REALITY TV couple Lloyd and Adwoa Mensah-Hagan, who were runners-up in the BBC2 show, The Restaurant with Raymond Blanc, have been inundated with potential investors to set up a restaurant since appearing on the programme. Specialists in Ghanaian cuisine, Lloyd (29) and Adwoa (28) from Hackney, run three food stalls across London; including Mon-Fri Exmouth market and Broadway and Portobello Road markets on Saturday.

Customers include June Sarpong, who asked the couple to make the food for her MBE awards after-party at the House of Lords, the director of Atonement and Pride & Prejudice, Joe Wright, soul singer Alexander O'Neal and DJ Lisa I'Anson. Ghanaian food is made from maize, cassava, plantain and rice based dishes. These are typically served with soups or stews. Fish is often eaten in Ghana but it is usually smoked and dried for preservation reasons. Beef, chicken, lamb, guinea fowl and goat are also popular.

Adwoa is a self-taught chef who started cooking aged eight. She was brought up on traditional Ghanaian food and East African food and lived in Uganda and Kenya for 10 years with her parents when her father was stationed there.

Lloyd was brought up on a mixture of traditional Ghanaian food and English food. He was born in London and would eat English food at school and Ghanaian food at home. A favourite dish is his mum?s ampesi (a mix of boiled yam, plantain and sweet potato) with grilled red snapper and red stew. Lloyd?s mum, Sophia, helped out with the cooking in the early days of the business. Their company spinach & agushi is based in Bocking Street, London. The couple, who belong to the Black Diamond Trust, (BDT), a Christian charity focusing on assisting grass roots organizations in developing countries, got married in July this year, after Lloyd proposed on Christmas Eve in Accra, Ghana.

They live in Hackney and have decorated their home in traditional Ghanaian art and craft.

Phone: 0207 473 5666    Email: info@spinachandagushi.co.uk