A plantain lover embarking on a journey at the intersection of food, culture, and community.

VIRGINA

1998

The Beginning

As a child growing up in a traditional Ghanaian home, Rachel often eagerly watched her mother fry plantains in the family’s age-old cast iron, black pot. She quickly grew a love for the fruit for its sweet taste, which was often paired with savory and spicy flavors. The first plantain dish she ever had was Kelewele, a popular Ghanaian street food comprised of fried plantains marinated in spices and served with groundnuts.

GHANA

2012

The Experiment

Equipped with a culinary curiosity after years of assisting her mother cook Ghanaian dishes, Rachel embarked college as a broke undergraduate who could always rely on plantains for cheap eats. Additionally, in her transition to a healthier, vegetarian lifestyle, plantains became her go-to ingredient as a nutritionally rich, vegan food. It was during this time that she first began to experiment with plantains by exploring their versatility and pairing them with bold flavors from across the globe.

New YORK

2018

The Venture

After cutting her teeth on Wall Street, Rachel left to pursue a dual Ph.D. in African American Studies and Socio-cultural Anthropology at Yale University. It was there that the recipe for Kelewele, her current venture, became clear to her. Culture. Food. Migration. Community. While Rachel’s love for plantains started in the U.S. (at least, as far as she can remember), it harkens back to the cultural practices of a people an ocean away in Ghana. Rachel launched Kelewele to showcase the diversity of Africa and its diaspora through food.