Preserving Food Culture, With Authenticity with Kiano Moju

Episode Takeaways

•   The evolution of Kiano’s career in the culinary space.

•   Kiano explains what she is hoping to achieve through her company, Jikoni.

•   Time Kiano spent in Kenya and how this sparked her love for everything to do with food.

•   A hugely important realization that Kiano had when she filmed her uncle’s wedding in Kenya.

•   Recipe keeping; changes that have occurred in this practice over time.

•   How Kiano is intending to grow Jikoni.

•   A note on writing headnotes for recipes.

•   The issue of food access.

•   What the food media industry should learn from the music industry.

•   Problematic trends that Kiano is seeing in the food media space.

•   Working in “the machine”; what this means, and why we need to get out of it.

•   Experiences of black business owners when their companies are promoted without their consent.

•   The importance of retaining your authenticity, whatever creative industry you work in.

•   Higher risks lead to higher rewards; many people seem to have forgotten this.

•   Media companies’ tendency to “other” certain types of food, and how Kiano is working to change this narrative.

•   What is going on behind the content we see on our screens in terms of diversity, or a lack thereof.

We are at risk of losing so much rich culinary heritage if we don’t start documenting it properly, so Kiano Moju, our guest on today’s show, is on a mission to do just that. Through her company, Jikoni, Kiano and her team have created a space for people to become active participants in the telling of their food-related stories. Kiano talks about the vision she has, and the way she hopes it will revolutionize the way people think about food from cultures other than their own. Kiano’s love for food began on her grandparents’ farm in Kenya it was the place where she had her first major realization about the importance of preserving traditions linked to food. We talk about some of the biggest names in the food world, and why you should not be trying to emulate them; too many creatives get trapped in “the machine” which may lead to more views and more followers, but at what cost? We also get Kiano’s perspective on risk-taking, the lack of diversity behind the scenes of much of the content that we consume, and why promoting brands without their consent can do more harm than good.