Tag: West African pop-ups

Awo Amenumey is a Charlotte chef working to expand our cultural palates with the traditions and flavors of Ghana, where she was born and raised.

We first introduced you to Amenumey in May 2023, when she told CharlotteFive reporter Emiene Wright she wanted to see Americans as comfortable with Ghanaian foods as they are with Asian and European staples.

Her mission: to highlight the West African cuisine and its ingredients, especially indigenous products in danger being forgotten, and how the use of many foods have evolved over time.

“Food is culture. Food is nourishment. Food is love,” Amenumey told CharlotteFive.

Through her catering and event company Eh’vivi, she’s also built a reputation as an emerging leader in the city’s food and drink scene, with fine dining pop-up events, local television appearances and as a competitor on Food Network’s “Chopped” competition.

She was a cookoff winner at the 2024 StrEATs festival in Charlotte with a Carolina-style barbecue suya goat dish, paired with plantain flatbread and pickled onions. And before that, Unpretentious Palate honored her as a chef of the year in 2023 for her work.

She’s lived in Charlotte for the better part of a decade, but Amenumey’s efforts to promote the food of Ghana still continue to pick up speed. In early 2026, look for the introduction of an Eh’vivi passport that you can get stamped at pop-up dinners and festival events. At the end of the year, guests who collect stamps for all the events will get a “special treat,” Amenumey said.

“The message that I want to send across to my guests and anyone that gets an opportunity to enjoy my food and my dishes [is] that this is a story I’m trying to tell. I’m trying to tell a story of resilience. I’m trying to tell a story about how we can preserve our food system and leave something for the generation that is coming after us. “

CharlotteFive caught up with Amenumy recently to take a deeper look at her life’s work. Her answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Full name: Awo Amenumey Age: 39 Role/title: Executive/owner at Eh’vivi

What was the seed of your desire to accomplish what you want to accomplish? Where did this start?

“The seed was planted long before I ever called myself a chef. It started with feeding people, watching how food could create belonging, spark memories and carry stories across generations.

“As a Ghanaian, I grew up understanding food not just as nourishment but as identity, ritual and responsibility. Over time, I realized how often African and diasporic cuisines were simplified or erased, even as they shaped global food culture.

“Eh’vivi was born from a desire to reclaim those narratives and to create a space where food becomes a bridge between past and present, between people and place, while also centering sustainability and respect for the ingredients and communities that sustain us.”

What’s the biggest challenge to doing this work?

“The biggest challenge is working within an industry that often prioritizes speed, scale and trend over depth, context and care. Telling honest food stories, especially ones rooted in heritage, sustainability and equity, takes time and intention. It also requires pushing against assumptions about what African food is “supposed” to be.

“Balancing creative expression, education, and financial sustainability is complex, but it’s necessary if we want food systems that are not only successful but ethical and enduring.“

What do you want people to know about you?

“I want people to know that my work is deeply intentional. Whether through Eh’vivi or collaborative projects, I am not just serving meals, I am curating experiences that tell stories, preserve foodways, and center sustainability while honoring farmers and future generations.

I see my role as more than a chef; I’m a steward of culture and a connector between past, present, and future. At the heart of my work is care: for culture, for community and for what comes next.

If people who aren’t familiar with the food were going to try one Ghananian dish, what should that be?

“By popular demand [that] would be jollof rice.” … [But] “in my point of view, I would say, try fufu or any type of soup.

“I really enjoy fufu with groundnut soup, or peanut butter soup. So that is what I would say you should try. Is very different — it’s unexpected, if you ask me, and it’s one of the dishes I love to make for people. … Once you take the first bite, you’re you’re hooked in, and you just keep going for more and more and more.”

What one thing about Charlotte do you most want to change?

“I would love to see Charlotte to move toward a deeper relationship with food as culture, and not just consumption. The city is incredibly diverse, yet many of the food traditions that shape it, especially those rooted in African and diasporic communities, are often underrecognized.

“I’d love to see more curiosity, investment and respect for the stories behind our foodways, because when we honor those narratives, we create a more connected and culturally rich city.”

What do you want to say to Charlotteans?

“Thanks, Charlotte, for just opening their arms and being open-minded to always trying my food, being open to learning something different, learning something about a cuisine that you’re probably not familiar with.

“But also stay inquisitive, stay open-minded and continue to support small local businesses like ours, because it’s hard out there, and it’s not easy putting out events. And sometimes participation is not as great as you would hope it will be, and so it has to end up canceling events and stuff like that. But just keep supporting us. We’re doing our best, one event at a time, one pop-up at a time, one dish at a time, one plate at a time.

“And I thank them for always being open to me and my culture and myself.”

This story was originally published December 22, 2025 at 6:00 AM.