The Ultimate Kitchen Connection

October 2012. In the middle of the Atlantic, life changed.

I was halfway through my 4 months abroad through the program Semester at Sea when I lost my wallet. On the streets of Cadiz, it seamlessly disappeared. As if things could get any worse, my only emergency debit card was swallowed hours later by an ATM. I didn’t remember the pin, and didn’t enter it in time. Enter panic mode. It was too late at night to have someone from the bank break into the machine. I certainly wasn’t going to try — although I thought of it, bank robbery was not something I’d want to add to my LinkedIn profile.

The very next day, I was embarking for Ghana, and I had nothing but $50 in cash in my cabin. I rationalized that the $50 would be enough for me to at least have two meals a day for the five days I would be in Accra.

“I won’t starve,” I told myself.

I ended up being so much more than fine. I had arranged to Couchsurf with a family in Ghana that I only knew through email; the limited bandwidth on the ship made it difficult to receive their pictures through email. The first time I 'saw' them in person was at the port in Accra. They embraced me into such warmth that I immediately felt at home. For months, I hadn’t really been part of a home—sure, the ship was my home, and I had been lodged in numerous ‘homes’ throughout my travels, but this was my own personal Thanksgiving.

Sitting on their floor, eating my last meal with the Benneh’s, all I could think was, “When will I ever get to come back to Ghana?” I hadn’t even left yet, and already I missed them. The rush of emotions led me to think of a solution to combat the separation: I thought about the potential of Skyping one another and connecting over food as we had done so many times during the week that I spent with them. I would collect all of the ingredients for one of their recipes ahead of time and make the meal alongside them. I would then sit on my living room floor and eat with my hands as if I was there with them. This, I thought, would be as close to the actual experience as I could get without going back to their kitchen in Accra.

And that was it.

Food has always been a big part of my life for so many reasons, and now Kitchen Connection is just one more— a platform soon to launch on the premise of the idea that was in inspired in Ghana, but most importantly, a community that cultivates the passion of food, people, and travel.

From Ghana ——> World.