Original Story Published by: Molly Fosco for Ozy
Like Thai, Indian and Ethiopian before it, Nigerian cuisine is emerging as the next go-to ethnic food.
Sticky-sweet hibiscus chicken, spiced duck breast with guava sauce, and fluffy, peppery jollof rice sit atop the long dining room table set for a feast. Forty people of different ages and races gather at Lopè Ariyo’s supper club event to try the young chef’s unique Nigerian-British fusion meals. Some are tasting Nigerian food for the first time. Guests begin eating as Ariyo watches in anticipation — excited to discover how the food of her heritage is received.
To most, dishes like akara bean cakes and spicy ogbono soup might be just exotic-sounding names, but they’re beginning to tickle taste buds at Nigerian restaurants popping up in major cities, from London to Toronto to New Orleans. For years, delicacies from Ethiopia and Morocco were the African cuisines most widely available in the West. Now a band of Nigerian immigrant chefs are propping up their country’s tastes as the next big African cuisine, while also battling social concerns and stereotypes.
Nigerian-born Lohi Busari, 30, was head chef of African restaurant MamaLand Resto-Lounge in Toronto from 2014 until 2016, when she took a break to stay home with her daughter. A food blog she launched in 2009 to popularize Nigerian cuisine draws more than 15,000 page views a month. When Busari first arrived in Toronto in 2004, she struggled to find a restaurant that served Nigerian food. Now, she says, there are at least 15 restaurants serving Nigerian cuisine in Toronto. Busari knows of only two Ghanaian restaurants in Toronto — the next most popular cuisine from West Africa in the city.
In the U.S., chef Tunde Wey, 34, is shining light on Nigerian cuisine — and more. At his New Orleans pop-up food stall Saartj, launched this year, Wey gives white customers the option to pay more than Black customers for the same meal, calling attention to racial wealth disparity.
