When Simileoluwa Adebajo first saw the thick black smoke, she didn’t know it was her kitchen burning.
“So the building is burning down and all I can think is ‘My spices!
My spices!'”
Photographer: Greg DuPree, Food Stylist: Margaret Dickey, Prop Stylist: Kay Clarke
It was everything that she says characterizes Nigerian food: bold, flavorful, spicy, soulful.
“It was a way to recap our weeks and to share challenges and victories.
Her time in Nigeria “really shaped me as a person,” she says.
Alanna Hale
“I got to know myself, know my culture.
I learned how to speak my language.”
People love theobe ataso much she now sells and ships jars of it across the country.
Photographer: Greg DuPree; Food Stylist: Margaret Dickey; Prop Stylist: Kay Clarke
“I am only bringing this one perspective to the table,” Adebajo says.
“Hopefully over time I can bring in other Nigerian voices, somebody who cooks Igbo or Hausa food.
But then she remembered where she came from.
Her great-grandmother created a union in Nigeria that protected market women from extortion.
Her maternal grandmother was a textiles magnate in Ibadan.
Get the recipe:Beef Suya Tacos
So she rebuilt.
She hostspop-up dinnersand has taken them to New York and Los Angeles.
She rebuiltto tell her own stories and those from Nigeria.
Cameroon pepper
This reddish-brown ground pepper is made from fiery dried Scotch bonnet chiles.
Egusi
Made from ground dried gourd seeds, this powder thickens its namesake soup.
Its high smoke point makes it a good choice for frying.
The spicy skewered meat is generally referred to as suya throughout West African countries.
