Clara Kapelembe-Bwali and Lulu Haangala-Wood
Tuesday 24 May
We are joined by the fabulous Zambian foodies Clara Kapelembe-Bwali and Lulu Haangala-Wood in the loft today.
Clara is the owner of Black Garlic, a food styling and food photography business. She started the business in 2020 after she noticed the opportunity for local authentic foodies to create content for Zambia. “I saw a need that we should have food content, created by Zambians for Zambians,” she says.
Lulu’s original background was in the media and business world. But she has always loved food. She founded The Wood Kitchen, a food blog, with her husband William in 2020. Their brand is family centered, and she hopes to expand into lifestyle soon.
Clara and Lulu met online and soon started collaborating with videos, recipes and classes.
According to Clara, food is a big part of being Zambian. “It’s important, when a guest comes to your house, they have to eat something. Because if they don’t eat, they feel like they’re not welcome,” says Clara. “We love to cook. We love to eat. Food is family and family is food – pretty much for Zambia,” she adds.
Zambian cuisine focuses on the natural taste of food, says Lulu. “We’re not very heavy on the spices. We’re big on honouring the natural flavour of our fish. There’s no fish like Zambian fish. We honour the taste of our vegetables. It’s very simple how we make it,” she explains.
Both the Wood Kitchen and Black Garlic businesses are new concepts in Zambia. “It’s really something new. I think as African families we don’t see a lot of African content creators that are based in Africa,” says Lulu.
Both ladies are excited about seeing the growth of local content creators and working with different brands locally. “It’s so new, lots of the brands we’ve worked with are working for the first time with local Zambian influencers,” Lulu adds.
Keep up to date with Lulu and Clara by following their socials:
Lulu Wood / @luluhaangalawood / @woodkitchenz / @LuluHaangala
Black Garlic / @blackgarliczambia / @blahckgarlic