African chefs

[chefzadi]

I am writing several articles about African foods and African chefs. I have a pretty good list of contacts. However it is very difficult for me find African chefs outside of my own circle, unless they've gotten some press before.

Is there an African or African origin chef in your area who emphasizes foods from the continent or the diaspora? Is engaged in promoting the cuisines of Africa?

Some of you here know that I am an African. In December I am giving a lecture/demo on West/North African foods at the Fowler Museum as part of their Tuareg exhibition.

[eje]

Chef Morou Ouattara of the late Signatures restaurant in Washington DC and a recent Iron Chef America competitor was originally from the Ivory Coast.

Unfortunately, he lost to Bobby Flay in Battle Frozen Pea.

[cstuart]

Check out Bissap Baobab here in San Francisco.

[chefzadi]

Hi Erik and CStuart

Thank you for responding.

[Swisskaese]

There is a fantastic African restaurant in Germany called Farmerhaus.

The main chef, Alfred Koska, is German, but his second in command is Quddus Mrida.

The website is only in Germany, but the owner's speak English.

[The Cynical Chef]

At last year's Food & Wine Festival at Disney World we were next to Joseph Seeletso, Executive Chef of the Phakalane Resort in Botswana, Africa. Jospeh served a delicious & spicy braised beef with flatbread.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I came across this recently: from U Penn on African restaurants which may, or may not, be of value ...

In Atlanta, we have one restaurant of which I am aware, Ethiopian Abbay Restaurant which is popular with the local Ethiopian community.

[MarketStEl]

I came across this recently: from U Penn on African restaurants which may, or may not, be of value ...

Could go either way.

It was compiled quite a while ago:

Compiled by Stanley Lewis Cushingham October 10, 1989

so I suspect that there's been lots of changes.

For instance, this list predates the opening of Fatou and Fama, a cheery little West African/Caribbean restaurant in University City (horn-tooting aside: the restaurant's main page--after the intro--includes my blurb announcing its opening in The Penn Current in 2002 in its scrolling list of "Testimony from Press and Patrons"; I had even nicer things to say about the place in a later Current article they apparently must not have seen), and also predates Yankady, a Senegalese restaurant at 4519 Baltimore Avenue (the name translates from a West African tongue whose name escapes me right now as "It's good here").

Chefzadi: You might want to see if you can contact Fatou Ndaiye Wilson (the "Fatou" in Fatou and Fama; Fama is her mother, who taught her everything she knows about cooking) for your project. She is a well-regarded African chef in the local community (also Senegalese) and has been praised in the local press for her food.

You probably know about Dahlak already--it's generally considered the best Ethiopian restaurant in the city, though some swear by Abyssinia about five blocks north of it. Amare Solomon, who established it, is no longer with us, but his widow continues to run it.

Edited July 17, 2006 by MarketStEl (log)

[dans]

Marcus Samuelson of Aquavit is originally from Ethiopia. Does that count?

Dan

[chefzadi]

Marcus Samuelson of Aquavit is originally from Ethiopia. Does that count?

Dan

←

Yes, of course.

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Thank you again everyone who's contributed to this thread.

I should add that either Anglophone or Francophone speakers are fine. Translators can be found for other languages.

African-American chefs too.

So far the African food focused people (homecooks, food writers/scholars, agricultrual specialists, farmers, chefs, etc..) I know are from West, North, East, Central Africa, the Islands off Africa, the Caribbean/Antilles/West Indies, Latin America, African-American, etc...

We are a diverse group. A part of some the things I'm working on is not suprisingly dispelling some myths about Africa and the foods (people too ).

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Side note, I have the outline and research already for the Tuareg exhibition. I just posted that as one of the things that I am working on. The premise for that is that a food and cooking technique that had a West African genesis went on to "conquer" the world.

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Not exactly on topic to this thread, but related is that I am also building a network of food professionals form the Arab world or of Arab descent (all denominations and 2nd-3r-4th generation French or Americans of Arab descent too). As far as other cultural/culinary spheres if you like I can refer you too many of my friends/associates who from Asia, Latin America, Europe, etc...

Edited July 18, 2006 by chefzadi (log)