My Career Journey – from Cooking with Mum to Professional Vegan Chef
My Career Journey – from Cooking with Mum to Professional Vegan Chef
Have you ever wondered how someone ended up on their career path? This very question is what inspired me to share my journey today, from becoming a vegan chef and running my own food business, gwafuvegan.
Since I launched gwafuvegan, I’ve had a lot of questions from various people asking – in some way or another – ‘how have you got to where you are today?’
I have always found it difficult to talk about myself, which has led to me providing brief answers. With that in mind, I have decided to take the time to reflect and provide a comprehensive account of my journey. In this post, I will guide you through my experiences, starting from my childhood when I was a passionate young child who loved cooking with my mother, to becoming a successful vegan chef running my own food business.
Emigration to the UK
My parents immigrated to the UK when I was 5 and the only cuisine they were familiar with was African food. They stuck with it throughout my childhood, but as a young kid exposed to two different cultures, I was fascinated by British and Asian food (especially the local Chinese chippy, a staple for treat meals).
Some of extended family and me in Cameroon (I’m the smallest person)
Me and my aunties in Cameroon (im in the middle)
That's where my passion for food began. I would beg my mum to take me grocery shopping and try new ingredients. Sometimes she would let me cook with her guidance, and other times she'd make a dish for me. Even though I didn't always get my way, I introduced some new ingredients and meals to our family meal plan.
We're talking pasta bake, lasagne, the classic British fry up, fish pie, shepherd's pie, vegetable stir fry, spring rolls, egg fried rice... the list goes on! When I was 13/14, I decided to try being a pescatarian after learning about healthy eating and the importance of reducing meat consumption.
Trying a pescatarian diet
So, as a vegetable lover, I thought starting a pescatarian diet would be a breeze. Wow, was I wrong! While the traditional African diet includes plenty of veggies, beans, and pulses, meat often finds its way into dishes if it can be afforded. My family was no exception. With meat being a staple in our daily meals, I had to quickly learn how to cook for myself or with my mum, making the dishes vegetarian or pescatarian.
I picked up some skills from her and improved my chopping skills, but it eventually became too expensive for my parents to provide all these extra meals for me. So, I had to stop my diet. However, all was not lost. I still reduced my meat consumption where I could, made more conscious meal choices when dining out, and switched to packed lunches instead of school dinners (thanks, Jamie Oliver, for opening my eyes to that). I was truly on my way to becoming an eco-warrior!
Following my passion
So, fast forward a bit. After attending many career fairs, talking to teachers at school and getting support from my parents, I ended up studying Food Technology in college and university. I graduated in 2015 from Manchester Metropolitan University with a degree in Food Technology, and gosh, what a ride that was! I would do it all again in a heartbeat, minus the early morning lectures and hangovers after wild nights, of course.
One lecture in particular opened my eyes to the impact of our food choices on the environment, and that's when I made the switch to a vegetarian diet. A year later, I became vegan. This shift allowed me to be more creative with my food and focus on eating clean, cooking from scratch, and reducing waste. I was still figuring it all out, but I was determined to get better. I watched cooking shows, read recipe books, and scoured Instagram for food inspiration – you name it, I tried it!
My first job in the food industry
2015 was a wild summer with trips to Glastonbury and Hideout in Croatia and, let's just say, I definitely spent a little too much money. But come September of that year, I finally got my act together and landed my first job in the food biz at Park Cakes Bakeries Ltd in Oldham. As a Process Technologist, I was responsible for turning product concepts into reality through trials and large-scale production, making sure everything met the high standards of M&S, and running trials in different departments like the ovens and finishing lines. I even managed a team of between 5 to 30 people, training them all up before a product launch. I worked hard and got promoted to management in 2017 where I was in charge of two people and made sure they hit their deadlines. But after two years of being a manager, I realised something was missing and just couldn't figure it out.
Getting hands-on
I was feeling pretty miserable at my job and venting to my friends, my partner Hayley and my parents about it. They helped me see that my true passion was cooking and being hands-on with food. And in 2019, I made the bold move to switch careers (even though it meant taking a pay cut).
At 25, I landed a job at V Rev, a vegan diner in the heart of Manchester, and within just a couple of months, I got promoted to kitchen supervisor. This was a pretty big deal for me and showed me that I was definitely on the right path.
I was loving every minute of it - the fast pace, the constant learning and the experimentation with new ingredients. It reminded me of my teenage self, always excited to get back in the kitchen and whip up something new.
The Vegetarian Society
My love for learning was once again telling me it was time for a change. I wanted to level up my cooking skills and move away from fast food, so in early 2020, I applied for a role at The Vegetarian Society in Manchester. They ended up hiring me as the Assistant Cookery School Manager.
I was basically in charge of making sure the cookery school was running smoothly - ordering food, doing stock checks, all that boring admin stuff. But what I was most excited about was shadowing the cookery school manager and learning all about different cuisines, as well as picking up even more cooking skills and techniques. This was my dream job - spreading the word about veggie and vegan eating while also being in the kitchen and cooking up a storm.
Sadly, the pandemic hit and the cookery school had to close. My job role changed within the company and I was doing a lot more desk work, which was the bane of my existence. I could never do a desk job full-time, and unfortunately, that meant I couldn't see a future for myself at The Vegetarian Society. Quickly got a job at a street food vendor Plant Grill.
Carry on your culture!
Leading up to my resignation, the world was in the midst of BAME protests and racial injustice was rampant. This made me want to reconnect with my culture's cuisine, which I'd sort of lost touch with during my university days. With the help of my mum and aunties, I got back into cooking all my childhood faves and made them vegan. It was so much fun and it really brought me joy during the early days of the pandemic.
I also realised that there was a huge gap in the market for vegan West African food, especially up north. After doing some research, I discovered that there wasn't a single place in Manchester offering this type of food. With the support of my amazing partner Hayley (who was my only customer at the time), I started my own food takeaway business from home - gwafuvegan. I'm so grateful to Hayley for believing in me and giving me the confidence to chase my dreams.
(Me) Early stages of gwafuvegan
(Me) First Market pop up at Grub
The gwafuvegan ethos
After a lot of planning, I launched my first sample menu on a vegan food delivery site called Get Vegan Grub. In doing so, I also came up with my ethos:
“gwafuvegan specialises in cooking and delivering affordable vegan West African food. We ensure only to use high-quality, sustainable produce that is locally sourced. Our number one aim is to spread our love of vegan food and West African food’s passion and love. By doing this, we showcase new and exciting flavours to our ever-growing diverse community.”
Two years on, I’m still growing the business and my knowledge of running a successful vegan brand. I have repeat customers with more and more people
believing in me – both in person and online. I’m now working full time on gwafuvegan at the start of 2023, with our biggest pop up to date completed, things are looking bright for the business!
With pop ups, supper clubs, takeovers, freelancing opportunities and more, there are so many things in the pipeline and I can’t wait to share it all with you guys!
Please do follow our events page!
What’s next you ask? Well, you will have to wait for my next update, the best place to follow along is social media! There’s so much upcoming, so be sure to subscribe to my mailing list to be the first to find out!
And of course, a big thank you to all of you – I truly could not have done this without you.
Ngwafu