A science teacher turned entrepreneur who left his position at a French secondary school to start an African food manufacturing company is going viral for a recent appearance on CBC’s Dragon’s Den.

Gilles Tchianga is from Cameroon, so he started Taltis Foods to bring foods he knew to Canada.

“I realized that every time I suffered from homesickness since I came to Canada, I couldn’t find a product that reminded me of my background in a single retail store,” Tchianga told blogTO. “Living in one of the most multicultural cities in the world, such as Toronto, it was clear to me that something has to be done.”

Tchianga recently went on the CBC show Dragon’s Den and made an equity and financing deal with Wes Hall, the founder of Kingsdale Advisors.

He came in looking for $60,000 for 10 per cent of his company and left with $600,000, having given up 33 per cent and snagged a $500,000 loan to use an operating facility to boost production.

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Tchianga started the business in 2017 and, by 2018, left his teaching job to pursue Taltis Foods full time. He had never planned to be a teacher. Instead, he did so strictly out of necessity.

Before coming to Canada, Tchianga finished high school in Cameroon and moved to Italy. There, he attended the University of Milan and earned a master’s degree in food processing.

Short of work opportunities, he moved to Canada in search of ways to support his family in Cameroon, but the road was rough.

“Once in Canada, things didn’t go as planned because it was hard to find a job related to my study background. So, I went on to register for a program at George Brown College to improve my English, but my conditions to find a job did not get any better,” Tchianga said in an interview.

So, he returned to school to get a bachelor’s degree at the University of Ottawa. He worked as a teacher for seven years after that.

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Since he quit teaching, Tchianga has been to several trade shows and sells his African-themed products online and in Afro-Caribbean shops and restaurants in Ontario.

The product line includes hibiscus drinks starting at $3.99, Jollof sauce starting at $4.99 and frozen African yams beginning at $19.89, according to blogTO.

Through the deal with Hall, Tchianga said he hopes to expand across Canada and into the U.S. in major retail stores like Whole Foods and Walmart.

“We want to democratize African cuisine by making African products accessible,” he told blogTO.