I qualified for a grant for £17,000 last year in order to help kickstart my Ghanian Street Food & Sports nutrition pop up named Kofi's Kitchen. When doing my market research and looking for suppliers, I wanted to find (deep breath) the best "quality" pork, chicken, beef etc. My knowledge at the time took me to visit as many local free range farms as possible. Believing them to be a (wait for it) more sanitary, healthier and "humane" source of obtaining meat. I took a look at some of the suppliers first hand and man! I couldn't believe what has been okayed to be classed as humane and free range.
As I'm into sports nutrition, I got a list of medicines, antibiotics and pesticides that the animals were consuming and looked at their effect on the human body and couldn't believe the results. All I'm saying is that with each meal, we are essentially killing ourselves...
This was the catalyst that led me to watch Vegucated (unfortunately it was whilst eating a double cheese/double pepperoni pizza) then straight away Earthlings. That was on May 23rd, 2015 and I haven't touched any animal products since and never will again. I just stopped "cold turkey." Since then I've reworked my menus, converting the best Ghanian dishes into proud vegan ones, which we will be featuring soon enough on the show. In my area, veganism is virtually an unknown lifestyle but I have been surprised to to see how well the food has taken off at music events and when I've been hired to do private catering.
It's been an amazing experience. My family supports me, especially my mum who has given up everything except fish (working on that), but my challenge will be when I go back to visit family in Ghana. I have to try to explain my lifestyle to them and win them over.
My love of comics, films and sci-fi has been fused with my love of cooking and the power of food in bringing people together (everyone's gotta eat right?). This is demonstrated through the show we have started. At CTK we hope to use this as an example of our diverse skills whilst building a strong body of creative work, which captures energy, emotion and the essence of the moment with every project we do. We have many more episodes in the bank that we can't wait to share with people and we can't wait to see what you all think of it. Keep an eye out on our channel for upcoming original content.
Also I would like to add, thank you for all the work you do in the vegan community. I remember the weekend when you guys popped up on twitter and my face literally turned into the no mouth emoji . No joke. I had to go to the doctor and write down why my face was yellow and my mouth was gone.
As you can see from the video I'm okay now 🏿!
The show itself takes comics, movies, TV shows and pop culture, puts it in a blender, 'n fries/grills/bakes up some unique dishes and recipes inspired by a different theme. It's simple and easy! We provide steps with informative information about the ingredients that we use. Oh and It's pretty funny too!
My twitter is @kofi_smiles
Twitter: @CTKMedia
Website: CTKmedia.co.uk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CTKMedia.co.uk
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsdNSR_9SUoXTrFJgkNSwiA
