Adé Carrena

Connect What is your signature dish?

My signature dish is Sea Island Red Peas with toasted gari and hot vinegar. Inspired by abobo, a black-eyed pea dish my mother sold by the roadside in Bénin, it bridges West Africa and the American South. The peas honor Gullah Geechee foodways, while the gari roots the dish in West African tradition. More than a meal, it's a living archive. It tells a story of migration, memory, resilience, and the ways food carries culture across generations and oceans.

Who is your culinary inspiration?

My culinary inspiration is the women who hold knowledge in their hands. The women cooking by the roadside, over charcoal fires, in market stalls, and home kitchens across West Africa. They are often unnamed in culinary history, yet they shape our tastes, traditions, and understanding of community. They cook from memory, intuition, and generations of wisdom passed hand to hand. Their recipes are living archives, and their labor, creativity, and resilience continue to influence the way I cook.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I would invest the $25,000 into growing iLéWA Foods, my spice company rooted in ethical sourcing and cultural preservation. The funding would help expand production, strengthen partnerships with women farmers and producers in Bénin, and lay the foundation for a future production and culinary education facility. My goal is to build an ecosystem where food creates economic opportunity, preserves tradition, and connects people across the African diaspora.