Griot Kitchen:
Where Culture, Creativity and Courage Come Together
Summary
When Regis Gnaly founded Griot Kitchen in 2024, he wasn’t trying to build just another food business. He wanted to build a movement, a home for culture, heritage, and the kind of food stories that usually live in family kitchens, passed down by memory rather than written in recipe books.
The word 'Griot' refers to West African storytellers who are also guardians of history and carriers of ancestral knowledge. For Regis, it was the perfect symbol. Food, he believed, was another form of storytelling, one that could honour where people come from, empower overlooked talent, and shine a light on communities too often missing from the mainstream food world.
“Business Launchpad gave me the confidence to build Griot Kitchen from the ground up. They saw my vision before anyone else did, and that changed everything.”
- Regis Gnaly
Journey to Entrepreneurship
Regis built Griot Kitchen from the ground up in London, a city where many cultures intersect, but where not all stories are equally amplified. He wanted to create space for the cooks who don’t always have culinary school certificates or PR teams but who hold generations of knowledge in their hands, a space to honour the ‘aunties’.
Griot Kitchen doesn’t look like a traditional platform. It is a talent agency for amateur chefs and cooks whose food carries culture, memory, and love. Regis saw something powerful: so many incredible cooks in immigrant and diaspora communities had magic in their hands, but no platform, no representation, and no access to creative industry opportunities. He wanted to change that, and so he built Griot Kitchen with three core pillars: a talent agency, a recipe platform and data insights.
Today, Griot Kitchen brings together chefs, heritage cooks, creatives and brands, producing cultural food content, hosting events, and celebrating ingredients that hold deep meaning for communities. From exploring the history and cultural journey of plantain to partnering with creative agencies and events, Griot Kitchen is reshaping what it means to work with food while preserving cultural heritage.
It’s not always about fine dining but about identity, storytelling and pride.
Regis's Business Launchpad (BLP) Experience
When Regis joined Business Launchpad, he had a powerful idea but needed guidance, structure and space to shape it into a real business. One of the most impactful moments of his journey came when he was selected for BLP’s Special Alumni Mentoring Programme in 2024, led by Troy Johnson, the founder of Sweet Dee’s Jerk, a respected food entrepreneur who had walked the path before him.
This programme was a turning point. Under the mentorship of someone who understood both culture and entrepreneurship, Regis sharpened his vision, gained confidence, and learned how to build a food business that centres community, heritage and creativity. More than anything, BLP gave Regis a space where he felt seen, where his ideas were valued, his cultural perspective mattered, and his entrepreneurial spirit was nurtured.
Over the past 17 months, Regis has used Tooting Works’ Enterprise Kitchen and Dining Space each week to collect stories, develop recipes, and film content. Every few months, he hosted a supper club in collaboration with some of London’s leading chefs from the African diaspora. In summer 2025, he launched a new content series, Fly on the Wall, visiting restaurants, festivals, and other food spaces to capture behind-the-scenes moments and share the real stories behind them. His first video, in collaboration with Black Eats London, surpassed 10,000 views, an impressive start.
The combination of mentorship, space and community support helped Regis turn a raw idea into a living, breathing platform that champions culture, creativity and culinary heritage.
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