Order Up! A Conversation with Clara Kapelembe Bwali, founder of Black Garlic Zambia, mom, recipe creator & food photographer
A conversation about heritage, motherhood, flavor exploration, and why Zambia’s cuisine deserves a place on the global map.
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Inside the world of a Zambian food creative reconnecting culture and family.
When you talk with Clara Kapelembe Bwali, you feel immediately that food isn’t just her work, it’s her lineage. It’s the rhythm she grew up in, the way her mother and grandmother cared for their community, and the lens through which she sees the world today. Long before she became one of Zambia’s leading food stylists and content creators, before the brand partnerships and international features, she was a girl in a busy household where an extra portion was always set aside because you never knew who might stop by.
Through Black Garlic, Clara is the creative voice behind some of Zambia’s most beloved food imagery, the go-to collaborator for brands from National Milling Corporation to Unilever Africa, and a bridge for global audiences discovering Zambian cuisine for the first time.
What’s striking, though, is how deeply personal her work remains. She cooks with the same ingredients her grandmother did. She tells stories that center her children, her cultural roots, and the belief that food should be both an anchor and an adventure. She wants outsiders to understand that Zambian cuisine is anything but simple, and that in a country with 72 tribes, there is an entire universe of flavors, preservation techniques, and traditional dishes that rarely make it into the global conversation.
In our conversation, Clara talks about raising kids who can respectfully navigate foods from many cultures, why she balances traditional Zambian simplicity with bold, cross-cultural flavors, and the dishes she feels responsible for learning from her mother before they’re lost.
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A Conversation with Clara Kapelembe Bwali
Introduce Yourself: My name is Clara Kapelembe Bwali. I’m a Zambian food content creator, and a mom of three: a teenager, a seven-year-old, and a toddler.
