Senegalese Chef Oumar Diouf

Photo credit: Oumar Diouf

Growing up in Senegal, Oumar Diouf started helping his mother in the kitchen to keep her company, but those moments of comfort taught him skills that would eventually take him around the world.

Men in the kitchen in West African culture is not traditionally common, but that didn’t stop Oumar. Today, he jokes about it with his friends who once teased him while they were growing up via their What’s App group. “I am the only the only one that has traveled the world from that group and when I talk them, I tell them, “You guys was bullying [me] and not look at me,” he says with a smile doing the episode.

Oumar grew up in the small city of Meckhe with his mother and siblings. He remembers his mother fixing every meal which entailed talking five miles to work and back home to prepare lunch before walking back five miles to work again until the evening.

After college, Oumar was scouted to play soccer in Argentina, an opportunity that he was excited about, especially since the family often watched Telanovela’s at home. However, during a practice game he was injured, ending his soccer dreams, and from there he turned his eyes on food to be more than just a casual way to support himself.

LISTEN: Chef and Restaurateur Pierre Thiam

Becoming Chef O.D. and Living Out His FIFA Dreams

Oumar immediately began focusing on his culinary journey as a way to not only build a life away from Senegal, but at the same time, be able to support his mom back at home. He shares that a mentor in Argentina told him, “You need a good job, but because with the skills you have, if you got a good job, you can sustain yourself and your family.” He took that to heart but also knew his entrepreneurial spirit would one day see him having businesses of his own.

Before leaving Argentina for Brazil, Oumar owned and operated a small restaurant which he says was good until the economy fell. Determined to get to Brazil, he arrived with a job to be a chef at a hotel which he later decided to just be a cook at night so that he would learn the language more as well as study the cuisine. He also took another job during the day as a waiter and then with more experience in Brazilian food culture began to draw the links between Brazilian and West African cuisines.

2014 would be a unforgettable year for Oumar as he was contracted to work with one of Rio’s well-known caterers to cook for FIFA 2014 and then the 2016 Olympics. He says, “In my head, I felt like I was supposed to be here playing, I thought, I was in the kitchen but I am going to be competing like I am playing so am going to win everything that is in front of me. That was my mentality,” when talking about how he aligned cooking with playing soccer.

From Brazil, Oumar set his sights on making it in the U.S. and shares the rest his story in this episode. Listen below or watch on YouTube. Here is a teaser below.

For updates on what Ourmar is up to now, follow him on Instagram.