Togo isn’t typically considered Bourbon Country. But after Jack Beguedou left his West African home and eventually settled in Nebraska as an insurance and financial advisor, he knew he needed to find a common interest with his clients. “I’m terrible at golf, but I do know alcohol, and I became the whiskey guy,” he says. Beguedou nurtured a fledgling interest in bourbon and single malts into a full-fledged passion for whiskey, and today his Hood Sommelier online channels have thousands of followers.
Last summer, Jack Beguedou partnered with Heaven Hill Distillery on Afrofusion, a whiskey and African cuisine–pairing event that he’s taking on the road this year, with a spring event planned for New Orleans. “The goal is to introduce people to a type of food they’re not used to, and to highlight an immigrant or minority chef, bartender, or establishment—this is an opportunity to discover those people.”
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