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Italian street kitchen. From that experience, he decided to create the first contemporary West African–inspired food and beverage concept built to scale. To build the groundwork and better understand the food industry, Chef Amosu took a job as a prep cook at Chipotle. “I wanted to make our food very approachable,” he says. “Studying Chipotle’s model helped me understand how to move volumes, predict demand, and maintain quality.” Already have an account? Sign In He wanted to create strong systems and processes that could be tested quickly to determine whether he was on the right track. So, he held onto his corporate career for about five years while building ChòpnBlọk on the side. Using his meticulous corporate planning and strategy skills, Chef Amosu approached ChòpnBlọk analytically and creatively. He employed a data-driven approach to run an intimate dining series that served as pilot tests to refine his menu and concept. Different guests, who represented different market segments, were invited. It was akin to a restaurant focus group. From those dinner series, several pop-ups and a food hall location in POST Houston were eventually born.
“Living that duality for my whole adolescent life is really what has given me a lot of the outlook that I now have on the world,” he says. Chef Amosu initially pursued a career in the corporate world. He earned an MBA from the prestigious Rice University and worked as an oil and gas commercial executive. However, the further he progressed in his corporate career, the more he felt pulled toward his cultural heritage. “I realized it became more and more difficult for me to gain access to a lot of those precious elements of my culture that I often grew up on,” he explains. This longing led him to create a concept that would make West African culture more accessible through food. In 2017, Chef Amosu made a decisive career turn toward the culinary world, driven by a vision to give West African cuisine universal appeal. And so, ChòpnBlọk was born. He wanted the venture to have an impact and be easily accessible—with an affordable price point, an easily reachable location, and an enticing presentation. The idea crystallized during a work trip, during which he was inspired by the simplicity and quality of an
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