The Mandela Burger

Food for Champions! ™

The Mandela Burger is a pioneer of organic, healthy, and safer vegan foods in New Orleans. We believe in the health boosting benefits and restorative capacity of the herbs and spices used in making our patties. With lots of love, we happily offer the Mandela Burger for your family’s delight and wellbeing.

The creator of the handcrafted patty is African. Naming it Mandela Burger is a way of honoring his ancestors evoking, truth, reconciliation, forgiveness, love, resilience, doggedness, perseverance, integrity and many other positive attributes not mentioned here. The Mandela Burger has great integrity as a clean and healthy food.

The idea behind our philosophy is one of hope and one of overcoming adversity, inspired by our family heroes. We find distinctive parallels in our own business as we work tirelessly to enlighten the buying public to their responsibilities, not only to their family’s health and nutrition, but to our one and only biosphere.

We are inspired by the sacrifices made by our heroes as we acknowledge that the road to enlightened sports-nutrition will not always be easy. That being said; we are proud to present our carefully curated collection of spices and the freshest ingredients to you today.

The Mandela Burger

Brand Story

“Family is at the heart of the Mandela Burger story.”

We are a black-owned business in New Orleans seeking to redefine and elevate how people view vegan food in our communities by providing delicious vegan options that can please the palate of even the most sophisticated gourmet!

The Mandela Burger is a product born out of love, loyalty, and perseverance. Being the last child in a family of eleven, I learned my culinary skills early under the supervision of my beloved mother, and thereafter, my sisters, all of whom were excellent cooks.

At times, the odds seemed stacked against me. I suffered the misfortune of losing seven of my siblings within a decade, suffered terrible losses from the collapse of my business enterprises in Africa, and endured a divorce. Separated from my family, many friends who were once a regular presence in our home didn’t come around anymore. It was only me and my faithful furry friends left in my big house. The thought of ending it all occurred to me, but I dismissed the idea because I didn’t want my children and my canine friends to suffer. Indeed, my canine family made those dark days bearable. Their loyalty and love gave me a profound reason and resolve never to eat meat again.

While waiting for a new season in my life to unfold, I spent many hours in meditation. I surrendered my fate completely to the hands of the Supreme Sovereign Creator of the universe. I had decided I will become a fool for God whom I trusted implicitly to turn all the disappointments and pains into a glorious story of victory. And so, I endured the night of soul for a couple more years, until I decided to travel to America.

I had never visited the United States before, so, the thought of getting a visa at a time my country was embargoed was scary and exciting at the same time. Scary because I could lose the nonrefundable fee if the interview was not successful, and exciting because with a childlike curiosity, I wanted to see what experiences and surprises the universe had waiting for me. I decided I would visit the National Shrine of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos in New Orleans. I applied for the visa, and against all odds, it was issued.

It was in New Orleans that I met my wife – a kind and beautiful woman. I decided to stay a few years in the United States before I would return with my wife to my home country, Nigeria.  I worked various jobs to support my family and keep my body and soul together. But as I worked at these jobs the calm but firm voice of intuition persistently said to me, ‘this is not the job I want you to do’. I listened, and the desire to start my own food service business in New Orleans began to burn inside of me.

During those days I was looking for a second job in a scrap metal factory, and the manager introduced me to his father, a jovial, hardworking and compassionate man named Al Smith who took interest in my story and became friends with me and my wife. He would be the one whom I partnered with to launch our first food service business: a food truck called Tanjariné Kitchen.

My wife and our beautiful children poured our hearts and soul into the business and worked diligently to replicate, in vegan, some of the delicious non-vegan foods my family had taught me how to cook. Through many preparations we perfected the Mandela Burger.

With the exponential growth in the vegan food industry in recent times, many food manufacturers frenziedly seek to replace meat burgers with healthier vegan options; many have created patties that mimic meat with an overload of chemicals, additives, artificial colors, unnatural flavors, and synthetic binders.

By contrast, the Mandela Burger is free of soy and gluten, contains no artificial colors or flavors, and is comprised of high-quality organic and non-GMO ingredients. As a result, the Mandela Burger is all-natural and naturally bursting with flavor: our nutritious patty is infused with tropical spices and herbs to delight our customers—most agree they don’t need to add any seasonings or toppings—it’s delicious as is!

Personally, I have found no better way to honor and preserve the sweet memories of my dearly departed loved ones than to share with the world a gift of love expressed through my culinary creations. It is in my beloved family’s honor that each Mandela Burger is crafted—and I am filled with joy and pride to welcome you, dear customer, into our expanded family.

The Mandela Burger is a demonstration of love and compassion for our human and non-human brothers and sisters in creation. The creation of the Mandela Burger is an active advocacy against animal cruelty and exploitation, while also providing a healthy, protein-rich option for vegans and non-vegans alike.

With love & gratitude,
Dazzle

​

Join The Family