He also had an enormous dream: to bring food from their home country to Detroit. He participated in a neighborhood entrepreneurship program in 2017, and the couple won a $50,000 prize to assist them launch their restaurant. They finally opened the door to their spacious restaurant, baobab tariffin early 2021 – within the throes of a pandemic.
Praise poured in. In February, the pair were named semi-finalists for the perfect chef within the second time James Beard Awardsand in March Mr. Mamba won the episode “Chopped”, a cooking contest on the Food Network, and with it $10,000. Now they’re handing over that money prize Liberty House in Detroita non-profit organization that helped Ms. Nijimbere and other asylum seekers like her escape persecution.
“Mamba is what you would like the remainder of humanity to be,” said Elizabeth Orozco-Vasquez, chief executive of Freedom House Detroit.
Growing up in Burundi, East Africa, 42-year-old Mamba learned how one can cook traditional regional dishes from his mother, who owned a restaurant. She taught him to cook together with his senses, not only recipes, which gave him an edge in “Chopped” when coping with unfamiliar proteins like ostriches and scallops. However, he said that the culinary skills that got him on the show were no match for his wife’s talent.
“The best cook is not even me, it’s Nadia,” he said.
Ms Nijimbere, 41, nonetheless, doesn’t like being within the highlight and didn’t want to look on national television. Mr. Mamba almost turned down the producers of “Chopped”, but decided to compete himself because he thought it was necessary to share food and the story of how two refugees became small business owners.
