Chef Abby takes over Snapchat’s London HQ in her UK tour
When lunchtime arrived at Snapchat’s United Kingdom headquarters one afternoon, something was different. The aromas drifting through the corridors were unfamiliar — bold, layered, and alive with spice.
More than 300 employees formed a queue that stretched through the building, drawn by curiosity and the promise of something they had not tasted before.
The menu that day was Ghana, and the woman behind it was Chef Abbys.
Abena Amoakoa Sintim-Aboagye, widely known as Chef Abbys, had once navigated those same digital corridors as a young content creator using Snapchat to build her audience one post at a time.
Now she had returned — not as a user of the platform, but as the chef whose recipes had taken over the company’s own kitchen, prepared alongside Snapchat’s in-house culinary team for a workforce that spans some of the most influential voices in global technology.
Standing in the middle of it all, watching colleagues file past with plates of Ghanaian food in hand, she found herself struggling to process the moment.
“From creating content on Snapchat to now bringing Ghanaian food into Snapchat HQ, honestly I still cannot believe this is real,” she said, later describing the experience as one of the biggest highlights of her career.
What gave the scene its power was not simply the setting or the size of the crowd. It was what the moment represented. A Ghanaian woman stood at the centre of a global technology company and watched her culture become the main attraction — not explained from the sidelines or introduced as something exotic, but celebrated as something worth queuing for.
A Tour With a Mission
The Snapchat visit was just one stop on a wide-ranging UK tour that has seen Chef Abbys move through strikingly different environments, all connected by a single thread — the desire to place Ghanaian and African food at the centre of international conversations.
Days before stepping into Snapchat’s offices, she had been seated among British high school students at a Snapchat UK philanthropy session, speaking not about food but about creativity, identity, and the importance of owning one’s own narrative in a world that does not always make space for African stories.
“One of my life goals is to mentor the next generation of creators to own their narratives and push boundaries more than I have,” she reflected afterwards.
She was not serving food in that room. She was serving perspective — hard-won lessons about believing that your story deserves to be seen, and that the platforms shaping global culture have room for voices from Accra as much as anywhere else.
Food for the Young
At York Mead Primary School in Watford, the atmosphere shifted once more. During a specially organised Ghana Afternoon session, Chef Abbys gathered children around her and introduced them to Ghanaian snacks, demonstrated how to make local treats, and sparked conversations laced with laughter and genuine curiosity. It was a far cry from polished media appearances, and she seemed most at home in it.
“I love kids so much,” she later shared — a simple statement that spoke to something deeper about her motivations. Beneath the growing international recognition and the expanding opportunities, what seems to drive Chef Abbys is connection. The kind that happens when a child tastes something unfamiliar for the first time and decides they like it.
Michelin Stars and Cultural Roots
Her visit to Akoko, one of the rare Michelin-starred African restaurants in the world, offered a different kind of inspiration. As a chef herself, she was moved by the level at which African cuisine was being recognised and appreciated in one of the world’s most competitive culinary cities.
“I was very much impressed at how my co-chefs have elevated the taste of African food here in London,” she said.
It was a moment of solidarity as much as admiration — one professional recognising the work of others who are fighting the same quiet battle for visibility and respect on a global stage.
A Gesture That Said Everything
Among all the highlights of the tour, one moment carried perhaps the deepest cultural resonance. At the official residence of Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Her Excellency Sabah Zita Benson welcomed Chef Abbys in a way that required no formal introduction. She cooked for her — preparing a special Ga-style okro stew in a gesture that, for Ghanaians, communicates far more than any words could.
Ghana’s High Commissioner to the UK, H.E. Sabah Zita Benson cooked with Chef Abbys
In Ghanaian culture, food is how homes welcome strangers, how families mark celebrations, and how affection is expressed before a single word is spoken.
Chef Abbys understood the significance immediately.
“This is what Ghana is about,” she said.
Beyond the Kitchen
Her UK engagements extended well beyond cooking. A visit to TikTok UK opened conversations about the broader landscape for African creators on global platforms — discussions around monetisation tools, international visibility, and ensuring that creators from the continent can access the same opportunities as their counterparts elsewhere. For Chef Abbys, food and content creation have always been two sides of the same coin, and she is clearly as comfortable advocating in boardrooms as she is behind a stove.
The tour also produced new culinary milestones. Partnering with Soul Mama Islington for her first international brunch experience, she curated a three-course menu drawing on African flavours and storytelling. It built on earlier work developing a Ghanaian and British fusion menu for King’s Birthday celebrations, reflecting her growing ambition to create experiences that do not merely introduce African food to new audiences but centre it as a defining feature of the occasion.
The Bigger Picture
For years, African cuisine has occupied a curious position in global food culture. Deeply cherished by those who grew up with it, it has often remained underrepresented on international platforms. While cuisines from other parts of the world have become household names across continents, many African dishes still arrive accompanied by explanations — what they are, how they are eaten, and what goes into them.
Chef Abbys is working to change that, and she is doing so not through grand proclamations but through consistent, meaningful presence in spaces where it counts.
Taken together, the stops on her UK tour tell a story about cultural diplomacy conducted through flavour. About a generation of African creatives who are no longer waiting for permission to occupy international spaces. And about a woman from Ghana who once posted videos on Snapchat from her kitchen and now cooks for the people who run it.
When the tour eventually ends and the suitcases are finally unpacked, some moments will linger far longer than others. The image of more than 300 people standing in line inside one of the world’s most recognised technology companies, waiting to taste Ghana, feels like one of those moments.
Because sometimes cultural breakthroughs do not arrive through grand announcements. Sometimes they arrive carrying the smell of home.
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