🍞 Olugbemisola Olawumi of Joba Foods and Bakery is determined to put Nigerian pastries like agege bread on the map. | ✍️ MikeSula
In the video for the song “Agege Bread,” the late comedian Sir Kay Kamoru plays a naif—a rural, Igbo visitor to the UK who, when confronted with a full English breakfast , embarks on aacross London in search of the soft, squishy brioche-like staple bread of Nigeria. It ends in a tug-of-war with a shopkeeper over an unpaid loaf, with the approaching bobbies’ sirens howling in the distance.
In fact, the origins of agege bread began in Jamaica in 1918, after a budding industrialist named Amos Shackleford, inspired by Marcus Garvey and the back-to-Africa movement, resettled in Nigeria and opened a bakery. There he introduced the dough brake, a kneading machine that produced the bread’s signature lush texture and allowed him to scale up.
Olawumi’s foregone coronation as the Bread Queen of Chicago began not with flour, water, salt, and yeast, but with small chops—the family of Nigerian finger foods essential to every party and gathering. Seven years ago she was working in corporate public health when she shifted gears after her pastor suggested to the congregation that there was a good business opportunity for someone with the gumption to open a moin moin catering operation.
She conducted R&D in her home kitchen, testing the results on friends and family and learning by trial and error. When she eventually nailed it, she started charging for it and began taking samples of the bread to groceries around the city and suburbs.
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