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.com

Photo Courtesy of Wanida Lewis

Follow Item 13 on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @item13podcast

Don’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 @adaexperiences

Photo Courtesy of Nkem Oghedo

Follow Item 13 on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @item13podcast

Don’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
• @elade_tk
• @a_hard_pill_to_swallow

Follow Item 13 on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @item13podcast

Don’t forget to subscribe & leave us a review!

Item 13: An African Food Podcast is Powered by Simplecast.