For Nigerian chef Yemi Asowan, the journey to professional cooking was a long one, but food was always central to creating connections for herself and others to her West African culture. With her 2014 founding of Egunsi Foods, she began the process of creating soups that could be shipped directly to the home. Egunsi is named after egusi, a protein-packed seed common in Nigerian cooking and the center of some of Awosan’s heritage. Now, at the helm of her own brand, Awosan wants to celebrate the diversity of West Africa—the regions, the dialects, the ingredients, and the culture—through food. “I want to represent the culture in a way that makes other people want to try it,” she says. Learn more about the chef and try her Cape Verdean kale soup recipe.
SOURCE: THRILLIST
