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BOY WONDER: Omari McQueen has already found success at a young age with his range of vegan dips; below, the young chef shares recipes on his YouTube channel

WHEN OMARI McQueen’s parents first taught him to cook some of the Jamaican recipes he’d grown up with they didn’t realise the effect it would have on him.

The then eight-year-old was so inspired by cooking he created his own company called Dipalicious, to produce the vegan dips he had created. Now 11, Omari, who boasts the title as the youngest award-winning vegan chef in the UK, is set to achieve another impressive feat.

Later this month he is set to open his own vegan pop up restaurant, making him one of the country’s youngest restaurateurs. The restaurant, which will also be called Dipalicious, will open at Boxpark, Croydon, and run from August 17-24.

Omari told The Voice: “I’m excited about opening the restaurant and the food will have a Caribbean theme. I wanted to have a restaurant when I was older but you’re never too young or too old to start a business or follow your passion.”

PROUD

His mum Leah said: “His father and I just don’t have words for how we feel about what he’s accomplished. He’s not only doing himself proud, our family proud, he’s doing his community proud because he’s showing so many other black boys out there that there is another way.”

The idea for the Dipalicious restaurant was born after Omari asked his mum for a LinkedIn account. She told The Voice: “He asked me for a LinkedIn profile when he was 10.

CONNECTED

“He said, ‘Mum, you’ve got a LinkedIn profile and there are people on there that I need to talk to’. So I said to him, ‘Make sure if you get a profile you don’t just go on there and bother people, because it’s not like normal social media’. He assured me he wouldn’t do that.

“He went on there and connected with Roger Wade, who is the CEO and founder of
Boxpark in Croydon. When they eventually spoke, Omari told him it was his aim to have a takeout restaurant in Box-park, Croydon when he was older.

“When Roger then asked him, ‘Why wait ‘til you’re older?’ Omari replied ‘because my mum’s broke’ – which he shouldn’t have said! I’m just a parent trying to pay bills.”

The budding entrepreneur’s sense of humour and determination rubbed off on Wade.

Leah continued: “Roger asked him, ‘How do you feel about having a restaurant at Boxpark for a week?’, to which Omari replied, ‘Yeah, I want that!’”

AMAZING

During the conversation, Wade asked Omari to send him an email with some proposals about what he would do with a pop-up restaurant at Boxpark for a week. The young chef followed this up by emailing over his ideas. Upon receiving Omari’s email, Wade asked to get in touch with Leah.

“So I contacted him and he told me that he’d love to have Omari at Boxpark for a week, and also there would be no charge,” she said. “We were really overjoyed at the prospect of him having his own restaurant. It’s amazing.”

She added: “Of course, because Omari is too young to be in the kitchen by himself the whole family is pitching in to help cook and prepare the dishes that Omari has created. It will be a real family affair but as the chef, he’s in charge.”

As for the menu that diners can expect, Omari is keeping it under wraps for now. But he was keen about one of the dishes that he recently created, which will be served once the Dipalicious restaurant is open for business.

PASSION

“One of the dishes on the menu will be barbecued jackfruit with jerk breadfruit chips, with some plantain. When I create a new dish, I just imagine it all and then I just try and try to make it taste good.”

Omari’s passion for cooking and making vegan food was nurtured through his parents’ encouragement.

Leah said: “[He] has always had a passion for cooking but he started learning to cook meals from the age of seven.

“After I became ill with hemiplegic migraines, his father and I started to teach Omari and his older brother Laquarn how to cook meals to help me when I was unable to stand and his dad was working late.

“His passion for cooking just grew and grew. Omari is the type of person who just throws things in, so he has his notepad with him as he cooks. Even when he made his dip, he just throws things in and then tastes it as he goes along and then writes down the recipe when it tastes good. But he’s still a normal 11-year-old who rides his bike to the park.”

This passion developed into a desire to cook vegan food after watching a PETA UK video.
Omari said: “I was already researching about veganism because I like cooking for everyone and bringing people together through food.
“I saw a video from PETA UK and it was so shocking to see how animals are treated for food. I didn’t like the way that was happening, so I asked my mum if I could become a vegan. When she agreed, I asked if she could buy me a vegan meal.

“She told me that they tend to be expensive and that’s when I decided to start making my own vegan meals.”

It was a decision that led to the creation of Omari’s Dipalicious brand. In addition to running his company and preparing for the forthcoming opening of his restaurant, the young entrepreneur is also a popular YouTuber – he filmed his first video at eight years old, where he created a vegan pizza using his own dip.

Asked about his plans for the future, he said: “I want to own a chain of vegan fast food restaurants, something like the vegan version of Morleys.”

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