OUR LOVE LETTER: Adaeze Nwanonyiri and Lenny Rosenberg Respect Cultural Backgrounds
Written by Paul Grein on February 9, 2024
To truly understand Adaeze Nwanonyiri and Lenny Rosenberg’s love for one another, you need to know their backgrounds. Nwanonyiri is a first-generation Nigerian American with family roots in the Igbo tribe. Her husband is Jewish and was raised in a strict cultural household.
Meeting at a party in Malibu, California, the couple says that their career backgrounds truly brought them closer: he was already in the restaurant industry, and she was an interior designer. Below, they delve deeper into how their respect for each other’s culture has allowed them to build not only a successful bakery but also their successful love story.
“He [Lenny] hired me to renovate the interior of his restaurant. I accepted, and that led to us working daily side-by-side. I got to know him on a deeper level, and we realized how much we had in common despite our different backgrounds. The more that we went out, the more I started to see that we could share our cultures with the world through food, and, well, the rest is history.
“Listening is truly our secret because we try to replicate what we have absorbed from each other.”
-Adaeze Nwanonyiri
Our secret to building and nurturing our relationship has been to listen to each other and share detailed experiences from our backgrounds. For example, Hanukkah is extremely important to Lenny. I know how important it is to have a menorah in our home during the first night of Hanukkah. I make sure that I have the Hebrew calendar to ensure I have the correct date for the corresponding year to set the menorah. On the other hand, as a Nigerian woman, Lenny knows how important the kola nut is to my culture. It is utilized for celebrations and Nigerian rituals. I really appreciated how Lenny listened to the background and symbolizing of the kola nut. He flew to Houston, Texas, just before our wedding to present a kola nut to my father so that my father could bless our marriage. Listening is our secret because we try to replicate what we have absorbed from each other.”
Image: courtesy Adaeze Nwanonyiri and Lenny Rosenberg.
“Our favorite dessert to make together and share is our signature Red Velvet Kola Nut cupcakes. Everyone loves red velvet and we grind the kola nut in the cupcake mix!”
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