Diaspora Food Stories

Aimée Wallin is a co-director of the nonprofit Ghana Food Movement based, a network of food producers, entrepreneurs and community working together to create a resilient and sustainable food system in Ghana. Aimée's work includes connecting with foodies and food practioners around the world and is working on her biggest project yet, Ghana Food Movement's food education hub, The Kitchen, scheduled...

Recognized as a leader in the tourism sector for more than 25 years, Petra Roach is the guiding force behind Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA), assuming the role of CEO in 2021. Under her leadership, Petra is proud to share the beauty, history and culture of Grenada as well as its sister islands Carraicou and Petite Martinique. Since joining GTA, she has successfully lead the destination through the...

Charla L. Draper is a nationally recognized food influencer and culinary communications professional providing marketing services for food and food related products through her consultancy company It's Food Biz!   She is also the founder of National Soul Food Month launched in June of 2001 to celebrates the heritage and history of foods and foodways of people from the African diaspora. With a menu...

Thomas Dorsey began championing Black travel stories 30 years ago to share a diverse perspective that was missing from the travel industry. Black travelers have always been savvy and adventurous and most importantly want experiences that speak to who we are culturally.  That is where Soul of America comes in. In this episode, Thomas is sharing why it was important to bring diverse voices and persp...

Elisha Barnes is a 4 th generation peanut farmer who was born and raised in Virginia. His legacy includes being raised in a strong family where agriculture was centered in their life and the seeds planted are now flourishing on his own farm,  Pop Son Farm. His partnership with Hubbard Peanut Company has been a game changer as a small farmer. Pop Son Farm's peanuts are the now part of the company's...

Michael Henderson is the founder of B.A.G. Travel (Black and Gay Travel) that specializes in designing adventures for small groups to destinations around the world. The "adventure designer," began traveling more than 20 years ago, taking his first solo trip to Thailand.  After returning, he knew travel would be a way of life and over the years became a global citizen of the world, learning from ea...

Rachel Adjei is a chef and entrepreneur based in Toronto, Canada.   In 2020, she founded The Abibiman Project, a social enterprise venture that introduces the abundance of flavors and ingredients from the African continent and its diaspora through dishes and products created to give back to organizations serving communities, especially residents, who are food insecure. As one of Toronto's rising s...

Vernita Harris and Beatrice Moore have turned a 40-plus year friendship into a business over food. The friends met while in attending Praire View A & M University in Texas as college students and have since supported each other's journeys through life since.  Their friendship turned into a partnership during the pandemic in 2020 when they began to create a community by sharing recipes. This led to...

New Jersey native Dr. Wanida Lewis founded Crescendo Foods, Ghana's first shared kitchen coworking hub, in 2021. A food scientist by profession, Dr. Lewis and Crescendo Foods' focus is to "create a Pan-African ecosystem to celebrate culture through food as well as art." It also serves as a safe place where innovative ideas can be nurtured. Located in the country's capital, Accra, Dr. Lewis and her...

Happy Black History Month! We're going to be taking a short break this month to enjoy the work we do that centers around telling Black food stories. We'll be back on March 6 to kick off more great conversations with amazing people in food, drink and travel! Until then, be sure to catch up on episodes and visit our YouTube channel, The Global Food and Drink Initiative, to watch partial or full conv...

If you love wine and hip-hop, this is an episode you don't want to miss. While in college, Jermaine Stone, aka The Real Wolf of Wine, had a goal of getting a office job to grow his business skills not knowing that it would one day lead to traveling the world for wine. The Bronx native worked for Zachy's, an auction house in New York, where he began to learn about wine from the operations side. As...

Tunde Wey is more than an artist and writer.  He is also a cook who uses "nigerian food to interrogate colonialism, capitalism and racism," per his website. We first learned about his work when news outlets began reporting on his social projects in New Orleans that charged White people at least 2x more for plates of food as a way of discussing the wealth disparity gap in the city. But before he be...

Born in Somalia and raised in Italy, Chef Bashir Munye has called Toronto home for the past 22 years. Growing up in the Mediterranean, fresh seasonal foods were the norm. His approach to cooking is simple. In this episode, he talks about his brief time in Somalia before moving to Italy at five years old and assimilating to Italian culture, only to later as an adult find his way back to his African...

These days, Agatha Achindu is wearing several hats as a successful entrepreneur, wellness architect, and,most recently, cookbook author. The Cameroonian author of "Bountiful Cooking," released September 2023, is also the founder of Yummy Spoonfuls, which she started in 2006 to help parents become more intentional about the foods they give their children. With an unwavering commitment to sharing he...

Switzerland and Chicago-based entrepreneurs Kudzai Bingepinge and Awa Kone sit down with host Sheree Williams for this episode of Diaspora Food Stories to talk about their business venture African Flavor Lab and their brand N/UM, African artisan salts. With roots in both Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast, the duo have uncovered one of Africa's hidden gems, salt.  Through N/Um, they are not only delivering...

Riaz Phillips is a multi-disciplined, award-winning writer and documenter whose passion for food from the Caribbean and Black food culture in the U.K., has taken readers on a journey from the vibrant streets of London, the immigrant settlings around the U.K., and to the corners of the Caribbean. His deep-rooted connection to his Caribbean heritage has enabled him to seek out the often-untold stori...

Recorded on August 31, which has been designated by the United Nations as the International Day for People of African descent, host Sheree Williams connects with Canadian urban farmer Anan Lololi to talk about his work around Black food sovereignty in Toronto. Born and raised in Guyana, Anan moved to Toronto as a musician, playing for one of the city's top reggae groups, Truths & Right, before dec...

L'animatrice invitée Madalena Pedro Miala rejoint Diaspora Food Stories pour cet épisode spécial mettant en vedette le chef et restaurateur Pierre Thiam. Né et élevé au Sénégal, le chef Pierre est connu dans le monde entier pour son travail de promotion des ingrédients et des cuisines d'Afrique de l'Ouest, ainsi que pour l'introduction du 'fonio', des céréales anciennes aux papilles gustatives Occ...

Guest host Madalena Pedro Miala is joining Diaspora Food Stories for this special episode featuring chef and restauranteur Pierre Thiam. Born and raised in Senegal, Chef Pierre is known around the world for his work in championing West African ingredients and cuisines as well as introducing the ancient grain fonio to Western palates.  During this conversation, Madalena revisits his childhood, arri...

Suzanne Barr is one of Toronto's praised chefs for her culinary creativity and passion for the industry.  Born in Toronto and raised in Plantation, Florida, Suzanne later returned to Canada as a chef, opening her first restaurant Kitchen Dinette, followed by Kid Chocolate with her husband.   After closing both restaurants, she went on to pursue other projects including a chef-in-residence stint at...

Host Sheree Williams is reuniting with chef Nigel Spence, owner of Ripe Kitchen & Bar in Mount Vernon, NY. Since first interviewing him for Cuisine Noir in 2010, Chef Nigel continues to deliver an authentic Jamaican experience for everyone coming through his restaurant's doors. The celebrated New York chef has just added a few new menu items to his newly renovated restaurant that is well-known amo...

Kara Johnson grew up surrounded by amazing cuisine, music, art and architecture in the historical city of New Orleans. She also grew up surrounded by women who made every day magical in the kitchen. The entrepreneur is the founder of The Cook Shop, a delicious line of Creole and Cajun seasonings named after the restaurant her great, great grandmother owned in the early 1900s.  She is sharing her s...

Olympian, Wall Street veteran, author and philanthropist Idara Otu is also adding entrepreneur to her list of accolades as the founder of NŌK CHOC, a premium vegan hot cocoa company that sources its ingredients from West Africa. In this episode, Idara shares her journey as a first-generation Nigerian growing up in New York and her educational journey at Stanford University, where she ran track and...

Desde Portugal a Colombia, regresamos con otro asombroso episodio multilingual que le hará parar lo que estás haciendo para escuchar. La presentadora invitada Lisa Marie Zapata está en conversación con Liseth Martinez, encargada de mercadeo y promoción de la bebida ancestral Viché Canao. Con sus raíces culturales bien puestas y un sentido de lucha para combatir la erradicación de industrias Afro-C...

From Portugal to Colombia, we're back with another amazing multilingual podcast episode that you'll have to stop what you are doing and listen. Guest host Lisa Marie Zapata is in conversation with Liseth Martinez, who oversees marketing and branding for the ancestral drink and brand Viche Canao. With a strong sense of cultural roots and a fighting mentality to stop the eradication of industries in...