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UW-Superior alumna Nyanyika Banda authors “Marvel’s Black Panther: the Official Wakanda Cookbook”
A dash of this. A pinch of that. Sometimes a great dish can be stumbled upon. Yet, for positive results time and time again, it takes a much more refined tactic. For University of Wisconsin-Superior alumna Nyanyika Banda, every step along her path has been as well placed as a cherished family recipe. Recently, all the ingredients came together as Banda authored “Marvel’s Black Panther: the Official Wakanda Cookbook,” which became available April 12. A Malawian-American chef, writer and entrepreneur, Banda earned a culinary degree from Madison College in 2012. There she competed and placed in multiple American Culinary Federation competitions. “After culinary school I moved to New York City and got offered a job,” she said. “After spending a few years in the city and interning at Saveur Magazine, I realized what I really wanted was to see how I could combine my culinary degree with writing, and that’s when I decided that I would go back to school to get my bachelor’s degree.” That step brought Banda back to the Midwest to further her academics. “I knew that transferring to a Wisconsin state school would be beneficial to me because of my
credits,” said Banda. “I had already lived in Duluth, so I thought that going back to the Twin Ports was where I wanted to be. From that, UW-Superior became top on my list.” At UW-Superior, she designed her history and writing majors around African foodways and has been a scholar of the topic ever since. “I was really happy with how small the school is and the really great connections I made with my instructors,” said Banda. It was as an undergraduate at UW-Superior that she started her writing career with a monthly column in the TASTE section of the Duluth News Tribune. She also started an underground pop-up restaurant called Martha’s Daughter. Her food garnered a cult following and on her graduation day in 2017, she picked up the keys to her new location. Banda helped put the Twin Ports on the map with her critically acclaimed restaurant described by the Minneapolis Star Tribune as “a stylish reflection of its chef/owner” with “an eclectic and globe- hopping menu of meticulously prepared and wonderfully affordable dishes.” Recently, Banda’s unique skill set allowed her to collaborate on a project that almost appeared custom made for her. “I belong to some online networking groups for food writers,” she said. “Someone had posted that they
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