Latest news with #WestAfricanCuisine
Irish Times
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Chishuru London restaurant review: This is the most exciting food I've eaten in years, and the head chef is Irish
Chishuru Address : 3 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 8AX Telephone : N/A Cuisine : West African Website : Cost : €€€€ It's not often a tasting menu floors you – but Chishuru has been top of my London list for good reason. Adejoké Bakare made history as the first black female chef in the UK to win a Michelin star , which she got in 2024 – and her head chef is Christine Walsh from Tipperary. Walsh comes with real pedigree, having worked at Enda McEvoy and Sinead Meacle's Loam, Galway's Michelin-starred restaurant that was one of Ireland's most influential until it closed in 2022. She was subsequently the chef behind Éan . Her move to London is typical for Irish chefs keen to build skills – but here there's the thrill of working with spices rarely seen outside west Africa. Chishuru in Fitzrovia is Bakare's first permanent restaurant, built off a Brixton pop‑up she started in 2019. She was born in west Africa – not a generic 'Nigeria' but a region of kingdoms. Her father is Yoruba, her mother Igbo, and she grew up in a Hausa area. Those influences run through her food – Yoruba heat, Igbo spice and Hausa fire‑cooking. You don't need a primer on west African cooking to eat here. Bakare shows you – offering a sharp, modern take on overlapping traditions. The £105 (€123) tasting menu opens with a snack that sets the tone: a delicate tartlet of puréed celeriac, smoke and spice drifting out in a single, tight note. READ MORE Bakare isn't playing at concept. She cooks what she knows: Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa. Photograph: Harriet Langford Nothing looks familiar when it lands. Abàchà – a cassava salad – gives little away at first: shredded dried cassava over plantain ash, pickled daikon and a dressing of ehuru – African or Calabash nutmeg – for a lightly pungent lift. It's all about texture and control – a quiet smoke that doesn't swamp but lingers enough to let you know it's there. Then Ṃóínṃóín – a dish that wrecks your sense of what beans can do. A soft, steamed black‑eyed bean cake sits on a bean milk salsa with anchovy‑red pepper sauce, touched with a gentle funk. On top is a scallop and monkfish boudin blanc – classic technique, clever spice – and then you're hit with toast soaked in beef fat, rich with that aged tang you would normally find under a dry‑aged rib cap. We pass on the £68 wine flight and choose from a list that's short but serious – mostly Jura, Loire and Alsace, low‑intervention, fair prices, good by‑the‑glass options. A lightly chilled Brouilly – Domaine Crêt des Garanches (£47.50, about €56) – does everything you want with all this spice and depth. Chishuru's interior. Photograph: Harriet Langford The pepper soup is another highlight. It's more broth than soup – spiced with uziza peppers and finished with torched line‑caught mackerel. There's a clean heat – restrained but persistent – in a stock built from chicken, beef and fish bones, layered for depth without weight. Vegetables are sliced to near invisibility – radish, apple, maybe squash. It is, perhaps, the most intricate thing on the menu. [ Maneki restaurant review: A showy start gives way to a muddled menu Opens in new window ] Then the main courses; you get a choice, which is rare. We go for both the monkfish (mbongo tchobi) and the hogget (ayamase). The monkfish is poached, served with a blackened tomato and spice sauce that brings slow, earthy depth, balanced by pickled greens and confit plantain. There's heat, but it's measured. Slices of hogget leg and shoulder, pink and yielding, sit on a green pepper and irú stew – thick, savoury, tangled with fermented locust beans, crispy tripe and smoked lamb's tongue, all deepened with fat and a steady heat that grows as you eat. It's an unfiltered expression of technique and place. Dessert is egúsí ice cream – melon seed, usually found in stews – with meringue sponge, caramelised brittle and a soaked blackberry. It's refreshing and textural. The ice cream is subtly nutty, not too sweet, and the brittle has a delightful crack. It's a smart, well-judged finish. Chishuru calls itself 'modern west African', but that barely covers it. Bakare isn't playing at concept. There's no forced nostalgia or claim to purist authenticity. She cooks what she knows – Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa – with discipline learned outside the system, using ingredients hauled from Brixton or Dagenham when the big suppliers fall short. It's personal. This isn't one of those bloated tasting menus that lose the plot halfway through. It's lean, alive and narratively sharp – each plate knowing exactly when to stop. The €45 lunch is a steal – different dishes, same jolt of energy. Dinner is the full tilt; it's refined, original, and brilliantly creative without ever showing off. It's a sharp, precise record of where she comes from and where she's going. A thrill to eat. Dinner for two with a bottle of wine and 12.5 per cent service charge was £289.68 (€339). The verdict: The most exciting food I've eaten in years. Food provenance: Seafood from Bethnal Green Fish Supplies and Fin & Flounder; meat from HG Walter, Billfields and Farmer Tom; and vegetables from Oui Chef, Shrub and Albion. Vegetarian options: Vegetarian tasting menu available. Wheelchair access: Accessible room with no accessible toilet. Music: Afrobeat, Amapiano and Fela Kuti.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Chef Niema Day,' winner of Food Network's Beat Bobby Flay recognized
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — Chef Niema DiGrazia, a talented West African culinary artist and beloved community figure, was honored by the Caddo Parish Commissioners for her victory on Food Network's Beat Bobby Flay. In recognition of her achievement, they declared Saturday, June 7, 2025, 'Chef Niema DiGrazia Day' to celebrate her talent and impact. 'This moment is just not for me. It is for my community. It is for my family in Sierra Leone. It is for my friends. It is for women and men around the world who do not have hope. Like when I left Sierra Leone, I didn't know what I was going to do in America,' 'This resolution isn't just for me. It belongs to every young dreamer, every immigrant, every chef, and every supporter who has worked beside me on this journey. Thank you for making this day unforgettable,' said Chef Niema, accepting her special proclamation. Celebrate Juneteenth with Black-owned food trucks On Thursday, June 5, Caddo Parish District 5's Commissioner Roy Burrel joked, giving a playful pat to his stomach, 'Now I see why you're so slim because you've deposited it all here.' Commissioner Victor L. Thomas offered a glowing congratulatory statement and said, 'You have uniquely and creatively come into our community and made sure that we are aware of all that your culture has to offer, and we are so very proud of you for that. It's an honor to be able to do this. It's an honor to be able to stand here and proclaim your victory and how much our community loves you, and we know how much you love our community.' Chef Niema is the Executive Chef at Abby Singer's Bistro, located on the second floor of the non-profit Robinson Film Center in downtown Shreveport at 617 Texas Street. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
