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Thinking out of the box is second nature for businesswoman and cookbook author Adaeze Nwanonyiri. From re-working spaces as an interior decorator to re-imaging the menu of a classic Jewish bakery, this Houston, Texas, native is introducing the delectable flavors of her culture’s Nigerian desserts to a whole new audience.
The merging of Nwanonyiri’s Nigerian heritage with that of her husband, pastry chef and restaurateur, Lenny Rosenberg’s Jewish background provided new opportunities in life as well as in business. The couple began working together when Rosenberg asked Nwanonyiri to consult on the interior of one of his California-based restaurants, Lenny’s Deli.
“When I visited his restaurant, the menu was outstanding. It was an old-school Jewish deli and he added a lot of health aspects to [the menu], which was great. But the inside made me feel very sad and depressed,” recalls the interior designer, who moved to Los Angeles in 2010, about the restaurant’s old-fashioned decor. “It was right next to UCLA but we didn’t see any kids there.”
After spicing up the deli’s interior with brighter colors and more festive seating the restaurant began to draw new customers, making it as Nwanonyiri describes, a “revolving door for all generations.”
A Merging of Two Cuisines
Today the husband and wife team runs several restaurants under their Lars Restaurants banner, including California’s iconic Bea’s Bakery, which specializes in traditional Jewish desserts. Nwanonyiri and her husband acquired the establishment in 2022 and have since updated not only the decor but also the menu—incorporating traditional Jewish recipes with signature Nigerian dishes along with other treats from around the globe.
“Bea’s Bakery has been around since 1968 and it’s still there. It’s the number one Jewish bakery, but now we turned it into a multicultural bakery,” says the businesswoman. To update and upgrade the new menu, she began looking at different ingredients that offered symbolism and rituals such as their signature red velvet kola nut cupcake.
Spotlighting the Kola Nut
“I [said to] Lenny, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to introduce the red velvet kola nut cupcake?’ Prior to getting married to me, he already knew that the kola nut was a very strong symbol in West Africa,” says Nwanonyiri, a first-generation Nigerian, who traces her family’s heritage back to the Igbo tribe in West Africa.
“The kola nut symbolizes goodwill, positivity, unity, respect and even life itself,” she explains. “That’s what our tribe utilizes before getting married…It’s called ikua aka n’uzo, but it’s called ‘knocking on the door’ in English.” She shares that the complex marriage ritual entails having a potential suitor offer kola nuts to the father and elders of his bride-to-be’s family as a sign of respect, followed by a set of prayers for the marriage blessing.
Nwanonyiri says her future husband followed the ritual, acquiring the sweet kola nuts from a Nigerian bodega, then flew to Houston to present them to her father to ask for his blessing and for her hand in marriage.
“It represents life itself. He who brings kola nuts, they’re bringing life,” shares Nwanonyiri about the blessing inherent in the symbol and tradition of the fruit from the kola tree. Incorporating that ingredient into the recipe of the red velvet kola nut cupcake was a creative leap that begot one of the most popular Nigerian desserts on the Bea’s Bakery menu—and one that also has a place on the Juneteenth table.
The Juneteenth Connection
“The kola nut means a lot to me and my tribe…because you’re pretty much getting blessed after the [knocking on the door] prayers are done,” says the interior decorator. “The red velvet [cake] is symbolic for the emancipation of the slaves in Texas for Juneteenth. That’s why everyone is eating red velvet because there’s bloodshed. But at the end of the day, they were freed. So there is a happy ending after the sacrifice…The beauty of it was that they were freed. I told Lenny, let’s start grinding the kola nut and add it into our red velvet mix so there’s a blessing; it’s an African nut that’s being included in the recipe.”
To create their number one selling dessert at their bakery, Nwanonyiri shares they grind the kola nut and blend it with the red velvet cupcake batter to give it a slightly sweet, nutty flavor. “You cannot see it [the kola nut] in the cupcake so we always show photos of the actual kola nut,” shares the restaurateur.
“But, if you eat it, be prepared to have energy because the kola nut…it’s also a stimulant because it has caffeine.”
While the red velvet dessert is well loved, it’s important not to forget the meaning behind the tasty treat says Nwanonyiri. “The red cake, the red color, people eating watermelon, anything red, it means it’s basically linked to the blood shed by the enslaved people and their descendants as well as their fight for freedom. It represents their strength, their perseverance and enduring spirit because they did not give up.”
She places information next to the treats at their bakery about the desserts’ histories or backgrounds. “There’s a history and a deeper meaning to it. And that’s why we like to give people some schooling while they’re eating the red velvet kola nut cupcake or any of our multicultural desserts.”
RELATED: Juneteenth Joy: 19 Recipes to Fall in Love With
A Cookbook Celebrating Cultures
To further share the stories behind the tasty treats they offer, Nwanonyiri together with her husband, co-wrote their first cookbook, “It’s a Sweet World: Recipes from Around the Globe” (available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble). Described as a celebration of the best recipes from Bea’s Bakery, it spotlights Jewish and Nigerian recipes along with a number of desserts from around the world.
As noted by Rosenberg, Nwanonyiri’s husband and business partner, and now co-author, Jewish-style desserts distinguish themselves from the rest because they are rich in flavor—not sugar—as do the Nigerian desserts created at their bakery.
Nwanonyiri agrees describing Nigerian dessert flavors as “quirky sweets.” “If you’re one dimensional, if you’re not thinking outside of the box, it doesn’t make sense,” she says about the unexpected flavor combinations that make Nigerian desserts unique in taste and history. Like the red velvet kola nut cupcake, with Nigerian desserts there’s a story behind every bite.
For more information about Bea’s Bakery, the new cookbook “It’s a Sweet World: Recipes from Around the Globe” and Lars Restaurants’ newest 2025 acquisition New York Bagel Deli and Bakery in Santa Monica, California—where additional multicultural desserts have been implemented such as the iconic red velvet kola nut cupcake—visit their website online.
