Vanessa Gogodus: The Malawian cuisine vlogger, promoter

Food content creator, Vanessa Gogodus, 30, is doing everything in her power to put Malawian cuisine and food imagery on the world-wide web.

She does this through her brand— the Malawi Food Network.

For close to four years, Vanessa has been doing this to fill the information gap for Malawian food on the various search engines available.

She embarked on this journey while in college in Kenya after noting Malawi’s inadequate representation in the food industry.

“Punching in ‘Ghanaian, Nigerian, Kenyan or South African food’ on Google, you were met with an overwhelming supply of information and imagery. The findings were sadly not the same for Malawi,” she explains.

Motivated to change the narrative, towards the end of her business course at the United States International University (USIU), she decided to stand up for her country and tell a little about the Malawian food story.

So, Vanessa began to create basic, every day, traditional Malawian recipes and posting them online.

“My aim was to help represent Malawi’s food culture and improve the Malawian food web search,” she says.

Her basic online pictures and video recipes soon grew in popularity and she had different people from all walks of life reaching out to her in regards to her work.

Vanessa’s goal was to put Malawian food on the map, but individuals and organisations sought her out for brand collaborations.

“God had not only helped me achieve my goal, but my brand was now on its way to the international stage,” she beams.

Today, Malawi Food Network is a platform that educates the public on the Malawian food culture.

Not only that, it has also become a reliable platform to market and showcase food-related products and services available throughout the country.

In addition, this is also a place to learn how to prepare some of Malawi’s most popular local dishes.

But getting there was no walk in the park.

First of all, digital or social media food content was an untapped market in the country back in 2017/18 and one of her major challenges at the time was getting people to understand this movement.

The popular misconception at that time, Vanessa says, was it was ‘uncool’ to showcase the local heritage—food and lifestyle.

“Changing this mindset was difficult, but because the international audience was cheering the content on, Malawi started to shift its way of thinking. Change can be scary and when people refuse to adjust to it, the alternative is often to resist it.

“There had been times people tried to discourage me. They projected their fears and doubts on me. This negatively affected my work, but passion rose above adversities,” the young woman says.

Apart from that, Vanessa notes that getting people to believe and invest in what you’re doing is a challenge, but she found ways of getting around this.

She explains: “No matter how well you put forward an idea, you are met with uncertainty. I have learnt to build strong walls around my passions and never force others to believe in my dreams.

“They are my dreams at the end of the day and one cannot expect another person to see what I see. This way of thinking has helped me to push even harder and prove that my work is worth it,” she says.

All she ever wanted was for fellow Malawians to be proud of the food that is unique to Malawi and over time, the brand has grown and having an impact she never imagined.

The food enthusiast, who also runs a catering business, was born Vanessa  Chigoga, but became Mrs. Gogodus in May of 2023.

She is the first born in a family of three girls and recently turned 30 years old in April.

Growing up, her family settled abroad for many years because of their father’s job at the time.

They lived in different countries which influenced many areas of her life.

During their time in Kenya, the young woman, who always desired to be self employed and create jobs for others, studied business administration at USIU.

She graduated in 2020.

“For as long as I can remember, I desired to build a solo career. I could never really place myself in the corporate world, working from eight to five. Today, this childhood desire has been instrumental in helping me break ground in entrepreneurship,” explains the newlywed.

In contrast to her present reality, she was actually passionate about music as a child.

She recalls fighting with her parents for years as a teenager about building a career in the music industry.

“My dad and I eventually struck a deal, if I finished my tertiary education, he would single-handedly support me through music. But as life would have it, I lost my passion for music by the time I got through school. A sad turn of events, but everything happens for a reason,” she says.

In 2012, her father lost his job—suddenly stripping away the very thing that had opened up many doors for her family in a blink of an eye.

“This was a very pivotal moment for my family because the question of our livelihood and survival was now uncertain. We packed up and returned home.

“For many years, my sisters and I had been citizens of the world. We had very little connection with Malawi despite our parent’s efforts to plan every Christmas holiday in Blantyre,” she says.

The catering enterprise, Chigo’s Cuisine, was then born out of a humbling time in her family’s life.

And that is how the Chigoga family made their come back. It was the new beginning they all embraced.

As a child, her mother was passionate about cooking, so the idea of the family stepping into the business world to open a restaurant was the best.

Her advice to her girls is; “trust your instincts, invest in your passions, be confident in your decisions and give yourself grace.”