A UK-based Ghanaian chef, Kwame Nicholas, also known as Nick, has shared his experience about what it takes to start life abroad, especially when you don’t have any relatives or acquaintances to support you.
Nick said he slept in an abandoned vehicle for a month when he arrived in Portsmouth in the early years of 2000.
According to him, he felt disappointed because he had left a well-paying job in Ghana just to perform his new UK dream.
“It was not easy and I did not know anybody here either. There was a time I slept in an abandoned car behind a club in Portsmouth for three to four weeks till a Ghanaian heard my story. Even with that, he asked me to pay 500 pounds for rent but I had just started working so I didn’t have the money. Later, called the police on and I had to flee,” he revealed.
According to Nick, before he travelled to the UK, he worked at Shangri La Hotel as a chef in the late 90s.
“Having worked there before moving here to do cleaning and construction was tough. At the time, travelling was all I wanted,” he said.
Kwame Nicholas is the son of a popular food vendor at Ashaiman Monica Lane. The street was named after his mother, Monica.
Presently, Nick owns a restaurant at Milton Keynes called Mama Africa. He serves local foods like Waakye, Jollof, Kenkey, and the rest.
He disclosed that he is the only one who cooks because he does not want to tarnish the brand he has built for himself.
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