WATCH: Authentic West African Food from the freezer to you table in minutes!
Embark on a culinary journey to West Africa in minutes with Ayo West African Foods. On this episode of Shop Essence Live in partnership with The New Voices Family, we interview Co-Founder Perteet Spencer and do a live taste test of these amazing and super convenient West African frozen dishes.
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00:00 Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Shop Essence Live.
00:04 I am your host, Noni Donovan, and this is a show we do in partnership with the New Voices
00:09 family where we bring you two new Black-owned businesses to shop with us every single week.
00:15 Now, we have such a treat for you this week.
00:18 If, let's say, you are West African or second-generation West African, you've been craving your homeland's
00:25 food, but you ain't that chef like grandma or like your mom, this next entrepreneur is
00:32 completely changing your life.
00:36 If you fit that description or you know someone that fits that description, you need to stop
00:40 and share this with them right, right now.
00:42 I want you guys to welcome to the show, Pertit Spencer, co-founder of Ayo West African Foods.
00:49 Hello.
00:50 Hi, how are you?
00:52 So good to be here.
00:53 First of all, I don't know if I can make you guys understand how amazing my house smells
00:59 right now because we're going to do a live taste test.
01:02 And when I tell you, it just smells so incredible.
01:06 Before we get into these incredible recipes that you have, this is not your grandma's
01:12 TV dinner, okay?
01:13 Let me tell you something.
01:14 These, Ayo is hooking us up.
01:17 So before we get into the recipes, tell us how you got here.
01:20 How did you come up with this incredible line?
01:23 Well first of all, thank you so much for your comments on the smells.
01:27 That is exactly what we were going for.
01:31 My family's from Liberia and Ayo for context translates to joy.
01:36 And so the line is very much inspired by these incredible moments that we had with our families
01:44 that were always, always, always focused around really, really good food, right?
01:49 So founded the company in 2020 with my husband, husband of 17 years, Fred.
01:56 Shout out to that.
01:58 Hey, Fred.
01:59 We both come from really big families who happen to like each other.
02:03 And so we all get together.
02:06 It's a gang of people.
02:07 And so it was important for us to bring food that represent us and our culture to the aisles
02:15 of grocery.
02:17 My background is in food.
02:19 So spent most of my career in food, spent many, many years at General Mills building
02:24 brands and then several years advising brands.
02:28 But as I walked up and down the aisles of the grocery stores, the food we ate at home
02:34 was not on the shelves.
02:36 And we just saw that as a massive gap and wanted to make it easier to enjoy the food
02:43 that we love eating so much.
02:45 And you know, the food takes a long time to prepare.
02:48 Absolutely.
02:49 Yeah.
02:50 You know, one of the limiters to having West African food on the regular is that, you know,
02:57 there's an ingredient hunt and then it just takes hours and hours of prep.
03:00 And so we knew there was a better way.
03:04 We don't shortchange anything.
03:05 As you mentioned, like we've brought aunties and mamas into the kitchen.
03:11 We've replicated their processes, but we've done it at scale to really make it easy to
03:16 enjoy jollof or meat pies or cassava leaf on a Tuesday night.
03:23 Yeah, the pepper sauce.
03:27 I'm so excited.
03:29 You know, I'm sitting over here hungry smelling all this.
03:33 So I just want to do a live taste test to give people kind of a clue as to how amazing
03:41 it is.
03:42 And is there like, how do you what's the what's the story behind how you source the recipes?
03:47 I see that the box has some of the boxes have the actual chef that you partnered up with
03:55 on this.
03:56 What's that process like before we get into the recipes?
03:58 Yeah.
03:59 So, you know, it's very much a combination.
04:02 The reality is like we're talking about 17 countries, right?
04:05 And so every country has their unique flavors and traditions that they're bringing to the
04:12 table.
04:13 And we do proclaim to be experts in every single one.
04:18 Yeah, it was important to us that we represented the breadth of the diaspora in our food.
04:25 So, you know, the Liberian recipes, which were a couple of our first recipes, those
04:30 are recipes from my mom and my aunts that we brought directly into the to the R&D labs
04:37 to kind of prepare them the right way and then scale those up.
04:40 Now, you work with some of the best Ghanaian chefs in the world, like Eric Agyapong and
04:46 Zoya Joño to bring their favorite recipes to more people.
04:50 Our head of culinary is Nigerian.
04:53 And so we're really bringing kind of the breadth of the diaspora to the center of the table,
05:02 which we think is just long, long overdue.
05:06 And so you'll see on a couple of these dishes, pictures, those are the chefs that we've partnered
05:12 with to really bring their goodness to the world.
05:15 And they were in the kitchens with us, their recipes, you know, we've just had the pleasure
05:19 of representing them at scale.
05:22 Yeah, it's been one of the biggest joys of our life to be able to do this for the culture
05:27 and excited about where it's going.
05:32 So so good.
05:33 And it's it's really a beautiful bridge when you want to be connected to your heritage
05:39 is through music, is through the foods, is through the smell.
05:42 And I can just imagine somebody being homesick and putting one of these in the microwave
05:46 and being able to, you know, be comforted by that, you know, familiar flavor.
05:51 So really, really kudos to you.
05:54 Kudos to hubby.
05:55 I'm so excited to dive in.
05:57 So I admittedly told you my son when he was homesick, he was he was tearing into some
06:01 of these.
06:02 Okay, so my 15 year old two thumbs up.
06:05 He's so incredible.
06:07 But what what do we want to try out first?
06:10 Well, I want to I want to introduce something new.
06:12 So I don't even know if you have this.
06:14 This is hot off the presses.
06:15 And so I'll introduce it and we'll segue into the sauces.
06:20 But, you know, if you've ever been to a West African party, you know, small chops are plentiful.
06:28 And there's always like meat pies.
06:30 But and I'm admittedly a little awkward at times and always make a mess.
06:35 Some way because they're they're kind of awkwardly sized, like they're not like perfectly one
06:40 biter.
06:41 And so my own benefit, but also to make that occasion easier.
06:47 We've launched a line of meat pies, which we're so excited about.
06:50 So these are just rolling out as we speak.
06:53 Exclusive little itty bitty bites.
06:57 So we've got are actually five really delicious flavors.
07:03 So we have kind of in, you know, marks of meat pies.
07:07 So really delicious kind of outer crust that pastry crust.
07:11 I won't tell you all the secret ingredients, but it's not just like a pie crust.
07:15 Like there's some nice like aromas going on in there.
07:19 And then the fillings are just like rich and bold with veggies, herbs, flavors, etc.
07:24 So we've got four that we just launched.
07:28 You can find the full lineup nationwide at Sprouts, but they're also rolling out at Target,
07:35 Harris Teeter and a number of other retailers.
07:38 You'll see really like yummy.
07:41 So this is a veggie here.
07:43 We've got the peas and carrots in there.
07:47 Some thyme, beautiful spices and herbs in that one.
07:51 Can you hold that up one more time?
07:53 I want to show the people.
07:58 We have a really, really delicious beef, which is going to be those like more savory notes.
08:05 It's got, you know, more clove, clove base in that one.
08:10 We're using all like hormone free and antibiotic free kind of meats because it's vitally important
08:19 that not only are we eating good food, but we're eating food that is good for us as well.
08:26 We have our chicken mini pie.
08:30 And then we have a fish, which is actually we're getting the fish from the Gulf.
08:35 So it's a Gulf caught Spanish mackerel.
08:41 Here's a beef.
08:45 That one is arguably my personal favorite.
08:50 You know, you don't see mackerel a lot in mainstream groceries.
08:53 So we were really excited to bring that to the market.
08:58 And you know, what's been exciting about this is we're bringing like thousands of thousands
09:02 of pounds, like pounds of fish, like directly from the Gulf, like into your plate.
09:09 We're cleaning it, skinning it.
09:10 So like everything is like of the highest freshest quality.
09:14 And then the sleeper but really fun one.
09:18 I know you've had our jollof with chicken bowl.
09:23 In the goodness of that bowl and put it into a small bite.
09:27 And so yes, so as you think about the size of these, like they're
09:32 perfect for obviously appetizers.
09:34 They come tend to pack appetizers.
09:38 My girls are 10 and 12.
09:40 They take them for lunch.
09:42 And so it's also really fun to see like the West African flavors hidden in the lunchroom.
09:47 That was something that, you know, I used to get like stares like what does that smell
09:51 when I used to bring food from home to school growing up.
09:55 So that's something we're really, really proud of.
09:59 And you know, they're also great as a dinner side.
10:02 So like we'll do it with like some rice or a salad and like you're good to go.
10:07 You know, one of the reasons we launched the mini pies is to have an additional pairing
10:14 with the sauces.
10:15 And so some of you may have heard the story of our puff puff and how that came to be.
10:23 And so puff puff launched a couple of years ago now.
10:28 And I grew up eating puff puff with pepper sauce, but we did not have a pepper sauce.
10:32 And you know, we have a bold vision for bringing West African flavors to kind of every aisle
10:39 in the store.
10:41 And so the pepper sauce was a natural extension.
10:44 And so that puff puff with the pepper sauce is magic.
10:51 If you've never had a puff puff, think of it similar to like a beignet.
10:56 So it's yeast based dough.
10:58 Yes, like really warm goodness.
11:02 It's flash fried.
11:03 Yeah, dip that in.
11:04 It does.
11:05 No, I will tell you, it's got some spice.
11:08 So hopefully you're good.
11:09 Okay, with the heat.
11:10 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:11 Um, this is my family's pepper sauce recipe.
11:18 So Liberian pepper sauce.
11:21 It's gonna be more citric.
11:22 So you got the hot pepper.
11:26 You've got a little ginger and basil and tomato in there.
11:29 So it's really bright.
11:31 Obviously great with the puff puff.
11:33 Also like one of our favorite things we'll do in the summer is like, put it over a piece
11:37 of fish, grill that up and then put some more on top.
11:40 And it's just because there's some oil in the sauce.
11:42 It's just it's pretty magical.
11:44 What do you think?
11:46 First of all, the puff puff alone is so delicious.
11:51 Yeah, top notch delicious.
11:54 The sauce is kicking.
11:55 Yeah, incredible.
11:56 Let me tell you something.
11:59 If you want to impress somebody I love the suggestion the recipe I can completely imagine
12:04 this over a really nice fish.
12:06 Yeah.
12:07 So good.
12:08 So good.
12:09 The other easy hack with the puff puff is because there's it's not overly sweet.
12:18 It's highly versatile.
12:19 So I ate it as a side bread growing up.
12:22 My kids now will put powdered sugar on it and take it in the morning for breakfast.
12:26 And so a one of my like sleeper like wow desserts is like I'll throw some of those in the oven.
12:33 I'll do like some Nutella or a creme anglaise and just like lay those out.
12:38 It looks really beautiful.
12:39 It looks like I've been working all day.
12:42 And it's very much like a wow.
12:44 Right.
12:45 And then I think you've got some shito.
12:46 So shito is good.
12:47 Oh, goodness.
12:48 Yeah, yeah.
12:49 This is delicious.
12:50 So the mark of that is going to be it cooks forever, which gives it that beautiful color.
12:59 Very different flavor profile than the hot pepper sauce.
13:03 And so now when you've got dried shrimp, caramelized onions, rosemary, and we just like let that
13:11 cook as long as possible to get those bold flavors.
13:16 These actually come in a two pack and online you actually get this cute little case that
13:21 is only sold online.
13:23 So you can try both.
13:24 All of our prices include shipping.
13:28 And then for our Essence fam, we're doing 20% off.
13:32 And so I know I forgot about the thing on that code.
13:36 Put it in your cart already.
13:40 Include the code.
13:41 I love it.
13:42 So it's just like an awesome way to try two very different sauces.
13:49 The shito is kind of our everything sauce.
13:52 So we'll put it on rice, roasted veggies, wachay, pizza.
13:59 It's really delicious.
14:02 I mean, it's just eggs.
14:04 It's just you can really put it on anything.
14:08 So good.
14:09 So, so good.
14:10 These puff puffs are great.
14:11 And should we talk about the meals?
14:12 Yes, let's talk about the meals.
14:15 Yeah, so we got our start.
14:19 Our start really was with frozen meals.
14:23 So when we started in 2020, we launched three frozen meals.
14:27 Whole Foods was our first retailer.
14:29 So we launched a plain jollof, a goosy, and cassava leaf, which is the Liberian dish that
14:35 travels with my family wherever we go.
14:40 And the reason people sometimes are like, why did you start in frozen?
14:45 And the reason we started in frozen is, you know, as you think about kind of finding the
14:51 proper ingredients to make the food the right way, and the time involved, we just knew,
14:57 one, if we gave you like a kit that you would probably mess it up the first time.
15:03 And two, we just wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to experience the richness
15:08 of these flavors.
15:09 And so we did all the work and started with a line of three bowls.
15:14 We now have eight bowls that you can find at retailers all over the country.
15:21 And we're featuring our kind of Chef's Pack today, which is three of our top sellers.
15:31 Yep.
15:32 So you've got our chicken yassa and our groundnut stew up.
15:35 And then the third is our wachay by Chef Eric.
15:42 And so I can tell you a little bit about each of those dishes.
15:47 So chicken yassa is from Chef Eric Adjapong.
15:53 Many of you may know him from his time on Top Chef some years back.
15:58 But he has gone on to have an amazing career in many different facets, and is just an incredible
16:04 human to partner with.
16:09 So we brought his chicken yassa to the market.
16:11 So that's going to be braised chicken thighs, a little lemon, Dijon, really rich citric
16:19 flavors that are going to be served over a bed of jasmine rice.
16:24 The other really interesting thing about yassa is it's low in sodium.
16:29 So we don't advertise it on the box, because we know sometimes when you say low sodium,
16:33 that takes people to the place that it doesn't taste good.
16:37 But this is actually quite the opposite.
16:39 You'll find flavors are just like really natural and rich, and people kind of fall in love
16:46 at first bite with our chicken yassa.
16:50 This is so perfect.
16:51 So this one, teenage boy approved.
16:54 My 15 year old tried this and absolutely loved it.
16:57 He's actually now very into wellness and meal prepping and all that.
17:06 He absolutely loves this, and it's a healthy option for a quick meal, which we love.
17:11 Awesome.
17:12 Well, while we're on Chef Eric, why don't we talk about the wachay real quick?
17:17 And I think that's actually a nice segue.
17:18 So the next two dishes that I'll share with you are very centric in health.
17:26 One because we were thoughtful about how we crafted things, but also the reality is West
17:32 African food is not a monolith, and there's a lot of really rich, interesting flavors.
17:36 And so the wachay is actually red peas.
17:41 I love the sparkle in your eyes.
17:43 That's always a good sign.
17:46 So we actually get these red peas from the Anson Mills farm.
17:52 That's in South Carolina.
17:54 They were known for being on High on the Hog, but also a lot of restauranteurs.
18:02 And then you'll see that rice is like this beautiful red color that actually comes from
18:08 the wachay leaves.
18:09 And so we cook that rice, jasmine rice again, in the red millet water, which gives it that
18:19 color.
18:20 And then on top, we do this really beautiful, aromatic red sauce.
18:24 And then all that rice gets tossed in roasted garlic and coconut oil.
18:29 So it's vegan, 15 grams of protein, but not vegan because we were trying to make it vegan,
18:35 just vegan because that is the dish.
18:39 And so a great option for our plant-based friends.
18:44 And then the last one that I'll talk about.
18:45 This is so delicious.
18:46 I'm not supposed to eat the whole bowl.
18:47 Is it taste test?
18:50 No, this is pretty good.
18:53 And then the last one that I'll touch on, the groundnut stew, is from one of our favorite
19:00 chefs, Zoe Ojonyo of Zoe's Ghana Kitchen, another lovely, lovely human to partner with.
19:08 And we're so privileged to work with her.
19:12 So fun story about Zoe's groundnut stew.
19:17 She's actually a Ghanaian Brit.
19:19 So her beginnings were actually preparing this groundnut stew for friends.
19:25 She built kind of a following and did a series of pop-up restaurants in the UK.
19:32 And so we feel so privileged to be able to bring her recipe to more people, right?
19:39 And so groundnut stew is one of those dishes where often people will close their eyes for
19:44 a moment.
19:45 Yeah, because they're like, this reminds me of home, right?
19:52 And that's what we want people to feel when they have our food.
19:55 It's like, we know it's not the exact same as like your auntie or your mom making it,
20:02 but we want to give you those moments when they're lacking.
20:06 That one is also incredible in protein.
20:08 So 32 grams of protein in that dish, which showed me another item in the frozen aisle
20:16 that has those nutritionals.
20:20 And the protein is coming from peanut butter.
20:24 We're using that one.
20:27 And then it's this beautiful kind of mix of peanut butter, fresh peanuts, and then roasted
20:35 red peppers, tomato to give it this really rich taste of home.
20:40 So and you can see very different experiences from everyone, right?
20:44 So you could have a different box every day of the week and be set with all your dietary
20:51 if you want to do plant-based Mondays and protein Tuesdays.
20:56 We got you.
20:57 I can taste the love and intention in every single bite.
21:02 This is not a watered down version of your favorite or childhood cultural favorites.
21:08 These are really great ingredients.
21:12 The smells, the aromas, my taste buds are doing a dance.
21:16 And these are just, and if you're watching this and you just are curious about West African
21:24 foods, I've never, this is not from my childhood.
21:28 I've never had these dishes and blown away.
21:33 So if I think it's also a really great way to introduce kids, like your children who
21:37 maybe have never been to your homeland to experience that part of their heritage through
21:44 food.
21:45 Well, it's just cheaper than like tickets are crazy right now.
21:49 So cheaper than our round trip tickets.
21:52 You want to take home?
21:55 Really great is it would make for a really, really great gift for someone.
22:00 Just imagine somebody being homesick and then you get this and they close their eyes and
22:04 they can feel like they've been transported back home.
22:07 So great.
22:08 Or reminded of their mom or their grandmother who may not be here.
22:12 I think that that is a gift that you're giving to people 100%.
22:17 I owe foods.
22:18 All right.
22:19 Thank you.
22:20 Yeah.
22:21 So before I let you go, I want you to say a little bit about new voices.
22:27 This show is in partnership with the new voices family that helps so many entrepreneurs like
22:31 yourself bring your business to the next level.
22:33 I'd love to hear from you what has been the best part of it about being a part of that
22:37 community?
22:38 Oh man, I feel like it's a gift that keeps on giving.
22:42 So our first kind of partnership with new voices was about three months in.
22:47 So just after launching new voices actually gave us our first outside capital through
22:54 a grant.
22:56 And that money could not have come at a more kind of critical time as Fred and I had poured
23:02 so much of our personal savings just to get IO kind of up and running.
23:08 And we really needed those dollars to support the scale to help it become what we knew it
23:14 could be.
23:15 And so we're so appreciative, obviously for that first injection of capital from the new
23:21 voices family, but above and beyond that the community and education has been just so pivotal
23:28 in our journey as entrepreneurs.
23:31 You know, I came from the corporate world.
23:33 And so while I knew a lot about food, I knew nothing about kind of being an entrepreneur.
23:39 And so it was really, really just an amazing experience to have a network early on and
23:48 one that we've continued to cultivate as we scale just people that now I consider friends
23:53 that we can reach out to as we go through this journey.
23:59 So good.
24:00 I hear so much about community within the new voices family, and there's nothing like
24:04 having someone that has been through what you've been through.
24:07 You guys can swap advice.
24:09 It is such a great community to join and it's free.
24:12 Y'all it is free to join.
24:14 So make sure you if you are thinking of starting a business, you have a business, you know
24:17 someone that has a black owned business, go to new voices family.com and find out how
24:23 you can join for T it's been so great to have you on the show.
24:29 I'm gonna try not to eat all of this tonight.
24:31 But you get what's in you somewhere.
24:34 You're good.
24:35 It's just it was such a pleasure to have you on.
24:39 I'm so so grateful that you know this line even exists for for people to taste.
24:45 You know the taste of the West African heritage is really, really great.
24:48 So thank you and thank you to hubby for sure.
24:53 And I hope to see you in the future.
24:56 Thank you so much Noni.
24:57 I appreciate it.
24:58 All right.
24:59 Thank you guys for watching.