Started in Mama Kemi's kitchen
Pepperleaf began in 2014 when Kemi Adebayo started selling small chops from her family kitchen on Adelabu Street. Twelve years later, the kitchen is bigger, but the pepper is still hers.
From one pot to two thousand plates
Kemi cooked her first party, a cousin's naming ceremony, with one pot of jollof and three trays of puff puff. The next week, three guests called asking for her number. By 2016 she had rented the shop next door, hired four cooks and bought her first van.
Today Pepperleaf has a kitchen of twenty two cooks and servers, three vans and a weekly lunch round for offices across the mainland. Kemi still tastes every pot of jollof before it leaves.
First party, a naming ceremony in Surulere
The shop next door and the first van
First wedding for 1,000 guests
Corporate lunch round launched
New kitchen with backup power and cold rooms
Our kitchen rules
Taste everything
No pot leaves without a taste and a nod.
Cook more, not less
Ten percent extra, every time.
Early is on time
We leave with a traffic buffer, not a prayer.
Clean as you go
Our kitchen is open for inspection any day.
Who cooks for you
Kemi Adebayo
Founder and head cook
Tunde Bakare
Kitchen manager
Ngozi Obi
Events lead
Sadiq Lawal
Logistics and vans
Names and roles are invented for this demo.
Clean kitchen, clear conscience
Every cook holds a food handler certificate and a yearly medical check. We buy from trusted suppliers in Mile 12 and Agege, keep cold rooms on backup power and log every temperature.
Example details for this demo.