"I didn't grow up with measurements," she says. "We just go by taste; that's how I was raised. As long as you have something to cook on, a pot, a spoon and maybe a chopping board, all you need is your hands, and your mouth to taste. And just put as much love as you can in the food."
The 32-year-old is the founder of the popular Cameroonian restaurant, , which cleverly operates out of a shipping container in Brunswick.
What's Cameroonian cuisine?
Cameroonian cuisine is bold and varied, featuring many starchy dishes like fufu, different types of soups and stews, grilled meat and seafood.
"The food has very big flavours. It's colourful as we eat lots of vegetables that we grow. And we eat very heavy as well," says Vola, adding that the country also has many regional specialties.
The cuisine relies heavily on spices, some native, like Cameroonian pepper and African nutmeg, and others that are also common elsewhere in the world.
"Our food is definitely seasoned," says Vola. "My mum always says she can't cook without onion, garlic and ginger."
Vola relies on friends and family to bring her back spices, but she says that you can find almost everything in African grocers in Australia. In Melbourne, her go-to for African staples is Nula Multi Products in Braybrook.
What Cameroonian dishes can I try at home?
West African staple is a starchy dish made with cassava, corn or plantain. It's easy to make at home, though you might need some practice to get it perfect.
"My auntie told me that you're ready for marriage when you cook fufu, as it's an important food in my culture."
The belief is that if you can cook fufu that is not lumpy, you're ready for marriage.
"And you cannot choose a husband who eats less than three fufu," says Vola.
In one side dish, fufu is teared to pieces and rolled or shaped into a ball then dipped into a sauce, soup or stew. At Vola Foods, corn fufu comes with vegan tomato stew or lamb stew.
When it comes to celebratory food, Vola can't go past jollof rice. This other West African staple, which can be , is often prepared in one pot, and can be adapted to your taste.
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Jollof rice
Start with the base ingredients (rice, tomato, onion, peppers, oil and stock), then tweak the selection of spices, and customise your jollof with a variety of vegetables, meat or fish.
"It has to taste good because some people can be very picky about jollof rice. It's a celebration dish so you have to have it at a party," explains Vola.
Despite being surrounded by Cameroonian food all day, Vola still loves to cook at home. "Because I'm from a really big family, we're just used to cooking in big portions. We don't know how to cook small portions and I still struggle to this day to cook small portions," she says.
Her current favourites to make at home and at the restaurant, are (a soup of African spinach, different meats, palm oil, crayfish and dried cassava fufu), borning fish (a whole fish marinated in spices and cooked on charcoal BBQ) and (meat marinated in spices and cooked on charcoal BBQ).
