We Are Cortex | Adjo Honsou

How to embody the American dream: Arrive in the United States at age 14 from Togo, West Africa, with your parents. Go to school. Become a biologist. Work in the pharmaceutical industry for a few years. Notice you can’t find your beloved native cuisine in your adopted homeland. Transfer your lab skills to a kitchen.

And that's how Adjo Honsou created FUFU n’ Sauce, her food truck and catering business — born from her imagination, nurtured at Cortex and launched in May 2022.

Featuring authentic African entrees such as egusi, palm nut stew, fish stew, goat pepper soup and oxtail stew — along with fufu, the starchy finger-food staple she makes with plantains — Honsou wanted to fill a gap she found in the St. Louis restaurant scene.

“It's the American dream, right?” Honsou said. “Our goal is 100% to close that food diversity gap in St. Louis, while at the same time providing people from the African diaspora the connection back to our route through our culinary delights.”

Honsou credits the Cortex Square One incubator program with helping her solidify her idea for FUFU n’ Sauce and get it off the ground. The program is designed for concept- and early-stage entrepreneurs — particularly those from underrepresented communities.

“Unlike a lot of those crash-course two-week or two-day sessions, this was a 13-week program. It really felt like you were getting the resources and the application of those resources,” Honsou said. She had the chance to learn broader topics around finances, while the program also allowed for personalization directed at her specific startup. “I left that program with a lot of mentors that I can still reach out to today.”

The experience has given her the chance to sate the appetite of other Africans yearning for a taste of home, while exposing her food to people who may have never heard of fufu. She delights in watching them dip the dough balls into her savory stews and sauces for the first time.

“It goes from a moment of curiosity to a moment of delight,” Honsou said. “It's one of those things when you're trying food for the first time that you're not familiar with, and it's not comparable to anything else.”

Honsou is grateful for the community she’s built with the help of Cortex, a community that continues to nurture her dreams while giving her the chance to pay that success forward.

“I like talking to the other entrepreneurs. We can talk about our experiences, reach a hand and help the ones that are up and coming,” Honsou said. “We provide St. Louis with this ecosystem of bad-ass entrepreneurs. Surviving is not enough anymore. Thriving is the goal.”

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