After over a decade spent engaged in humanitarian work with the UN and years of self-teaching in the culinary arts, Selassie Atadika completed course work at the Culinary Institute of America.
Her company, Midunu, a nomadic and private-dining enterprise in Accra, Ghana, embodies ‘New African Cuisine’. It celebrates culinary heritage where culture, community and cuisine intersect with environment, sustainability and economy by employing local, seasonal, and underutilised ingredients including traditional grains and proteins to deliver Africa’s bounty to the table. Atadika uses chocolate as a base to feature the flavours and essence of Africa.
She launched The Midunu Institute to document and preserve the continent’s culinary heritage. She was a finalist in the 2019 Basque Culinary World Prize.
Here, she tells us more about her culinary journey and what needs to change in the world's professional kitchens:
I often spend time reading about the background of chefs from around the world, as part of my professional development. When asked about what inspires them and how they got into cooking, many male chefs point to a matriarch, oftentimes a mother or grandmother, who taught them to cook or sparked their culinary curiosity. The questions that frequently follow in my mind are: What about their sister(s)? Did their mother or grandmother instil this same love of food in them? If so, did they decide to make this interest professional?
When you see any system or structure in society that doesn't match the natural demographics, it's important to ask why. Underneath, you'll find the systemic issues that prevent one group or another from finding their way there. The culinary industry has always made me stop and ask more questions. With women dominating the domestic culinary space in most cultures in the world, it is just plain wrong that more women who have wanted to excel in the culinary arts have not been able to have their voices, visions and ambitions achieved.
Whether it is the lack of women in leadership roles or that the further back you go in the kitchen the darker the staff get, too many restaurants and kitchens around the world have this in common for it to just be mere chance.
My road to becoming a chef was a winding one, which started off with me as a pre-med student. I took a detour as a humanitarian worker with the UN and finally returned home to Accra, Ghana, where I started my own kitchen.
During my 10-plus years working with the UN in Africa, I got frustrated with colleagues and Western tourists complaining about and misunderstanding African cuisines. With so many ingredients and techniques in common with the Ghanaian cuisine I grew up with, I couldn't comprehend how they weren't equally enamoured with the flavours that I held so close to my heart. Not one to shy away from a good challenge, I eventually became exasperated hearing this and decided to prove them wrong.
My approach was an unorthodox one. I knew the years in my mother's kitchen and the many dishes eaten during my travels across the continent had given me the best first-hand knowledge available in understanding the flavours across Africa. What I was missing was the vocabulary that went along with the culinary language that the rest of the world was speaking.
I was first introduced to the idea of a cuisine through the use of the alphabet and language by Chef Andre Chiang. So I enrolled in a short culinary programme to acquire enough of an alphabet to create my own language and then moved back to Ghana to become fluent in my own kitchen, in my own space with my own language, “New African Cuisine”, where culture, cuisine and community intersect with environment, sustainability and economy.
It's the kind of cuisine that could only come from a chef with life experiences and interests that span geography, development, health, agriculture, African foodways, change theory, environment and nation-building.
If I could distil what I have learnt thus far in my journey, I would break it down into three elements.
The first is the insight into and mastery of the existing rules. Depending on which section of the industry you are looking to break into, it could mean learning culinary techniques, methods and products. For other parts of the industry, it would be understanding the financial models and management systems that are used in the types of enterprises you are looking to work in.
The second element is to go back and hone your voice. Amplify and perfect your unique perspective and the talent you offer the market.
The third element is to now rework the rules and create your own game. Since you are creating the rules, you get to create a game that you can win.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we leave the status quo as is. With more and more of us women entering the industry and winning, we need to work together and advocate for the shifts and changes needed for the industry: less abusive kitchens, more investment in and press for female chefs and founders, to name a few.
In my kitchen, from day one, I made it a policy to seek and recruit talented young women to form the core of my team. I hope one day they will lead the kitchens and restaurants we would all want to work in, and dining rooms we would all love to eat in.
My road has not been a smooth or easy one, but with discipline, determination, leveraging my unique perspective and creating my own path, I've been able to move towards some of the goals. I still have a lot more that I want to do, and I believe we can do more together.
As we restart economies around the world in the months and years to come, let's create new rules, let's change the game and let's support each other for an industry with more voices around the table and more deliciousness!
TRY ONE OF ATADIKA'S RECIPES
MIDUNU GROUNDNUT SOUP
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
375ml (1½ cups) smooth natural peanut butter or groundnut paste
60ml (¼ cup) tomato paste
7.5ml — 15ml (½ tbsp- 1 tbsp) ground cayenne pepper, to taste
2 litres (8 cups) stock
5ml (1 tsp) fresh ginger, grated
15ml (1 tbsp) mushroom powder, optional
60ml (¼ cup) finely minced onion
10ml (2 tsp) salt
Blanched or sautéed vegetables of choice — green beans, eggplant, carrots, okra and/or cauliflower
Chilli
Method:
- Mix the peanut butter and tomato paste with cayenne pepper in a pot and slowly blend in 2 cups stock. Cook on medium heat, covered, and stir occasionally for 20 minutes.
- Add remaining 6 cups stock, stirring in slowly. Reduce heat to medium-low.
- Add ginger, mushroom powder, if using, onion and salt.
- Boil for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally until the oil separates* and is released from the groundnut paste.
- Add the sautéed or blanched vegetables and chilli to taste, and let it cook for a few minutes before serving alone, or with the starch of your choice.
Notes:
- *If you don't let the soup cook until the oil separates, it can cause discomfort during digestion.
- The soup can be reduced down a bit further and used as a sauce.
