A Film By
Brad Herring & Adé Carrena
Adopted at the age of ten from her homeland of Bénin, West Africa, and raised in an abusive household in Connecticut, Chef Adé Carrena travels back home on a journey to reclaim her identity through food and represent what was taken away from her across the Diaspora.
Bite of Bénin
How does one define home? There lies in everyone a deeply rooted connection to home that is interwoven into the fiber of our being and can never be severed. For Chef Adé, who was adopted from her homeland of Bénin at the tender age of ten, home is an irrevocable condition. Home is a place she is continually being directed toward. In this beautiful, and at times, painful story, Adé travels back home to understand her African heritage and reclaim her identity through food and the Béninese women who mean so much to her. She learns that food is not solely about sustenance but it is very much imbedded in our identity. It represents culture, history and most importantly it nourishes the soul. Not only is it empowering to represent heritage and identity through food, it also has the power to heal generational trauma.
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Upcoming Screenings
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Bite of Bénin: An Immersive Dining Experience
A fully immersive culinary experience by North Carolina’s Chef of the Year, Adé Carrena. Join us for a beautiful and heartfelt journey of food and film as we will be exploring the intersection between West African food and the cuisine of the U.S. South.
February 29, 2024 | 6:30 PM
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Hayti Heritage Film Festival
Join us at the annual Hayti Heritage Film Festival (HHFF) in Durham, North Carolina, for a celebration of cinematic works from filmmakers of African descent. HHFF is one of the nation's longest-running Black film festivals and we are honored to have Bite of Bénin as an official selection of this year’s festival.
March 9, 2024 | 2:00 PM
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Home Is Distant Shores Film Festival
Join us for a screening of Bite of Bénin at the Home Is Distant Shores Film Festival as we celebrate the lives and experiences of immigrants and refugees who left their land of birth and moved to a new country. This festival will be held at the Cary Theater in Cary, North Carolina. A complete schedule will be announced soon.
May 18, 2024
Adé
Adé, the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association’s 2023 Chef of the Year, is a storyteller who specializes in Neo-West African cuisine. Her mission is to bridge cultural gaps, reimagine West African food and create safe spaces for important conversations that inspire healing across the diaspora. Through her business Donou Cuisine, Adé has spent the last 5 years curating culinary experiences to highlight Black Food ways, exchange culture and support local Black Farmers. She is the founder and owner of iLéWA Foods, an innovative CPG Brand that is creating economic opportunity and empowering women producers in West Africa. They source their ingredients from women entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers across West Africa in hopes of building a more equitable future by creating a socioeconomic exchange between powerful women and global markets.
Brad
Brad met Adé when he was working as a chef’s assistant at a local cooking school. Inspired by a shared love for food, they decided to combine their talents and start making short recipe videos together, showcasing Adé's Suya spice blend. Always looking for an adventure, Brad traveled to Benin with Adé documenting her remarkable journey back home. He immersed himself in the vibrant culture of Bénin for an entire month following Adé as she attempted to reclaim her identity through food. Along the way, he sampled the rich and diverse foods of Bénin, immersing himself in the flavors of the local cuisine. Brad filmed and edited the Bite of Bénin.