SAN FRANCISCO — Rhona could not cease herself from mentally rolling her eyes throughout her third date with Kelena Azubuike.
Throughout that night’s get-together at his L.A. condo in 2019, he provided the previous Warriors a few of his leftover cornbread. She gladly accepted, then instructed him precisely what she thought.
“That is the very best cornbread I’ve ever eaten,” Azubuike recalled solemnly. “It is best to actually do one thing with it.”
Rona felt uncertain.
Kelena had already instructed him that she cherished the spaghetti he made for the 2 of them, so complimenting her cornbread felt like an excessive amount of.
Rona remembered, “I assumed he was stuffed with it.” “We have been simply courting, so I assumed he was simply attempting to be good.”
Kelena was being very critical.
“The world must expertise this,” Kelena stated. “We will not cover this to ourselves. We have to share it with the world.”
Just a few years later, when the 2 grew to become husband and spouse, the couple did the identical with their cornbread obsession. It is develop into a enterprise – Kelena’s Well-known Connoisseur Cornbread – whose product is now offered round Chase Heart and even at a boba tea store in Hercules.
It is available in six varieties – Blueberry White Chocolate, Caramel, Banana Walnut, Roasted Garlic & Herb, Fiesta and Ube Salted Egg – however all have a typical characteristic. Not like many kinds of cornbread, that are crunchy and crumbly to eat, Azubeux’s choices lean towards being extra cake-like.
Rona would by no means reveal the precise particulars of her recipe, however she has made no secret that it was born out of her frustration with how tough it’s to eat different variations of her favourite meals.
“She’s an issue solver, and he or she was at all times a cornbread connoisseur, and he or she wished cornbread, so she would drive miles and miles to search out good cornbread,” Kelena not too long ago instructed the Bay Space Information Group. “She determined, ‘I can do one thing about this, let me attempt to make one thing,’ so she went into the kitchen and created her personal recipe.”
Lately, eager to develop the cornbread taste past the standard plain and barely much less conventional jalapeño, Rona started experimenting with completely different flavors.
However even when she began inventing new flavors, Rona did not see it changing into a full-fledged enterprise.
“He had this imaginative and prescient,” Rona stated. “As a result of for me, I simply wished to eat it. I simply love cornbread. I did not know it will go this far.”
And after having fun with cornbread amongst themselves in non-public, the Azubouixes determined to start out their very own enterprise in February 2024.
Quickly, Azubuix’s cornbread started to be discovered at distributors across the Chase Heart, the place Kelena now calls Warriors video games for NBC Sports activities Bay Space. In 2025, a retailer in Hercules approached the Warriors about increasing cornbread gross sales past their dwelling enviornment.
“They have been saying they did not actually have any meals,” Kelena stated. “It will be attention-grabbing to have one thing there for when individuals get hungry, and it isn’t simply boba drinks.”
Though Kellyanne remains to be finest identified for her enjoying profession with the Warriors and now her work as a coloration commentator with Bob Fitzgerald, the household’s Cornbread line has allowed her to specific one other aspect of her character.
“Everybody has completely different passions for various issues,” Kelena stated. “Clearly, basketball has been wonderful to me and my life, and being a commentator has been wonderful, and I by no means take it without any consideration. … However then I am additionally captivated with meals. I like to eat, and I like cornbread. Seeing individuals take part in one thing we created and my spouse cooked within the kitchen … it is nice to see their response.”
The flavour roster at Chase Heart sits at six, however Rona and Kelena hope to develop that quantity. They work with Chase Heart cooks to create new kinds of meals with cornbread recipes.
Cornbread waffles and rooster? Positive. A blonde the place cornbread is the principle attraction? They’ve discovered a means to do that.
“We go across the desk, and discover out what everybody feels, what they appreciated about it and what different makes use of it may have,” stated Chase Heart govt chef Michael Rintakutan. “The preliminary issues we thought of cornbread have been that it isn’t conventional, and it has the moisture of a cake, so instantly we considered desserts.”
Because the enterprise grows, Rona remains to be getting used to seeing her culinary creations offered out in an NBA enviornment.
Rona stated, “I assumed it was sufficient for me, however to have it right here is past my creativeness.”
What began as an thought at an early date has now develop into an integral a part of Azubouix’s life. Neither of them are in any hurry to search out out the place this goes subsequent.
For him, being different individuals’s cornbread connoisseur is sufficient for now.
“I am certain there can be different alternatives that current themselves,” Kelena stated. “Proper now, we’re simply residing within the second, and we wish Dub Nation and everybody who involves Chase Heart to benefit from the expertise.”
