Zoe Adjonyoh
Zoe Adjonyoh is a chef, a writer and a public speaker. She is founder of Zoe's Ghana Kitchen, a West African food brand and cookbook by the same name. As well as the co-founder of Black Book, a platform for promoting inclusivity for BIPOC people in the food world.
Zoe speaks to QFAB about the lack of acknowledgement of intersectional identities in the Food and Beverage Industry and not just being a ‘woman chef’, the long running pioneering of queer and Black communities in food, and why she’s building her own table. Plus how quickly she can eat a packet of dark chocolate digestive biscuits (spoiler: it’s fast), and more of the amazing queer food accounts you should be following.
Photo credit - Lateef Okunnu
Introduce yourself…
My name is Zoe Adjonyoh, I am a chef, and a writer and a public speaker. I'm the founder of Zoe's Ghana Kitchen, a West African food brand and cookbook by the same name. I'm also the co-founder of Black Book, which is a platform for promoting inclusivity for BIPOC people (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), Black and vibrant people in the food world, and my pronouns are she/her.
“The queer community are usually pioneers in food spaces because we’ve always been on the edges of things, of society for for one reason or another. I think when you exist on the fringes of mainstream society you are forced to think more creatively and adventurously in how you approach things.”
Where in the world are you? Where else have you lived and worked?
I'm currently in New York. I live between London and New York. Presently, I'm emigrating to America. I've been lucky to take Ghana Kitchen all over the world. I've cooked all over America, in California at The Culinary Institute of America and the James Beard house in New York. I've cooked in Russia at a supper club in a park as part of an art installation. I've cooked many, many times in Berlin, France, all over the UK, Ghana, Gambia, Kenya, Senegal. The reason I enjoyed (Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen) is because I could travel with it and it was something I could take wherever I went really.
What is your job vocation/ job role/ title?
I know it sounds grandiose but I would like to think that I'm engaged in the business of raising consciousness, whether it's through food, whether it's through the act of cooking food, or having a conversation about the politics of food. Or whether it's about, in terms of Black Book, having difficult conversations that people don't want to have but need to have to raise awareness, i.e. consciousness. That's what I do and what I care about: raising consciousness. It's more important than any one thing I do, but I do lots of things. I'm a chef and a writer, and also a speaker, mentor and advisor and all those things, but it's all to that end really. It's about raising consciousness.
“I knew that I was queer when I was about five or six and I would probably say (to my baby queer self): you are different and that is fucking fantastic. You’re unique and you’re special and it’s not just because of your sexuality, it is because of who you are. ”
What does your average day look like?
There isn't an average day! What's definite about my day is what time I get up and what I do between the hours of five and nine. So I get up at five, I meditate, I journal, I do my gratitude list, you know, do my affirmations for the day, the week, a month a year, do some exercise, probably do some reading of my stars. And I do an AA meeting, and then I probably, you know, read something or listen to a podcast or something before my working day starts.
Then most of my day these days involves meetings, either being interviewed or presenting something or teaching. So I do a lot online obviously because of the pandemic, and a lot of writing these days so contributing fairly regularly to places like Epicurious. I could have a cooking class in the morning and then be presenting to a corporate company in the afternoon about Black Book. Or then doing a mentorship and spend an hour advising somebody about where they're at in their business plan. It’s a busy calendar, and I'm lucky because it's always kind of full of lots of different types of things.
I like to keep it quite balanced between the types of things I'm doing because some stuff drains your energy but you have to do it anyway, then there are other things that you love to do which give you energy. So I try to kind of balance out my diary.
Photo Credit - Lateef Okunnu
What has been your experience of being queer in this industry?
I've just written an essay about this actually for Bryant Terry's new cookbook Black Food (coming October 2021). It’s a tricky one because my sexuality hasn't been that important in the UK food industry. I'm a solo founder and I've never worked in the industry, outside of working for myself, so I've never been in environments where that might come up as something to rub against. What I can speak to is how I observed the industry, generally, and how I see people.
Queerness is hugely relevant in terms of who I am because my food is informed completely by my identity, which is a political identity. I am queer and I'm a mixed race, Black woman of a certain age, born to immigrants, who is working class. There are a lot of intersections that are way more interesting than just what my pronoun is, so it's always fascinated me the obsession in the UK industry around gender and being a woman chef.
The absence of a queer community is telling as well. The UK food and hospitality industry wants to think of itself as this really expansive open minded wonderful group of people who really help each other. I don't feel like that's true. I feel like a few people help each other and have the network and money. That’s not necessarily inclusive of the queer community. I know chefs who are gay, but they don't shout about it on Instagram, it's not part of their public identity, so I don't know if that means for them that there's some issues there.
The queer community are usually pioneers in food spaces because we've always been on the edges of things, of society for one reason or another. I think when you exist on the fringes of mainstream society you are forced to think more creatively and adventurously in how you approach things. You think about veganism, ‘plant forward’, sustainable living and all of that very current stuff. Like thirty - forty years ago it was lesbians and the queer community who were pioneering that stuff. I think that's still true today. And that's what I say about Black and BIPOC communities as well who are marginalised. They have always been forced to be innovative and creative and think outside the box in ways that mainstream people aren't.
“Queerness is hugely relevant in terms of who I am because my food is informed completely by my identity, which is a political identity. I am queer and I’m a mixed race, Black woman of a certain age, born to immigrants, who is working class. There are a lot of intersections that are way more interesting than just what my pronoun is, so it’s always fascinated me the obsession in the UK industry around gender and being a woman chef.”
What are the best and worst things about the industry?
It would take me a lot of time for me to talk about what's wrong with the industry! It is a very self congratulating industry really that is still excluding a lot of voices.
I think what's good about the industry at the moment is that it is starting to sit up and take notice of what it hasn't been paying attention to, of more marginalised voices. This whole conversation around diversity and inclusion, while most of it is bullshit smoke and mirrors and virtue signalling, there are some institutions and people who are interested in really understanding and making positive changes. I think that 2021 and 2022 are going to be years where we start to see, finally, some really big and interesting changes in leadership across all these different levels.
It's not an industry that I feel supports me or people like me. It's very cliquey, it's very white middle class, upper middle class. If I wanted to move my career forward more in the UK, in any substantive kind of way, I'd probably be having to have conversations with these types of people who aren't a bit of me, so there is gonna be friction. And you know, I'm impatient and I'm ambitious. So, I haven't got time for that!
I mean I love the queer people I do know in food, I just wish there was more of a community around that. I've said it for a long time - I'm all about building my own table where the tables don't exist. Or building tables for people if they need seats at tables. I'm a carpenter, you know, so I'll get that job done.
Photo Credit - Lateef Okunnu
What's the best meal you have ever had, where was it, what was it, who was it with?
My wife Sarah is Jewish Italian and she's very fucking picky when it comes to either of those cuisines. There is a restaurant in Margate called Bottega Caruso. Their food is amazing and it's really true to where it comes from. The dishes they have on that menu are just fantastic and amazing. She loves them because it reminds her of her Italian grandmother's cooking, and the food that she ate growing up. I've taken her to a lot of Italian restaurants and that's the one that wins. It's such a great place, it's really family run, there is lots of integrity behind the ingredients and the cooking, excellent service and they're just really lovely people. We've been going there for about four years now and it’s one of my favourites.
What is your guilty pleasure?
I love junk food. That's the secret. I mean it's funny, I can eat like protein shakes and cayenne ginger shots in the morning and then in the evenings sit in front of the TV and eat loads of shit like crisps and biscuits. I’m a fiend for dark chocolate digestive biscuits! I can smash a packet of those in about 30 seconds and that is not a joke. We have a definite penchant for junk food. Even though we're quite healthy at the same time. I mean we exercise and eat well but we just love junk food! A lowbrow Chinese takeaway really reminds me of my childhood, when it's super greasy and like loads of MSG. MSG is the overriding flavour usually. Sometimes that's a guilty pleasure, in London especially.
What are your top places to eat and drink?
Honestly I don't really eat out that much, especially not for the last 18 months. I care more about my memories of where I've eaten something interesting like the first time I had Nasi Goreng in Bali, or eating Boscht in the foothills of the Siberian mountains. Those kind of things are the memories that I have of really great food and that's mostly tied up in the emotion of the place, and everything that was going on. Of course there are lots of great restaurants, but I don't necessarily go back to them again and again because honestly I don't have that kind of time and money.
What's your favourite banger to play in the kitchen?
It depends on the type of service. These days I'm probably cooking at home more often so it's probably gonna be Angie Stone Mahogany Soul or something like that, or Jill Scott, Leon Bridges. Something soulful that's for home cooking or the Zoe Ghana Kitchen playlist on Spotify.
What advice would you give your younger, baby queer self?
To my six year old gay self, because I knew that I was queer when I was about five or six and I felt very odd about that, I would probably say: You are different and that is fucking fantastic. You're unique and you're special and it's not just because of your sexuality, it is because of who you are. Embrace all of it and don't hide yourself under a bushel, don’t hide who you are. It's sort of a gift.
Do you feel it is important for the LGBTQI+ community in the food and beverage industry to have a network, and if so, why?
I think the word important is a tricky word because that is kind of subjective. So I don’t know that important is the right word to use, is it useful? Is it necessary? I think so because community is being connected. For me, from my experience of the world not just this industry, being and feeling connected is one of the most important things for a human person's sense of worth and esteem and basic joy. Being around people who can understand you, people who you can understand, people who you don't have to code switch around, people who you don't have to pretend to be different. Spaces where you can authentically be yourself. They are important, and they are necessary. And so the short answer is yes.
But with the qualification about the word important because what's important to one person isn't necessarily going to be important to another person. The point is, for our community, there are lots of people in the industry who are in their 50s, 60s, 70s still going strong who are gay, out to their mates wherever, and maybe they have a community somewhere but it's not necessarily in the food community. But wherever there are new ways to bring people together meaningfully, to have honest frank open authentic conversation engagement and connection, I think that's super important for sure.
Do you have any top queer food and beverage related accounts that you follow on on Instagram.
I mean loads! I'm just about to become a culinary ambassador for God’s Love (@godslovenyc) in New York. In the AIDS crisis pandemic in the 80s this was set up to help feed dying AIDS victims who weren't getting nourished. It grew and grew into a charity that now actually just feeds anybody in New York who's trapped at home, who can't get good care or get food. It's a great organisation and it has very very strong links to the queer community and in fact it's how I've met most of my queer friends in New York.
As well as:
Sicily (@sicilysierra) and Mavis (@chefmavisjay) my friends, they're also known as @foodpluspeople_ a black owned community focused food business in NY
Julia Turschen (@turschen), American best selling author, chef and founder of Equity at the Table an online database aimed at giving creators and professionals who are female, gender non-conforming, queer, and people of colour a place to be seen.
Lazarus Lynch (@sonofasouthernchef) a Black Gay Artist, Intellectual, Activist, and the face of the brand Son of a Southern Chef.
Preeti Mistry (@chefpmistry), chef, entrepreneur and author.
Kia Damon (@kiacooks), self taught queer chef from Florida
Jeremy Lee(@jeremyleequovadis), British chef and proprietor of @quovadissoho
Selin Kiazim (@selinkiazim), chef, author and owner of @oklava_ldn
Shannon Mustipher (@shannonmusipher), Cocktail Guru
Liz Alpern (@lizalpern) founder of the @queersoupnight, which runs Queer networking events in New York and across the US
Lukas Volger (@lukasvolger), cookbook author, food writer, recipe developer and editor
Patricia Niven (@patricianiven), amazing food and portrait photographer.
Elle Simone (@elle_simone_scott), founder of @shechefinc a network and mentoring organisation supporting women chefs of colour.
Colleen Vincent (@ms_collycol) founder of @blackfoodfolks a resource and community of Black professionals in the US food and drink industry, who are most often ignored or erased in the landscape of American cuisine.
What is next for you, have you got any new projects you want to talk about?
The cookbook has been re-released in the UK, so please go and peruse. Signed copies available in my shop and otherwise retailing at all good bookstores and Amazon as well. Then there is a lot that isn't necessarily set in stone so I'm not sure how much I can say about all of it, but there are a lot of exciting plans this year.
Including that I am launching a new brand which might be of interest to the queer community, I hope. It's a new e-commerce platform around health and wellness but with an African lens. So you can think of an African group meets an African whole-foods online, it's kind of that. It's going to have wellness practitioners and wellness services from breath workshops to meditation to yoga, it's amazing as well as lifestyle stuff on there and some homeware. It’s centred around Black and BIPOC people, but also the queer community as well because I really want to emphasise all the alternatives to this heteronormative wellness thing.
Have you got anything you would like to share with the community?
I have a Jollof risotto recipe that’s not been published yet that I would love to share.
Visit Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen website where you can buy signed or unsigned copies of the re- released cookbook as well as a spice mixes, salts and other merchandise. Follow Zoe @zoeadjonyoh to keep up to date and keep your eyes peeled for her new podcast ‘Cooking up consiousness’ which she is busy recording now!
