Tunde Wey has no issue pushing boundaries. In fact, he thrives on it. The Nigerian-born chef utilizes food as a means with which to discuss the topics he’s most passionate about such as racism, gentrification, and capitalism. Through innovative projects, Tunde unapologetically puts hot button issues front and center, no matter how uncomfortable it might make others or how controversial they may seem.
By Alexandra Foster
Can you speak about what it was like growing up in Lagos, Nigeria and how that has shaped what you do?
I lived in Lagos until I was 16 as solid middle class, with some upper middle-class tendencies. Family was comfortable, maybe even more than comfortable, in that my parents made sure that we went to good schools. They made education a priority for us, and not just education but sort of like the social capital aspect of education. That's also why they sent us to the United States, so we could go to college and, I guess, become viable economic engines. I think the most important thing that Nigeria has given me is a very acute definition and position on disparity. If you're in Nigeria and also have access to the United States, you can just see it. It's blatantly unequal.
Do you go back often?
I wasn't able to go back for 20 years because of my visa. I went back for the first time in October last year for a month, and then I went back in December and spent six months. I just came back about four months ago.
Because it's your home, do you feel like it's a respite and a break from the chaos that's going on in the States?
It depends, you know, because my home is charged too. It's not a respite. No, not yet anyway. It has its own stress like I don't speak the language patterns. People see me and they know that I'm not from there. So it's not a respite yet, but there are many moments of rest and comfort.
I know you have a background coming from the restaurant world, but why do you choose food as the medium through which you do all your different projects?
I stumbled into the food industry, and I won some recognition from that. And just to stay consistent, I've chosen to stay in food. I don't think food is necessarily any more potent a medium than other things. I look at all the different parts of the system that I'm interested in, and I just use food to enter them.
How do you think of the ideas for your projects? Where do you get inspiration from? What does that creative process look like?
I guess it just depends for different things. Sometimes inspiration just comes, but a lot of times it's based on what I'm reading, what I'm feeling. Based on my life.
"Consumption is not resistance, and you have a lot of food brands, especially millennial food brands, that somehow make it seem like there is a way that you can consume a product and then save the planet."
Tunde then talked about his latest projects, one of which is Bullchit where consumers can invest in shares, aptly named bullchits, in return for food-based products and experiences. The other is focused on a Nigerian based spirit and hasn’t yet been released to the public.
I created this digital token - I made it up from scratch - which allows you access to food events and product[s?] created by me. And it's really a fabricated monetary and financial universe that I created as a way to critique this current financial system that we live in, that we are all burdened by. Well, not all of us, but a lot of us are. That came from my reading on money and economics and capitalism.
Another project I'm working on is importing Palm Bay spirits from Nigeria to the United States and selling it at an exorbitant price as a way to, again, speak about global capitalism and how global supply chains are created to benefit the West. Just the extractive system we live in. I started thinking about all of the people who make it and the really poor conditions under which they're making it. [By] selling this bottle of liquor for an exorbitant sum, every time folks drink, they can be reminded that the system is fucked up. Consumption is not resistance, and you have a lot of food brands, especially millennial food brands, that somehow make it seem like there is a way that you can consume a product and then save the planet.
What are you thinking of? Like an Impossible burger or something like that?
Yeah the Impossible burger. That’s one that I explicitly call out. These liquor brands...they're not as explicit but they sort of virtue signal. They talk about how they source, and they're transparent and all that shit. There is no salvific product. There's no Jesus product that's going to save us from capitalism. The system has to be changed. What capitalism does and what people bank on is people's need for change, people's desire for things to change, and also people's strong desire to consume things. So why don't you consume to change the world?
Do you think the only way we can see real change is through some sort of bottom-up, grassroots approach? Or do you feel like we can use patriarchal, capitalistic systems to our benefit?
It depends on what you mean by change.
Well, there are so many issues in the food system, but when I think about food security and unequal access and the fact that people live in food deserts, or food apartheid areas if you will, where they don't have access to fresh produce but there’s a McDonald’s here and a Burger King there. I feel like a lot of the solutions are very small scale or very local. And I don't think they're going to solve the issue that way because you can't really catch up to the problem if you're just doing it on such a small scale.
Yeah, I think you need large scale government intervention for those things and by government intervention, I mean, you need the government and the economy to change. I mean there's nothing wrong with fast food. Most of the wealthiest suburbs that I've been to in the United States are also food deserts in that if you live in the suburbs or you live in the country and you have a lot of wealth, you are not proximate to a grocery store. So it's not that there aren't grocery stores, or that there are fast food restaurants, it's that there's an unequal distribution of access and resources. Without tackling that unequal distribution, which is connected to the unequal accumulation of resources, then nothing is going to change.
You know, charities are bullshit. It’s just another way to fuel consumption. It's another way to expand production and fuel demand. Instead of just giving folks the ability to purchase what they need, the system requires people to be without what they need. And so again, the capitalist system needs a way for those people to consume somehow. So I'm not a fan of anything top-down or bottom-up or whatever that doesn't include an overhaul of the economic system.
"Instead of just giving folks the ability to purchase what they need, the system requires people to be without what they need."
I also saw that you recently started working on a documentary project about how the restaurant industry operates and how it’s been affected by COVID. You argued that this system should be done with. Do you feel like there's any element of our food system that works the way it should?
I mean yeah, the fact that we can get food to people. Transportation works. The fact that you can harvest stuff from the land. There are pieces that work, and the whole system works because it's how it's supposed to work. I just don't think it's the most equitable.
I found an article on you that mentioned the term culinary justice. How do you feel about that term? Do you feel like what you do could be classified as that?
I'm not partial to that. I don't think of myself as an activist, I'm just out here. If anything, I think of myself more as a conceptual artist so I'm not burdened with certain expectations. I don't subscribe to a conventional, necessarily progressive definition of what justice is.
What would you say is the most challenging thing about your work?
I want more people to participate, learn, and just be part of my work. I think my work is super limited - even though I've had tons of news coverage, you know, I've been fortunate that way - still [the number of] people who participate in the work is very small. So I just want to expand my influence. I want more people to be thinking about the things that I'm thinking about, things that I think are important and engaging with it.
What would be the best way for people to find out about your work? Through Instagram?
Yeah Instagram. I also have a mailing list, but I think the sort of influence that I'm looking for doesn't, you know, it comes from just more exposure. I'm not complaining, I mean I feel quite fortunate that I can [come up with] a premise that is ludicrous and even [have] 20 people participate, so it's great.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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Alexandra Foster is a Food Studies graduate, passionate about issues surrounding the intersection of food, race, culture, and the environment. She aims to raise awareness about people of color making strides for equity and justice in the food system through storytelling.