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<\/a><\/p>\nCann\u2019s Harlem apartment, like many in New York City, is laid out railroad style with a small bedroom, bathroom and kitchen fused with a living room that boasts a full-size, rainbow-coloured hammock where he spends a lot of time reading and researching. The rest of the apartment is cluttered with books and film equipment stacked on top of each other and against the walls. His kitchen, where he dreams up most of his delicious recipes, is a tiny space with a small white cooker and barely enough counter space for preparations. Yet the food he cooks here is as majestic in taste as it is in presentation, proving that it is the chef and not the kitchen that matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy food background comes from my upbringing and I\u2019m really grateful for my upbringing. I had the opportunity to grow up with my Aunty and my Uncle. My Uncle happened to be an agriculturalist, and my Aunty was a caterer, so throughout my life, I was pretty much exposed to food from the farm to the table,\u201d Cann told me when we spoke by phone before I visited his apartment. \u201cI spent a lot of my growing up with grazing animals and in the kitchen, pretty much working with my Aunty as one of her assistants, putting together food for weddings, food for parties, food for a lot of catering events, for events. Throughout that process, I got really exposed to food and flavours, and recipes, and cooking and baking, and all of that kitchen stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite growing up around food, Cann says his real interest in cooking developed after he left Ghana to study broadcast journalism at Northwestern University, just outside of Chicago in the United States. A number of his friends found out that he knew how to cook the very popular West African dish Jollof rice \u2013 a skill that made him an instant celebrity among the Africans on campus. Word of his prowess in the kitchen spread quickly and soon after, he was fielding calls from different people begging for a home-cooked meal. \u201cI was just like, \u2018okay guys, I can\u2019t keep up with this!\u2019 So my initial thing was to put together a recipe resource for just friends who were now able to make recipes they wanted to make that were very familiar to Ghana, or Nigeria, or West Africa in general, like Jollof rice or maybe grilled fish from Ghana or kebabs or suya, and West African cuisine to build relationships and communities through food. \u201cI mean, the simple mission is to create something along those lines,\u201d Cann said.<\/p>\n
His first cookbook, Tropical Ghana Delights, came together after he moved to New York City in 2005, and was part of a project to raise money to buy school supplies for students in Ghana. \u201cI had this brilliant idea that what if I can put together a cookbook and then while I satisfy all these people who want these recipes to be able to cook, I can at the same time use the money to buy these school supplies for these kids in the schools,\u201d Cann said.<\/p>\n
However, publishing the first book was not easy. Cann approached a number of editors who tried to convince him to broaden the focus to include all of Africa instead of just Ghana. Others suggested that he ghost write the cookbook for a more famous person. \u201cI couldn\u2019t accept any of that they were telling me, it was more like they were trying to stop me,\u201d he said. He decided to self-publish the book, and in 2010, formally relaunched the website he created in his college years. This led to a full-time investment in creating the business he now runs, Tropical Ghana.<\/p>\n
Tropical Ghana seeks to empower people who love Ghanaian and West African cuisine to build relationships and communities through food. \u201cI mean, the simple mission is to create simple, fun, and healthy contemporary Ghanaian recipes that can inspire, encourage and empower people to cook. Why? Because for me, I grew up in a time in Ghana where we cooked almost all our food at home, and we were blessed to have a way to just walk into the backyard, into a garden, and most of the time bring or pick ingredients fresh and just cook,\u201d Cann said.<\/p>\n