The New England Revolution meal room was overflowing with food and smiles on Wednesday afternoon, featuring dishes from across the African diaspora on the lunchtime lineup for players and staff.
The meal was served by local African grocery and catering company, Destiny African Market, but the menu was picked with the help of the Revolution’s African players, who were able to share a taste of home with their teammates.
Chef and Destiny African Market owner, Sola Ajao, began cooking with her mother at just nine years old in Nigeria. She’s been in love with it ever since. For Ajao, food is an expression of love and in 2021, she was inspired to share her cooking with a wider audience, thus Destiny African Market was born.
“Since I was little, I was the one who cooked for my family. At the age of nine, can you imagine that? Everyone has always loved my cooking. Even my mom’s friends would have me and come and cook food for their parties, so that inspired me. But what inspired me the most was introducing African food to people who didn’t have easy access in America,” she explained.
Just as her mother taught her how to cook for others, Ajao now passes on that same tradition by working alongside her daughter to share the flavors of African cuisine to people within the communities of Randolph and the South Shore. Working as her marketing manager, Destiny African Market is a family-run business that makes everyone they serve feel like one of their own.
It was apparent just how much it meant to Alhassan Yusuf, Mamadou Fofana, Allan Oyirwoth, and Ignatius Ganago, who all came into the meal room nearly jumping with excitement. Hailing from Nigeria, Mali, Uganda, and Cameroon, respectively, each player had something to give them a taste of home.
On the menu at the training ground was jollof rice and okra rice – Yusuf’s two top choices – chicken and beef suya, Oyirwoth’s request of sausage rolls, stew chicken and meats, beans, and salad. For Fofana and Ganago, they seconded Yusuf’s requests, with emphasis on the rice.
“I like jollof rice because when I was young, my mother would cook this sometimes,” said Fofana. “So, when I saw it, I was so happy and it was very good. We have to do this more.”
For some players, it was their first experience with a lot of the foods served on Wednesday, which made it even more meaningful as the African players got to share some of their culture with their teammates.
“I felt at home today with the food and enjoyed all of it. Whenever we get the chance to eat African food, we feel really happy. We are happy right now, you see?” Oyirwoth said pointing at his grinning face. “We had to convince some of the guys to at least try it all because we knew once they did, they would really like it, and they all said really good things.”
Yusuf shared in the emotion of Oyirwoth, explaining that he’d been excited since the moment he woke up on Wednesday.
“I was so excited for this meal, and it was really nice because they’d all been asking me questions from the morning about what we’re going to have,” said Yusuf. “It feels great and for sure I know most of them liked it, of course, because it tastes good.”
After the meal, Yusuf and Oyirwoth walked out of the training center with their hands full, each toting stacks of to-go boxes so they could make those comforting flavors last for days to come.
For Ajao, it was the happy faces and full stomachs walking out of the training grounds that made her day complete.
“This is the world to me. I’m so honored to be here today and to be able to cook for this group. I’m so happy they’re able to try African food,” she said.
For fans eager to explore the flavors that brought so much joy to their favorite Revolution players, information about DAM’s Randolph and South Shore locations can be found on their website.
