The mum cooking up a taste of Ghana from her own kitchen

A mother from Ghana has set up her own business cooking traditional dishes from her home kitchen.

Mary Kukua Anderson, 20, moved from Ghana to Wales for her studies. Now a mother to son Ronen, she's opened her own Ghanaian food service from the comfort of her own home.

This Wednesday (February 14), she cooked up a meal the University of South Wales Ghana society, who hosted a party in her home.

Even though Mary doesn't drive, she's been delivering and cooking all of the food on her own. Credit: ITV Cymru/Wales

Mary said: "I had the idea after I had my son, knowing fully well I couldn't go back to a full-time job. I searched for a job where I could work from home.

"As I looked around I noticed we didn't have African restaurants anywhere around Pontypridd, Treforest or Taffs Well.

"I'd cook food for friends and they'd say 'you should open a restaurant' as a joke."

She mostly delivers the food herself on foot, bringing a taste of home to people of Ghanaian heritage in Pontypridd.

She said: "Sometimes it's raining and you need to go and deliver. You can't cancel because you need to keep the people coming. I don't have a car.

"When I get an order, I check the postcode and if it is a 20 minute walk then I'll deliver it. Anything more than that, I have to call [the customer] and ask them to come and pick it up."

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Mary is juggling a growing business alongside being a mum to her young son, but it hasn't stopped her from setting her ambitions sky-high.

She said: "I hope to open a restaurant right here in Pontypridd. But not just a restaurant but also a bar.

"All the decorations will be inspired by Africa so when you come in you will feel like you're at home.

"Right now, I'm not making any money but it's satisfying that someone's getting my food and enjoying it and hopefully they come back again to order."

Mary set up the business from home because she wanted to be able to spend as much time with her son as possible. Credit: ITV Cymru/Wales

Mary set out on this new venture to be able to spend time with her son while she's working and her business has given her the freedom to do that.

She said: "When I'm cooking he wants to be picked up and when I pick him up he just wants to see what I'm doing.

"It makes the purpose of why I started this in the first place complete because I wanted to be here with him and not leaving him in a nursery or with a carer."

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