Alexander Smalls – a former opera singer who opened the first fine-dining African American restaurant in New York – realised that African American and African food was missing from conversations around fine dining and refined cuisine, so he set out to rewrite that story, bringing African cuisine into the dialogue with dignity, pride and respect. For this book he has invited 33 of the most significant chefs, restaurateurs, caterers, cooks and writers at the heart of Africa’s food movement to the table and started the discussion with a simple question: ‘What would you make if I came to dinner?’ From Egypt, Mohamed Kamal would make him a seven-grain Nubian dish, argeeh, and present it with stories of washing newborn babies in the Nile on their seventh day. Agatha Achindu from Cameroon will bring goat meat pepper soup, repeating the myth that pepper soup stops you from getting drunk. South African beef stew and dumplings comes from Sinoyolo Sifo who tells that it’s a traditional dish made for emgidini, a Xhosa rite-of-passage celebration. Alexander Smalls writes with a deeply felt candour about the bind of Black Americans clinging to culinary traditions in a world defined by whiteness, where he says food was a source of dignity and pride when you had nothing that was validated by society. Representing the food of an entire continent is a massive undertaking deftly done by Africa’s most significant culinarians who are setting this new African table with a range of traditional dishes paired with some brand-new presentations. TRACY WHITMEY
