Join us for our Open Evening at Leiths on Thursday 12th March 2026, 6:30–8:30pm, and discover how the Culinary Diploma can launch your career in food.
Join us for our Open Evening at Leiths on Thursday 12th March 2026, 6:30–8:30pm, and discover how the Culinary Diploma can launch your career in food.
Sierra Leonean chef Maria Bradford is the woman to have put her homeland’s cuisine on the UK map. In 2025, Maria opened her first restaurant, Shwen Shwen by Maria Bradford. In February 2026, Shwen Shwen was awarded the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand ‘Opening of the Year’. Watch our interview with Maria at her award-winning restaurant in Kent below.
Photographs by GG Archard.
In her teens, Maria moved from Freetown in Sierra Leone to Kent. After career changing into food, the chef founded her own catering business. Then she created her own line of Afro-fusion food products and wrote a cookbook – Sweet Salone. Now, she has opened her restaurant in Sevenoaks to great acclaim, including winning the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand ‘Opening of the Year’ in 2026.
You can find out more about Shwen Shwen by Maria Bradford here.
Photographs by John Scott Blackwell