“I come from a family of farmers in Cameroon. My ancestors grew tobacco in the 1930s, then my parents planted coffee in the 1960s, but they had to shut it down twenty years later as the coffee industry lost profitability. The family had nothing left. I was 4 or 5 years old at the time. It was a period that marked me for life and which, I think, made me very combative.
I had the chance to study, to work in the restaurant business, then to be hired in a small establishment in Foumbot, in the west of Cameroon, called Le Restaurant du peuple. I worked very hard on it until I was able to buy the premises. We made it a popular place, where everyone stops to eat a kebab. I established a mixed African cuisine there: we work with meat as in Niger, rice as in Senegal, beans as in Cameroon …
The Taste of M
First beans in 2016
Once the restaurant started, I needed to make more sense of what I was doing and devote time to helping others. I let my teams take care of the restaurant and I went to volunteer for Doctors Without Borders, which operated in Cameroon. I started as a mason’s helper, then I moved on to a logistician. Soon I was hired as part of their team in Akonolinga, then sent for a few years to Geneva. I met my wife, a Swiss nurse, when she was on a mission in Cameroon in 2006-2007.
“The chefs understood the importance of buying the product at the right price, in order to be able to pay the producers. “
We both worked in humanitarian aid, but it was not yet enough: we wanted to develop something that would be sustainable for the local populations, which would create lasting jobs. We first thought of beans and corn, but these are productions that only last one season. We then turned to cocoa, and we built our business plan on the basis of what the producers would earn.
We have developed permaculture and agroforestry systems, and planted our cocoa trees without disturbing the ecosystem. It took five years for the trees to become productive. We weren’t from the middle, and when we harvested our first beans in 2016 we realized that it was very difficult to sell them at a decent price. So I decided to do everything myself and bake chocolate farm to bar (“From plantation to shelf”).
I started in a very traditional way, in my kitchen, in the oven and with the hairdryer: this is the recipe that I am giving you today, because it is pure love. I then went to train as a roaster in Italy, and offered my chocolate to chefs. They understood the importance of buying the product at the right price, in order to be able to pay the producers.
Today I have 40 full-time employees on the plantation and many more during the harvest. I work with nearly 200 chefs, and the chocolate we offer pays and highlights the work of all the people in the shadows. It is my greatest pride. “