AFRICAN CUISINE MAGAZINE Vol. 1 No. 8 October 2013 | Page 18

African CUISINE CELEBRITY TABLETALK All The Goodness of Africa PAULINE LONG Founder, BEFFTA Awards P AULINE LONG. An amazing woman. A compendium of experience. An energe?c campaigner. An icon. When we mooted the idea of se?ng her a table in the African Cuisine Magazine Celebrity Table Talk, li?le did we know that we were engineering an exci?ng encounter with so many di?erent dimensions. During two and half hours, we explored a range of issues, ?ee?ng between subjects that relay the struggles of black people in the Diaspora to the culinary tastes of African children, juggling being mum and mentor and trying to squeeze the last second out of each day doing the best possible to make a di?erence. That’s Pauline Long. pe?te frame and the charm of her smile belies the enormous energy that know infuses her mul?dimensional array of work in the community. She says she wants to give to people what all her talent and ?me can o?er. She situates her promo?on of black ar?s?c achievement in the mirror of self-promo?on and accepts that charity begins at home. How did she get here? What’s her story? Pauline was born in Kenya but came to study in England because her father said sound educa?on was the passport to success. She built up a career in the hospitality sector and was Guest Rela?ons Manager at up-scale Mandarin Oriental in London’s Knightsbridge before venturing out to become mum and mentor. Pauline says she grew up in a family of eleven siblings with a working Fashion designer mum The ?rst thing that strikes you on seeing is her who had loads of sewing machines at home and size. And then her smile. The combina?on of her s?ll did her best to look a?er the home. She 18 Magazine Celebrating the Best of Africa’s Food & Drink in the Diaspora