Sierra Leonean chef Maria Bradford has made her restaurant debut with a high-reaching Afro-fusion in the Kent town of Sevenoaks.
What: A creative fine dining restaurant inspired by the flavours of Sierra Leone. In the Kent market town of Sevenoaks, Shwen Shwen takes its name from the Krio – the West African country’s principal language – for “fancy.” The restaurant offers à la carte in the form of a selection of small and sharing plates alongside a £60 seven-course set menu.
Who: Shwen Shwen is the debut solo restaurant project of Maria Bradford, who grew up in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown and was taught to cook by her mother and grandmother before moving to Kent in her teens. Trained at London hospitality school Leiths following a spell as an accountant, Bradford launched an eponymous catering business in 2017 that now trades as Shwen Shwen.