produces premium food and beauty solutions from the world's most famous super food- The Coconut. "We are committed to building the biggest coconut brand in Africa for Africans. Our premium coconut products range from Coconut Cinnamon Balls, Activated Coconut Charcoal, Coconut Flakes, Coconut Lemon Oil all made from our beloved coconut. At the center of our operations is our army of coconut amazons who live in the rural coastal communities where our factories are located. These formidable women make up 80% of our workforce and their work accounts for 80% of household income." Ebun Feludu is committed to the growth of the women force at JAM The Coconut Food Company and her women community at lar

This season, we’re showcasing stories from the inaugural class of Changing Narratives Africa Fellowship, a highly selective program for African food entrepreneurs who are ready to scale their brands into global markets. This week’s guest is William Omamo, a Kenyan national and trained hospitality professional with over 20 years of industry experience. He is a graduate of Les Roches Global Education Switzerland. William's career has seen him work with world-class organizations leaving a footprint in 4 countries on the African continent. As an entrepreneur, William’s passion to be creative & innovative saw him startup 3 coffee shops & a pub/steakhouse during his career. He is also the brains behind “CAKE-ZERO”; a unique high-fiber sugar-free natural fruit-sweetened cake which is fast gaining popularity with health conscious folks in Nairobi. His venture into hot pepper farming & value addition dates back to 2009. Initially the pepper business was a side hustle, but with the onset of COVID19 William

This season, we’re showcasing stories from the inaugural class of Changing Narratives Africa Fellowship, a highly selective program for African food entrepreneurs who are ready to scale their brands into global markets. This week’s guest is Chichi Eriobu, the Founder and CEO of Phronesis Foods Nigeria Limited, a globally-growing food Processing, packaging & export company, creating new food product lines from existing raw materials. A Christian, and multiple award-winning entrepreneur, Chichi was awarded Best Female Business Speaker of the Year (Leadership Mind Awards, 2017) and Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year Award (BAOBAB International Awards, 2018). In 2020, she was appointed one of the young people to sit on the Board of Crown Point College of Health Sciences and Technology, Ogun State. And in 2021, she won an award for influence through Business & Entrepreneurship, presented to her by FBI Awards. Having been selected for multiple business grants opportunities, Chichi is teaching other small

This week we're re-broadcasting in celebration of the Ginjan Brothers' recent feature in Humans of New York. And big news: we're launching a new season of Item 13 starting on February 1st!  In the meantime, here's the story of Mohammed and Ibrahima from episodes 46 and 47.Ginjan Brothers was founded by Mohammed Diallo & Ibrahima Diallo. The brothers immigrated to the States in their early teens, 13 & 14, respectively. Mohammed has a formal training in business management and spent the bulk of his professional career in the financial services industry. Ibrahima is an engineer by training, but spent most of his career in the hospitality industry. Their mission with Ginjan is to make African food, drink, and aesthetics and integral part of global mainstream culture.*CPG = consumer packaged goodsFind Ginjan Brothers online: www.drinkginjan.comGinjan Bros. Social: @ginjanbros + @ginjancafe-----Photo Courtesy of Ginjan BrothersFollow Item 13 on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @item13podcastDon

Whitney Osei-Akintaju was born in Kibi, Ghana, and migrated to the United States with her father when she was six years old. In her sophomore year of high school, she took a web design and multimedia class which sparked her passion for tech. In 2011, she began competing in pageants and was named Miss West Africa USA First Runner-Up. She was also Miss Ghana Tourism USA 2015. Her corporate career began in banking and finance working for companies like Bank of America. From there she moved into tech, working for Sage Software and Apple as a Technical Analyst. In 2017, while working at The 100 Companies as an engagement coordinator, she was pregnant with her first child, Cassidy. A busy mom, she searched for ways to purchase high-quality, authentic African grocery items online. Unable to find any, she decided to create one. Ethnic District is an e-commerce marketplace where African CPG brands can sell their products directly to customers, retail and wholesale. She started Ethnic District with just $80 and has gro

Mrs. Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli is an expert on social innovation, African agriculture and nutrition, entrepreneurship, and youth development. She has over 25 years of international development experience and is a recognized serial entrepreneur, author, public speaker, and consultant.Through her work in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, she has shaped policy and led the design and execution of high-impact initiatives focused on strategy, organizational design, ecosystem solutions, and growth. Mrs. Nwuneli serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), AGRA, Nigerian Breweries Plc. (Heineken), Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. India, Fairfax Africa Holdings Canada, Royal DSM Sustainability Board, Netherlands, and the African Philanthropy Forum. She previously served on the Boards of Nestle Nigeria Plc., the World Vegetable Center and Cornerstone Insurance Plc.As the co-founder of AACE Foods, which produces a range of packaged spices, seasonings, and cere

Award winning International Wine Educator Tuanni Price is on a mission to make the complicated world of wine simple. In fact, that is the motto of her wine lifestyle business, Zuri Wine Tasting. The self-proclaimed wine enthusiast curates’ wine-filled lifestyles from Southern California to the Southern-most part of the globe in Cape Town, South Africa. Tuanni uses her brand, Zuri Wine Tasting, to host private tastings, teach wine tasting classes and host wine tours. In addition, she produces small to large scale wine experiences for corporate and non-profit clients. Tuanni grew up in South Central Los Angeles and was not exposed to wine early in life. She was in her 30’s when her interest in wine peaked. One evening while dining at a five star restaurant, she was snubbed by the Sommelier. From that moment on her goal was to learn and share as much as possible about wine and its accompanying lifestyle, enabling her to help others avoid that feeling of intimidation.Tuanni started a wine club with her friends, s