Selassie Atadika, the globally-recognized Ghanaian chef is making giant strides with her Midunu brand of luxury Ghanaian chocolates truffles.
Selassie and Midunu have heeded President Nana Akufo- Addo’s call in regards to ensuring manufacturing finished chocolate products in Ghana.
Launched recently, it has garnered a lot of traction within the market, placing the brand and Ghana’s cocoa credentials on solid footing.
The hand-crafted chocolate truffles are available to consumers in the United States and Canada. Midunu’s chocolates take you on a journey, blending unique herbs and spices from across the African continent with ethically sourced and produced Ghanaian cocoa.
As a proud African, Selassie’s focus is to ensure that Midunu chocolates first of all are available in Africa with focus especially on Nigeria and South Africa and she hopes to partner with GEPA to push this Proudly Ghanaian brand further internationally.
Born in Ghana, Selassie passion for the culinary arts led her to start a chocolate company. After completing her Master’s degree from Columbia University in International Affairs, Selassie embarked on a decade of humanitarian work through the United Nations throughout Africa.
Inspired by the rich origin stories of the cuisines she encountered and troubled by the injustices that plagued food systems throughout the continent, Selassie set about introducing her “New African Cuisine” to her home in Ghana – bringing local, seasonal, and underutilized ingredients to the forefront in the dishes she creates. Her culinary approach has caught attention all over the world and granted her international awards and recognition including being a finalist in the 2019 Basque Culinary World Prize, #73 in the Best Chef Awards 2020 and 2021 recipient of the La Liste New Destination Champion Award for Africa.
Despite being the world’s second largest producer of cocoa, very little chocolate is actually produced in Ghana – the vast majority of the cocoa beans are exported to the Western world to be processed and packaged. Selassie saw chocolate as a familiar vehicle to introduce lesser known herbs, spices, and teas from across Africa to conscious customers around the world while creating jobs, supporting local producers, and adding value locally in Ghana.
Each chocolate is expertly crafted by a team of female chocolatiers in Ghana and named after a different African woman – the culinary custodians of the continent. There is “Aicha” – the perfect pairing of an earthy green tea and a refreshing mint drenched in dark chocolate, “Almaz” – a blend of fragrant spices and Ethiopian chilli blend known as berbere, “Kukua” – a white chocolate ganache infused with moringa.
Selassie describes Midunu as her love story to Africa – a means of celebrating and preserving Africa’s culinary heritage. Atadika is one of a handful of local artisanal chocolate maker and chocolatiers who have been working to add value to chocolate in Ghana.
The Midunu Chocolates have stood out internationally and earned Atadika respected publications and appearances in The New York Times, Washington Post, Bon Appetit Magazine, CNN African Voices, The Financial Times, Al, Jazeera, The Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), OmVärlden, as well as mentioned in Vogue, National Geographic’s The Plate, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Ebony. Her cuisine has been featured at a State Dinner and the prestigious James Beard Foundation in the US.