Shanta Nunn has always loved to cook and in July 2000 she explored the idea of culinary school.
"Food has always been a part of my life," she says.
The first time I saw my future spouse:
He says: “I was excited to meet her.”
She says: “I was nervous and overwhelmed because I had not dated a lot.”
On our wedding day:
He says: I was nervous on that day. That’s the only moment I questioned if I was doing the right thing. And I said, ‘Yes, I’m doing the right thing. This is the right thing.’”
She says: “My sister-in-law was in town and we went and did a lot of things — got massages, got our nails and hair done — and I ran late.”
My advice for a long happy marriage:
He says: “I promised my mom I would cherish and respect every woman just like I respect her. I think in every marriage there are some sacrifice and some compromise.”
She says: “I think you have to define what happiness and joy are and you have to take the good with the bad.”
She posted in an AOL chat group asking for input about culinary school and her request was answered by Moussa Baro, then a chef at Bistro St. Tropez in Philadelphia.
Shanta quizzed Moussa about culinary school. Moussa told her what he knew, and then he asked her about the kinds of food she liked to make and specifics about how she made it.
Moussa came to the United States from Senegal, West Africa, in 1997.
"I always just liked to learn more and know more so I was asking her questions," Moussa says. "It was mainly about food -- how do you prepare this, how do you make this kind of sauce, do you know how to make that and so on."
As their conversations progressed, he began rushing home after work to talk with Shanta. They got to know each other through texts, emails and phone calls -- and through the language of food.
"Things progressed further than just talking about food you know and so we started talking in earnest," Shanta says. "It was just a natural progression, as if you met a person in person."
In October 2000, they decided it was time to meet and Moussa flew to Little Rock. The fact that they hadn't so much as exchanged photos at that point earned Moussa some ridicule from his co-workers in Philadelphia -- and presented a challenge in identifying each other at the airport.
Shanta asked Moussa to wear a white polo shirt with a brown belt and brown shoes so she would know who he was. Moussa didn't have a white polo shirt so he went shopping.
"That's the best look on a guy," she explains.
He asked her to wear braids.
"When she saw me, she said, 'Moussa?' I said, yes and we kissed and we talked," he says.
Shanta introduced Moussa to friends and family while he was in town and showed him around the Arkansas Arts Center where she worked at the time, and they ate at the Purple Cow.
Moussa stayed for a week, and then returned to Philadelphia. In December, he came back.
They went to the Excelsior Hotel with some of Shanta's friends, he met her mother and they weathered an ice storm.
Moussa moved to Little Rock on Feb. 10, starting a new job at Alouette's right before Valentine's Day.
"We had the same likes, the same dislikes, the same fun attitude and that was it," Moussa says.
Neither was looking for romance when they met in that AOL chat room 20 years ago.
"I never expected to get married," Shanta says. "That was never in my plans. It was just random."
Some people were surprised by their quick engagement, says Moussa, but he remembered something his father told him when he was growing up in Africa.
"My father gave me a good piece of advice," he says. "He was always telling me that if you see a $100 bill, what are you going to do? Are you going to leave it there?"
If he left it there, intending to pick it up later, someone else would probably find it and pick it up before he returned, he explains. And so it was with Shanta, he says -- he wasn't about to let someone else pick her up first.
He asked for her mother's blessing, and he called his family as well.
They were married on April 21, 2001, at the Arkansas Arts Center.
The late Townsend Wolfe, then director of the Arts Center, had called Shanta into his office before the wedding to tell her he was covering the costs of the facility for her event.
"That was the most touching thing," Shanta says. "It brings tears to my eyes thinking about it."
Her family was there for the ceremony and Moussa's sister came down from Philadelphia for the event, as well.
Moving to Arkansas was an adjustment for Moussa. Among other things he could no longer rely on his bicycle or public transportation to get around, so he had to get a driver's license.
"That was OK," he says. "I did that quick."
Shanta and Moussa have made their home in Little Rock. He is director of dining for Parkway Villages now, and she is the national director of development for HIPPY USA.
They are parents to two boys -- Alassane, who was stillborn, and Ibrahima, 13.
"You have to take the wonderful with what might not have been so wonderful because we've had some trying times. We lost a child," Shanta says.
They have had fun together, too, watching Bollywood movies and, of course, the Food Network. They still enjoy talking about food, and they love to cook together.
"We really like to cook," Shanta says. "We cooked a really good meal last night-- he had tomahawk steak, I had cowboy steak, and we had German potato salad, beets, avocados and arugula -- and we watched Food Network and went through my Instagram and watched food on Instagram."
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High Profile on 05/10/2020