Today we’d like to introduce you to Obinna Mojekwu.
Hi Obinna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m Obinna Mojekwu, a Nigerian-born chef and the founder of Bim Bim’s, a small-batch kitchen in Chicago making gourmet sauces and seasonings for the diaspora.
Food and art have always been my two languages. I studied art and design at the University of Illinois Chicago, and I designed the Bim Bim’s label myself. In 2018 I trained in culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu. All along I was building a career in banking, healthcare logistics and corporate program management, and cooking whenever I could.
Around 2018 I started taking small catering jobs around Chicago, and the dish people kept asking about was my jerk. Jerk is Jamaican and I’m Nigerian, but the two kitchens share more than most people realize: scotch bonnets, smoke, patience, and roots that reach back to West Africa through the Maroons who helped shape jerk. My jerk sauce is a Nigerian chef’s take on that tradition. I created it in 2019, wrote the recipe down to the gram so every batch tastes the same, and launched Bim Bim’s in 2020.
The heart of the brand is my daughter. She’s been in the kitchen with me since she was two, stirring, tasting, and giving very honest feedback. Funny enough, the name “Bim Bim” is a nickname that my mother gave me when I was younger; or so I thought for a very long time. It wasn’t until I went back home one year that I discovered it was actually my neighbor, the late Mrs. Balogun, who gave me the nickname. The nickname stuck with everyone around me, and it was only fitting to pick that name for my company.
The road hasn’t been straight. I’ve started ventures before that didn’t last, and I’ve built Bim Bim’s in stops and starts alongside a full-time career. What changed is that I stopped trying to do everything at once and stopped doing it all alone. Today we focus on one product, the jerk sauce, made in small batches and sold one bottle and one taste at a time. When we cook food at events, it’s there to show what the sauce can do.
Next is the shelf: independent grocers first, then regional stores. The goal is that anyone in the diaspora, and anyone who loves bold flavor, can pick up a bottle that tastes like home, or like a home they’ve just discovered.
As long as you believe that the things you do has worth, you can find an audience that wants the value that you create. Follow my journey along @obiscreations
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all. The road has had a lot of twists and turns, and some of the hardest were inside my own head.
For a few years I struggled with dark stretches and self-sabotaging habits. I’d start strong, lose momentum, and let the brand sit. I also tried to do everything myself, from cooking and designing to marketing and shipping, while working a full-time job. And I chased too many ideas at once. At one point I had five products in development when what I needed was one done really well. On top of that, I had to learn the rules for selling a sauce legally, which nobody hands you when you start.
Honestly, I’ve been building Bim Bim’s for six years, but this is the first year it feels like I’m running it as a business. I’ve narrowed the focus to the jerk sauce, I’m learning to ask for help instead of doing it all alone, and I’m treating my own well-being as part of the work. If my belief in myself cracks, nothing else gets built.
There will be more hard stretches ahead. What I’m focused on now is telling our story well and putting a product in people’s hands that’s good enough to speak for itself.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
At Bim Bim’s, I make small-batch gourmet sauces and seasonings for the diaspora, starting with our hero product, Bim Bim’s Jerk Sauce. I’m a chef first. Every batch is made in small runs and follows a written recipe, so the bottle you buy next year tastes like the one you buy today.
What I specialize in is the place where West African and Caribbean cooking meet. Jerk is a Jamaican tradition, but its building blocks of scotch bonnet heat, thyme, allspice and scallion feel like home to a Nigerian cook too. My sauce brings in elements of our stews or spicy sauces with the smoky and flavorful bases, so it tastes like jerk and like home at the same time. Fresh garlic, ginger and lemon make it bright, and the heat stays bold without hiding the flavor.
What people know us for is that jerk sauce. When I was catering around Chicago, it was the dish guests kept coming back to ask about, and it’s the reason Bim Bim’s exists.
What I’m most proud of is that this is a family business in the truest sense. My daughter knows this sauce as ours. She has watched it go from a pot on our stove to a bottle with a label her dad designed on it.
What sets us apart is the mix of skills behind the bottle. I’m a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef and a UIC-trained artist, so I care as much about how the brand looks and tells its story as about how the sauce tastes.
For 7 years, I worked at Uber Corporate, and before I left, I was working as a project manager for AI-related projects. Some of the aspects from corporate life that helped me with this business are planning, stakeholder management, catalogue creation, using AI tools to simplify process, and time management.
That combination of kitchen, design and project management is how I’m building Bim Bim’s into a brand that’s ready for the shelf.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
To anyone holding onto a recipe, a sketch or an idea you’ve started and stopped more than once: keep going, and stop going it alone. My biggest shift this year came when I started asking for help.
To the diaspora, wherever you’ve landed: I make this for you. I want every bottle of Bim Bim’s to carry a little of the kitchen you grew up in.
And if you run a farmers market, pop-up or community event in Chicago and want something bold on the table, I’d love to hear from you. Find us at @obiscreations or email us at obicreations@proton.me. Come taste it!
Pricing:
- Bim Bim’s Jerk Sauce (16 oz) for $14.50
- Bim Bim’s Jerk Sauce (32 oz) for $23.50
- Bim Bim’s Jerk Seasoning (8 oz) for $14.75
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/obiscreations/
