The Nigerian native struggled to find that ‘taste of home’ nearby. He and his friends would take the bus from Lakeshore to North York just to get a taste of the food they craved.

This got Ola thinking, and inspired his new start-up company PotBrood, a catering/delivery business. Ola describes PotBrood as the most convenient African catering site which connects people with African caterers close to them. Kind of like ubereats but for African caterers. Ola emphasizes PotBrood is focused on remaining as a catering delivery service not a fast food delivery service.

“We are not trying to bring you five-minute fries or a Big Mac,” says Ola.

PotBrood specializes in catering to large groups of people in search of fine African cuisine. “African food takes a while to cook and good things take time,” says Ola.

There are currently three restaurants available to order from: Mercy Kitchen, Rotsum Events Bar and Tshika’s Place.

The PotBrood team takes care of delivery.

Customers can choose from dishes like Fried Plantain, Jollof Rice, Puff Puff, Pondu, Golden Rum Cake among many other choices.

Ola says the main challenges are in getting the word out and signing a variety of African restaurants as partners.

He hopes within the next year PotBrood expands and can find ways to cut down the time it takes to prepare the food and deliver it to their customers.

“It takes a lot of work to bring an idea to life and I think it’s a big boost for me to see after graduating,” says Ola.

Ola says PotBrood is excited to ‘put Africa right there’. He says he wants Canada to know that Africa is more than what they see on the news. “There is so much goodness to being African and black in general. I think connecting Canadians to African food will help better share and connect them to our culture.

Shanelle Somers is a journalism student at Durham College.