Djibril Bah-Traore
Bringing people together through the connective power of food.
An immigrant from Togo, West Africa, Djamil Djibril Bah-Traore came to the U.S. in 2003 to study accounting. He earned his degree and spent 13 years in corporate America. Cooking, however, was in his blood. His great-grandfather, a cook in Togo, passed down his skills, which Bah-Traore’s mother taught him—a heritage that never left. He quit his corporate job to enroll in a culinary program, balancing his studies with night shifts as a taxi driver.
After years of working in restaurants and hotels, Bah-Traore noticed how absent African cuisine was in the U.S.—particularly in his city of Omaha, NE. Determined to change that, he founded the House of Bah Food Group in 2015. In 2020 he founded the House of Bah Foundation, expanding beyond serving food to offering culinary training for immigrant and refugee chefs, using cooking and shared meals as tools for cultural connection and economic empowerment.
Bah-Traore wants to change the way Omahans experience food by celebrating the culinary traditions of immigrants and refugees while also creating job opportunities. As an Emerson Collective Fellow, his goal is to build a community-based restaurant from the ground up—a space where aspiring chefs from immigrant and refugee backgrounds can test recipes, gain hands-on experience, and develop the skills needed for long-term careers. More than just a place to eat, this restaurant will be a gathering space where everyone in the community can experience authentic global cuisines, fostering cultural exchange and deeper connections. “If you love somebody’s food, it’s hard to hate them,” says Bah-Traore.