Great food will evoke emotions we didn’t know our body could produce, and actress Lupita Nyong’o experienced this first hand. The Black Panther star recently visited Chattanooga, Tennessee during a road trip, and she stopped by Chef Kenyatta Ashford’s new concept— Proof.
Ashford spent the last few years working in a restaurant in Chattanooga until the pandemic hit, and he was furloughed. Instead of remaining idle, he used the time to launch the concept that is near and dear to him.
“This concept speaks to the food traditions of New Orleans, me as a person, as well as my perspective on the world and politics,” he previously told Travel Noire.
And well, it looks like his cuisine spoke to Lupita Nyong’o as well.
The Kenyan actress— who was born in Mexico City— spent some time in Chatt and stopped by Ashford’s Proof. Like many people who experience something that brings an outer body experience, she took to Instagram to share what she calls, “promotion from the heart.”
“Get yourself to Proof Restaurant in Chattanooga before @chefkenyattaashford leaves to build his culinary empire!!! @neutralgroundchatt is a WHOLE BODY Experience,” she shared in the video’s caption.
She also made an adorable video recapping her meal with a voice over that surely has us wanting to get to the restaurant ASAP.
“Afro, New Orleanian, Ghanaian fusion in Chattanooga,” she says in the video. “What does that mean?! When I tell you this food was memorable. And the presentation, beautifully presented.”
Chef Kenyatta has spent time in Benin, studying the West African nation’s cuisine— that, as we saw in Netflix’s High on the Hog— shaped North American cuisine as we know it today.
In the video that has been viewed over 100,000 times in less than a day, Nyong’o shows herself taking a first bite of a dish, and literally being left speechless.
“Like we spent the whole meal going mmm mmm mmm. We could not believe the explosion of flavors in our mouths.”
Well, well, let us find out we need to get to Proof before it’s too late!
You can watch the entire video below: