Kianga's Kitchen brings 'variety of freshness' to Marble City Market with vegan soul food
Keenan Thomas, Knoxville News Sentinel
4 min read
A Black-owned vegan soul food catering business is taking a huge step as it opens its first brick-and-mortar location.
Kianga's Kitchen has catered in Knoxville since August 2018. It will soon join the list of vendors at Marble City Market at 333 W. Depot Ave. in the Old City. It will host a grand opening on Feb. 3 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. as it takes over the stall formerly used by Penne For Your Thoughts.
The restaurant is owned by husband and wife Tor and Romoke Ajanaku, who are also the chefs in the kitchen. Tor Ajanku is the assistant director of the African American Appalachian Arts organization, which hosts the KUUMBA Festival. Originally, the idea came from Tor and his mother, Nkechi Kianga Ajanaku.
"She passed away in 2017, and in 2018, me and my wife launched Kianga's Kitchen as a way to honor her and to continue that dream, because it was a dream that we both had, that we were going to do together," Tor Ajanaku told Knox News.
Kianga's Kitchen's Tor Ajanaku (left) and Romoke Ajanaku will soon open their food stall at Marble City Market in downtown Knoxville. The husband-and-wife team's vegan soul food business will take over the stall formerly occupied by Penne For Your Thoughts.
Tor and Romoke learned everything from Tor's mother, and they use that knowledge to create the dishes served at Kianga's Kitchen.
"I truly say that she was a food alchemist," Romoke Ajanaku said. "You can be a cook, you can be a chef. But the things that she did in the kitchen really inspired me, and after looking over her shoulder, it really changed the way I approached my own style."
The food served at Kianga's Kitchen combines traditional Southern dishes with international ingredients, and it's all vegan. There's sweet potatoes, vegetable curry, Tuscan "not chicken" over beans and rice, collard greens and quinoa, just to name a few items.
Look for specialties like seitan Tuscan not chicken with garlic herbs and sundried tomatoes in a coconut cream sauce.
Tor Ajanaku recommends ordering the Akara patties, which is a Nigerian dish of black eyed peas, red onion, herbs and spices blended together and then fried in coconut oil into a patty. For those newer to vegan food, he recommended collard greens and not-chicken seitan.
Everything is made from scratch in the kitchen, except for the vegan butter, which they might start making themselves soon. Even the meat alternatives are made from scratch.
"If we make any kind of alternative anything, it'll be something that we make from scratch," Tor said.
Tor Ajanaku added he doesn't confine soul food to just one type of food or area of origin. He said it "speaks to your soul, not only as comfort food, but food that's going to be value adding to your life."
Vegan dishes from Kianga's Kitchen have components like fried not chicken (seitan made from scratch), jerk sauce, collard greens plantains and macaroni. The restaurant will join the Marble City Market food hall in February.
"It's not 100% about mimicking or replacing what we know to be traditional soul food," Romoke Ajanaku said. "It's about really eating the rainbow, having color and a variety of freshness."
The menu will be in a build-your-own plate style with sides costing $5, a small plate for $8 and a full plate for around $13.
Adding variety to Marble City Market
Kianga's Kitchen will be a fully vegan food vendor at Marble City Market. A few other vendors, such as Kati Roll Wala and Seoul Brothers, offer vegan options, but Kianga's Kitchen only has vegan food.
This new restaurant comes right after the food hall brought in three new vendors in December: Reagan's Lobster Roll Shop, Hot Shot Coffee and ChickNSack.
However, Marble City Market recently lost three vendors: The Donut Theory, Myrtle's Bakehouse and Penne For Your Thoughts.
Marble City Market changed management in October. The owners of Smash City, Paul and Ashley Moody, took over managing the food hall from Hospitality HQ. Paul Moody briefly talked about Penne leaving.
"So Penne did what the food hall was intended to do," Moody told Knox News. "They are now focusing on their standalone brick-and-mortar. (We're) very grateful for the time that they spent here. They wanted to transition out and do their thing up there and concentrate on what the food hall's intended to do, which is launch you out onto your own."
As for Kianga's Kitchen coming in, Moody is excited to bring "a fresher, healthier alternative to what we have in the market."
Tor and Romoke Ajanaku, meanwhile, are ready to bring another vegan option to Knoxville.
"Knoxville is a unique place," Tor Ajanaku said. "Beyond what people might think of Knoxville, it is diverse. It is diverse in culture and it is diverse in food. So I think this will only add to Knoxville. I would like Knoxville to know that it's okay to be proud of what we have in the city, what we have to offer in terms of food and culture. We're here to represent the food and culture of vegan soul food and international soul food."
Keenan Thomas reports for the Knox News business growth and development coverage team. You can reach him by email at keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks at knoxnew.com/subscribe.
