Is Michelin finally starting to notice African cooking?

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.

So this week we are leaving our South African studio for the streets of London to talk about African gastronomy. From the UK capital to New York and even New Orleans, African cuisines seem to be a hot topic.

I believe that it's time now for us to showcase West African food on a higher end and on a fine dining set in in London. I think it's a gap in the market that hasn't been tackled or hasn't been a deer too yet.

So the time has come for African cuisine to shine to the world how African cuisines went from casual to high end and how African top chefs around the world can capitalize on this success. I'm Jennifer's Abasaga and this is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing you one story each week from the continent driving the future of global growth with the context only Bloomberg can provide. Aji Akokomi is

One of the food cultures that I think is massively underrepresented at the FI dining level is food of African origin. And the best restaurant I've beenc recently is a restaurant called A Coco in London, and it was recently overlooked by Michelan, which I think is a great a great shame. It's a massive oversight of food of African origin and black chefs in general.

But A Coco deserves a star.

Poulter called out the world famous Michelin Guide for failing to recognize restaurants serving African cuisine, and now the guide seems to have listened. A Coco has just received the coveted Michelin Star, one of a vanishingly small number awarded to restaurants headed by black chefs anywhere in the world. So I went to meet Ahi in his restaurant just off London's world famous retail strip Oxford Street.

We started to think about a restaurant about seven years ago. The journey has been from not being able to get land lots of who would want a westercona restaurant in the property. Was that an issue that was an issue that was a big issue. And also in not funding whatsoever. It's actually really hard to get funding for restaurants at all. People would be looking for a lot of experience and also cuses where they were sure that he would do

Can you talk about why fine dining for the West African food scene was so import to you? Because n I know African food too. You know there's street food, right, there's smaller restaurants, there's parts of town that probably have a lot of mom and pop type shops. But why was fine dining so important for you to get into for this cuisine.

I worked in it with people who had the spending power to go it out and have really good experience, and I felt that West of can food had not been represented in that manner or perhaps colleagues would ask me, oh, I would like to try something African. So the only place I could do was to take them home, cook for them and enjoyed, and they don't ask me where can we have this?

We can I buy this.

And so talk to us a little bit about the foods and the tastes and the spices that you use here that are distinct to a cocoa.

Yeah.

So the food West of can food pretty much is that sort of deep umami flavor, smoke, spices and also the big bowled vibrant flavor.

We now believe that to do it here.

We then have our three pillars that we use smoke, umami and spices, and so we carefully source this beautiful the aromatic spices from Africa and also the wood really that we used to smell the food is from Africa, an exceptional and British produce using the West Africa and creative techniques to create dishes.

You import from the continent.

Yes, yeah, because for instance, we used the Namibian wood. Wow. I remember the first that we saw still that we started to burn it.

It smell, it reminded me of home and it has done flavor that it adds into the dishes.

Really, I wanted to ask you about the tasting menu format because more and more chefs it seems are reverting to that, why did you decide to do that with a cocoa?

So we started the restaurant as a tasting menu restaurant, and mainly because we knew that people would not be familiar with the dishes with the flavors, and it would be difficult for them to.

Choose and what's that, what's the ice cream? What is Genla flights and all of that.

We felt that it was important for us to walk them through a journey and giving them a menu where.

Would then explain the inspiration.

The flavors and where, and it felt a lot more like an experience.

So it was.

Deliberate and then the putting together texting men to make sure that we pretty much that could toll from the eighteen countries in West Africa and the flavors and also the dishes that are a coppler in all of these eighteen countries and exper instance genoph It's pretople much have main dish there pretty much the last course of the Savior before we then go into the desserts.

Having to import from Africa. Obviously you're bringing it into a new country, a new continent. Does that then add up though to more and more costs for the restaurant. Is that part of the reason why the prices are higher. How have you factored that into your price point?

It adds a bit, but thankfully not so much, and I think the reason being it's one the popularity of Afghan presenting the UK means that good supply chains to supply us good spices, so we'll always have good supply.

Thankful, We're happy for that.

And they would also the plethora of South African restaurants, school restaurants for instance, so there's already that good supply chain, there was.

Just people to tap into it. And then it's using.

Wood at all, really is a little bit more expensive, So it adds a bit and would let people know that that flavor that would beautiful would have pivo is from Camadorian wood is from the BBA is from South Africa, which is dried by the sun, imparting that flavor.

Many people might have heard the clip from Will the actor Porter, who was obviously touting black chefs and restaurants. I wonder if that had an effect on the popularity in the bandwagon that you're talking about, or what was the real turning point for this.

Restaurant I'll say yes that that was the magic moment.

We surprised, We were.

Very surprised, and it went viral and we fought we there were videos and lots of Americans actually filming themselves on the up in on the train coming to London to come and experience at Coco.

How lucky can we be?

I think that even allowed micheally, that even allowed a lots of lot of people to really notice us. And that was a turning point in the in our restaurant really and we actually experienced a lot of people last year with finger We're busy. Now last year we've always been rather busy, but from that we were packed with lots of a waited list.

And what about the Michelin Star. You have the sign side up the restaurant. What did that do for the same effects?

Will Pulsa had the same? Prey much powerful? Will polter like a Michelin Paulota wonderful? Metic is wonderful? Thank you? Yes, yes, pen want the same effects.

And in a moment we'll have more from Ahi, including whether the Michelin star might now mean prices could rise. Plus Bloomberg's food editor Kate Crater on the rise of African fine dining and how Rosie the Future is looking for food from all across the continent. Welcome back today, we are talking fine dining and back at a Coco, I asked Ahi what the impact of the Michelin Star will be on his restaurant.

We've not increased the price, but what we've done since then, it's been very busy and it's been launched, and what we've been doing intern the lead is to ensure that we'll retain the star, is to ensure that we have better every day.

And so it's been so much work.

What is it about the food, What is it about the space, what is it about the service? So it's just all of our work comings together, working every day to actually be a real proper Micheline Sat restaurant. And when we are confident, when we've done all the things in a new place, new menal is on cards, which we're working on once there might increase the paceable. For now, I just want our plethora customers to truly enjoy that mission in experience.

And outside of giving people a taste of your country, your culture, what do you see this doing for the continent, for the African continent, for the African people. I mean, is there something in introducing people to this cuisine that you think will then help eventually benefit your country.

And it's doing wonders and I think the plethora of people from the continent have actually come as well. It's just for them to see a blank business doing well firstly, and also to see wonderful restaurants celebrating West Souftern cuisine. Proud list for them is actually knowing that they could make it. Now you can actually be a chef and then open up a restaurant somewhere in Lordn America and very successful.

But also it's helping a supply chain.

Really there's a lot of good drive towroduce that can travel that we're not buying from the continent. The suppliers from there, little farmers from there that sending the goods to the UK and then we actually recommend them to other restaurants, your creators as.

Well, the staff that you bring on just because we're listening to the staff, yes, not everybody, I assume it's from West Africa, right, how do you bring together the right mix of people who know how to get the flavors and the food right and spot on to what it is that you remember about home.

And that's such an important question because we are a West souftern restaurant in London, and then we wanted our team to pretty much be very diverse.

We want people from all.

Backgrounds from anywhere to pretty much enjoy our food but also the cooking. So we have plethora of CBS sometime from Japan, something from France. It's that hospitality, is that friendly net come be part of us and learn about our cusine, learn about our culture and.

None of that. And so that's a vibe of a cocoa.

So could this be a special moment for African food? Kate creator Bloomberg's food editor, is joining me now to talk all through it. So, Kate, thanks so much for being on the podcast. Really great to get you on anyone who's traveled throughout the world. Obviously, we know there's a lot of African cuisines that are known as more street food or sort of mom and pop shops. But what do you make, Kate of this increased interest really with African cuisine and fine dining.

To me, it's a fantastic thing to see and it's something I didn't see so much in New York, where I've spent most of my professional career as a food writer and editor. So it's terrific to come here to London. And even in the time that I've been here, I've seen a sort of explosion in African in fine dining concepts and even just ambitious chefs and operators who have

Right, it's like an experience. They're paying for the experience there. We heard Ahi talk about just how significant getting that Michelin star was for a cocoa. But considering the difficult time restaurants have had over the past few years, does it actually make a difference to the bottom line when they do receive an accolade like this, like the Michelin Star, does it still have the same significance that it had decades ago.

That's an excellent question. Some people will tell you that Michelin's become a bit wider down. They've been definitely expanding and now they're in places like Colorado and in Orlando, Florida, which is better known as being disney World, which is not a place where you think you're going to go for Michelin starred food. No matter what, it's an accolade and it's great to have and a shiny star will

Do you think, then, Kate, does that sort of mean will continue to see more African fine dining restaurants open up? Globally. What sort of impact do you think it makes more broadly to the cuisine.

I love to think that it's going to you know, it's validation and it means that more restaurants will do more ambitious menus and charge more money for it. There's a restaurant called Chisharu that started out in Brixton as a sort of pop up and the chef Jokie Bacare. When she first started in Brixton in literally a food hall, I think her dinner menu was forty five pounds for a couple courses. Now she's moved to Covent Garden to much fancier trappings and her menu cost ninety five pounds

Thanks so much to Kate Crator, and thank you also to Ahi Akokomi, the founder of A Coco, for inviting me into his now world famous restaurant. Whether more African restaurants are awarded with a coveted Michelin star or not, the recent recognition is clearly giving the cuisine and the cooks behind it it's long overdue spotlight in many markets, expanding the palettes of those diners new to African cuisines and those just looking to indulge in a familiar taste.