Meet Elijah Amoo Addo: Ghanaian chef, 26, who got Queen's award dressed in work gear

Ghana

At age 26, Elijah Amoo Addo, leads the Food For All Africa Programme, whose primary aim is to “create sustainable means of nutrition for vulnerable children, aged and the mentally challenged through food banking, farming and forum for stakeholder’s within Africa’s food supply chain.”

He told Africanews in an exclusive interview that he grew up with dreams of being a doctor but life took a turn that left him with no choice than “to hold onto my passion for cooking and take a course in culinary studies at Sphinx Hospitality school and catering services in Lagos, Nigeria.”

It was this same passion for cooking and for safeguarding excess food that won him a recent award as a 2017 Queens Young Leader. He joined scores of other under 30 young people who received awards from Queen Elizabeth at a ceremony at the Buckingham Palace late last month.

A meeting with the Queen is a big deal ordinarily and as expected most people would turn up in their best attires be it cultural/traditional, western. Elijah turned up at the Palace in his full work gear – dressed as a chef with his cap and apron.

He showed up on tv in the same chef’s whites during his engagement in the U.K. with a visit to the BBC studios where he appeared on the ‘Focus on Africa’ TV show.

Picture with the Queen and a dream to meet her – Twist to the tale

Elijah, whiles in the U.K. to receive his award shared a Facebook memory of how he had once shared a picture of him standing next to the Queen’s photo.

An inspired Elijah wrote, “Believe in your dreams.Two years ago around this time I posted a picture of myself standing beside a picture frame of Queen Elizabeth. In a few days I will be meeting her. Dreams do come true. You don’t need to have it to possess. Imagine it and work towards it.”

About the Food for All Program

But long before Food For All was born in 2014, Elijah had been a chef within hospitality circles in Ghana and Nigeria. His Facebook profile indicates that he is former Head Chef at two of Ghana’s biggest food joints, +233 Jazz Bar and Grill and Burger and Relish.

“Food for All Africa is a shared social responsibility and as a socially responsible organization built on the principles of community based advocacy, we will work with stakeholder’s to bridge the gap between plenty and scarce through food donations across the continent.

“Africa produces enough to feed it’s citizens and our responsibility is to ensure what we produce does not go to waste,” he told Africanews. His full interview with our online team will be published soon.