Head Chef, Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen Ltd; New York, NY

Zoe Adjonyoh is a chef, writer, entrepreneur, and founder of Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen Ltd. Zoe has been pioneering modern West African food in the form of supper clubs (London, Berlin, New York, Accra, Wales, Russia), her own restaurant in Brixton, pop-ups, street food, and events since 2010. In 2017 she released her debut cookbook Zoe's Ghana Kitchen, which was republished and released nationwide in the US in 2021and landed her a spot on the New York Times Best Cookbooks of 2021List. Zoe’s mission has always been to bring the great flavors of West Africa to a wider audience, and her work has been acknowledged through positive press and publicity including being named one of London’s hottest chefs by Time Out and one of “The 44 Best Female Chefs” by Hachette Cuisine France. She was honored at the James Beard Foundation in New York in 2018 by being invited to participate in the Iconoclast Dinner Experience and in February 2019, she spoke on “Food: Its Importance to Cultural Stepping Stones of Understanding and Exchange" at TEDX Oxford. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoe converted her entire catering operation into an online spice store selling house spice blends, salt mixes, and single origin ingredients from small independent organic farms in West Africa, and she founded a community kitchen in her East London community of Hackney to feed those most impacted by the pandemic, including the NHS staff, serving 500 meals per week out of her home. In April 2020, she launched Black Book Global, a representation agency and platform for People of Color (POC) in the food industry and released her new podcast Cooking Up Consciousness. Most recently, Zoe has joined the board at The New American Table and Gods Love We Deliver and is now director of women’s programs at the James Beard Foundation in New York City. @ghanakitchen

Photo credit: Sarah Crowder