With no legal path to a visa, he eventually followed so many West African youth of his generation by stepping onto a smuggler’s pirogue — a simple wooden fishing boat, not built for long voyages, that would be overpacked with migrants desperate to reach European shores. He prayed for the best.

The journey was dangerous. The boat’s two motors failed, the GPS broke, engine oil spoiled the little food they’d stashed, and Papa and the more than 100 other passengers spent more than 8 days adrift in the open Atlantic, rocked by enormous waves that threatened to capsize them. Finally a Red Cross ship patrolling the waters near the Spanish island of Tenerife rescued them. Papa’s first step onto European soil was not promising – he was so weakened by hunger, dehydration, fear, and seasickness that he collapsed.

He made his way to Barcelona, grateful to be alive but feeling alone and adrift in a country where he didn't speak the language and could be deported at any time. Missing his family and unsure of when he'd see them again, food offered a comforting sense of reunion.

Although it was considered taboo for Senegalese men to cook, as a child Papa had often spent his days in his mother's kitchen observing her skillful hand as she and his sisters spent hours cooking elaborate meals from scratch twice a day with meat, fish, and vegetables they hand-selected from the market each morning. Now, over long-distance phone calls from Spain, Papa's mother patiently patiently taught her son how to recreate her delicious meals.

At the same time, Papa began to know and appreciate the culture in Barcelona. He learned Spanish and Catalan and came to navigate the city's many ramblas with ease. As he became more confident in the kitchen, he discovered with wonder and surprise that the dishes he learned from his mother -- a woman who had never left Senegal -- drew on ingredients and techniques from as far away as the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and Southeast Asia. These dishes that tasted so quintessentially like home were the result of far flung travels and shared histories.

Papa's enduring love for Senegal and his reverence for the world would never leave him even as life brought many changes. He fell in love, moved from Barcelona to New Orleans, and criss-crossed the United States, from Washington D.C., to the Bay Area. Along the way he worked with legendary chefs like Alice Waters and Pierre Thiam, and had the occasion to share kitchens with Thomas Keller, Jerome Bocuse, Kwame Onwuachi, and Jose Andres.

In 2022, Papa moved with his family to Chapel Hill, North Carolina and founded Tuki Cuisine.