In fewer than 100 pages, Maggie Ogunbanwo takes us on her life-changing journey from warm, steamy Lagos in Nigeria to wet and windy Pen-y-groes in Gwynedd, via Harlow, England. But her journey is not simply one of moving from A to B to C. It is also an inspiring account of her odyssey, in which she overcomes all manner of obstacles to fulfil her lifelong ambition of owning and running her own cafe.Maggie’s memoir is illustrated by recipes and was inspired by her reading of Judi Hendrick’s novel, Bread Alone, which is interspersed with bread and pastry recipes. Each of Maggie’s chapters contains a recipe that highlights a turning point in her story. They are mostly dishes that don’t rely too much on hard-to-source ingredients. So the reader can embark on an interactive voyage of discovery by both reading and cooking. The rich red and warming spicy sauce for the Naija Stew is easy to make and just the thing on a dark winter’s evening.You almost feel as if you were sitting in her kitchen as Maggie recounts the helter-skelter of her life while conjuring up a feast of Naija Stew, Fufu, and Fried Plantains. She begins with the serendipitous family holiday spent at Ystumllyn, near Criccieth, where she felt God calling her to Wales. The traumatic move from Harlow to Pen-y-groes. The sheer hard work of transforming the Red Lion in Pen-y-groes into a home, church, café, and mini food factory. The initial anguish of sending her two children to all-white, Welsh-speaking schools, and the subsequent pride in their mastery of the language and their success in putting their talents to work in Wales. Maggie’s own adventures in bringing Africa to Pen-y-groes and wrestling with the Welsh language. Her hilarious portrayal of plain-speaking Nain Jean (Jean Hefina Owen, one-time mayoress of Pen-y-groes), who would attend the African evenings, avoiding anything spicy and leaving in time to catch Simon Cowell on The X Factor.Maggie dreamed and wrote about owning a café in 1978, but young as she was, and living in Nigeria, she couldn’t see how that could ever happen. Little did she know then that her dream would come true in far-away Pen-y-groes. Her journey has not always been easy, but her passion and perseverance have carried her way beyond that early aspiration to be a caterer, teacher, writer and businesswoman, as well as a mother.
