Speaker 1: I'm Chef Binter originally from Sierra Leone, but I'm now
Speaker 1: based in Akra, Ghana. I've been here for over nine years.
Speaker 1: I'm the founder and executive chef at Fuller Nickeachin Fuller
Speaker 1: Nickechen is a additional nomadic prop up restaurants and our
Speaker 1: main goal is to promote full and Nikesine but also
Speaker 1: puts up the culture. So in a nutshell, what we've
Speaker 1: been doing is traveling across Africa, documenting all the full
Speaker 1: and stories from different Fullaning communities and hosting pop ups
Speaker 1: around it. Inspired by all these different communities across Africa.
Speaker 1: Oh good, Welcome back to the point of origin. On
Speaker 1: today's episode, we're talking about full Learning foodways and cuisine
Speaker 1: with Chef Fatma into the Fula. Fulani or fu Bay
Speaker 1: are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahil
Speaker 1: and West Africa, Dispersed across the region and inhabiting many countries.
Speaker 1: They live mainly in West Africa and the northern parts
Speaker 1: of Central Africa, but also in South Sudan and Sudan
Speaker 1: and regions near the Red Sea coast. Chef Benta is
Speaker 1: an indelible ambassador of Fulani food. Born and raised in Freetown,
Speaker 1: Sierra Leon to first generation Sierra Leonian fulanis of Ghanaian descent.
Speaker 1: Binta describes herself as a modern nomadic chef and as
Speaker 1: you're here in the episode, she's just doing what her
Speaker 1: people have done all along. So both my grandparents owned
Speaker 1: like a kukui um store actually, and then my mom
Speaker 1: also you used to sell like a street food. We
Speaker 1: have something clotical life, right, so she would sell that
Speaker 1: in our like like our small store. Um. So my
Speaker 1: love for its go from there, and I remembered like
Speaker 1: I would go to school, come back home and my
Speaker 1: job was like the glorified steward for my grandmother. I
Speaker 1: was washing pots that are so big I could probably
Speaker 1: fit into. So that was my job. So my love
Speaker 1: for it started there and studied international relations, left Sierra Leone, traveled,
Speaker 1: came back and then I had an AhR moment that
Speaker 1: this is what I love. Why not focus? So that's
Speaker 1: how my journeys started. And then went to colinary school
Speaker 1: in Naiobi, worked in hotels and got bored at some
Speaker 1: point because I had this try if when it comes
Speaker 1: to like just sharing the food. Also my worries when
Speaker 1: it comes to the culture fading a way, people not
Speaker 1: understanding the cuisine, and I took a lip of it
Speaker 1: to quit my stable, hotel job and full and the
Speaker 1: kitchen and Krisin. Through her Dining a Dinner series, Chef
Speaker 1: Pinter gives guests traditional nomadic dining experiences highlighting full learning
Speaker 1: culture and cuisine. The dinners combine her nomadic Fulani roots
Speaker 1: and formal training at the Kenyan Culinary Institute. So that
Speaker 1: was it. And most of the Fulling communities like people there.
Speaker 1: They were really excited about it because these people have
Speaker 1: moved for years. Some of them don't know how the
Speaker 1: food tastes like anymore. Um So me bringing all these
Speaker 1: ingredients and getting everyone on the mat and them having
Speaker 1: to like a experience the food, it was very It
Speaker 1: was like a deja vu moment for most people. Shoes
Speaker 1: are not allowed and once guests have made their way
Speaker 1: to the mat, they are greeted with a welcoming drink
Speaker 1: like watermelon and ginger beer. The starter is based on
Speaker 1: the theme of the event and explains the context and
Speaker 1: history of the dishes ingredients. The main dish, chef Bnter
Speaker 1: describes as bold like coat testicles or phonio salad. The
Speaker 1: evening ends with traditional tea and an opportunity to ask
Speaker 1: questions about the food and traditions of Fulani people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so moving to Guinea, having to be in a village
Speaker 1: where there's no electricity, um, very small village and having
Speaker 1: to like fetch firewood, gets food from the farm and
Speaker 1: prepare it's everything was done from scratch. So that's really
Speaker 1: shaped me as a chef in how also I tell
Speaker 1: my story because I got to experience all that um
Speaker 1: when I was around my teenage years, so that really
Speaker 1: influenced me as a chef and my love also for
Speaker 1: full and cuisine and preserving it's because that is really
Speaker 1: hard to experience now. Most of these villages are kind
Speaker 1: of disappearing because most of the young people don't go
Speaker 1: back and stay in the villages anymore, and all are
Speaker 1: like our elders, grandmothers, grand no just grandparents and general
Speaker 1: most of them have had have passed away, so it's
Speaker 1: really hard to go back and get um the originality
Speaker 1: of fun and the cuisine and the storytelling in general.
Speaker 1: Because we were colonized by the British, so it's mostly British,
Speaker 1: partly Nigeria. And also because we have. We have like
Speaker 1: one of the largest type in Sierra Leone. They are
Speaker 1: originally from um Nigeria. They are called the Forbes and
Speaker 1: if you look back, they're actually from the yellow bath type.
Speaker 1: So there are so many similarity when it comes to
Speaker 1: the Nigeria and food like things like something they called
Speaker 1: more and more in Nigeria. We also have it. We
Speaker 1: call it all in allen So and our food is
Speaker 1: very small leafy and it goes with a lot of ice,
Speaker 1: with rice, a lot in sill, so a bit of that.
Speaker 1: But mostly my focus has been fullany because then I
Speaker 1: grew up with in like Sierra Leone dishes and I
Speaker 1: have so much love for it. Something I enjoyed um.
Speaker 1: I also go back to it sometimes and just take
Speaker 1: inspiration and creating things and the beauty of infusing um
Speaker 1: full and a cuisine and silen and because it's always
Speaker 1: easy for me, because you know Sila, we share borders
Speaker 1: and we share also even our cuisine. We we it's
Speaker 1: almost the same thing. There's not much difference. It's the same.
Speaker 1: Fulani food is mostly prepared using ingredients that are sun
Speaker 1: dried and can be preserved for months. The diet is
Speaker 1: mainly derived from cattle and includes dairy items like yogurt, milk, butter,
Speaker 1: and meat, ground nuts, starches like sorghum, corn and fonio,
Speaker 1: a nutritious grain with a nutty taste and a pebble
Speaker 1: like texture that's native to Africa round out the diet.
Speaker 1: Like the black herdsman or cowboys of the mid nineteenth
Speaker 1: century in Texas, the Fulani people are nomadic and raised
Speaker 1: cattle primarily for the purposes of business. Most things that
Speaker 1: people confuse is that the thing we eat meat a lot.
Speaker 1: I will start with that we do it for business
Speaker 1: full and is mostly focused on offers, like we eat
Speaker 1: offers a lot. So most times if we slaughter, for example,
Speaker 1: a cow, who sell everything else and they will save
Speaker 1: the offers for the for like for cooking at home.
Speaker 1: And sound right also to our our food, our dishes,
Speaker 1: our ingredients in general is mostly sound right. And that
Speaker 1: is because we are always moving, so that's our way
Speaker 1: of preserving our ingredients for the next migration. And we
Speaker 1: eat corn a lot. Corn is a huge part of
Speaker 1: our diet. Um things like for new is a huge
Speaker 1: part of our diet. And then also rice, the local
Speaker 1: rice um it's a huge part of our diet. Vegetables
Speaker 1: not much because we hardly thinks that are fresh. So
Speaker 1: even when it comes to vegetable sound right and things
Speaker 1: like oh well, um, even though it's vegetables, we actually
Speaker 1: have a dish that's really interesting. Um we sound different
Speaker 1: different types of vegetables with vegetables and then cook that
Speaker 1: into one part which the other parts in Africa call them,
Speaker 1: but we make it one and then um, add salt
Speaker 1: and just dried chilies. So have we don't. That's that
Speaker 1: we don't exporting so much. So it's mostly sound dried.
Speaker 1: That must be a very intensely flavored broth. That sun
Speaker 1: drying that sounds good. So when you do the sun drying,
Speaker 1: how does it work? You like lay down a mat
Speaker 1: or something and then cut the vegetables in half and
Speaker 1: then let them stay out in the sun for how long?
Speaker 1: So we don't use maths because we believe that the
Speaker 1: math is only mens for players or eating in the
Speaker 1: evenings with the families. So it's almost like we respect
Speaker 1: the math so much. That's why you're not even allowed
Speaker 1: to like step foot with like slippers, not allowed to
Speaker 1: bring and his shoes or slippers on the maps and
Speaker 1: that's something also practice. When I'm most in events, we
Speaker 1: have like a corner where everybody will live their shoes.
Speaker 1: So when it comes to where sundry are things, we
Speaker 1: normally use clay which will mix with the cows punk
Speaker 1: mm hmm. And so we designed the space for sun drying,
Speaker 1: so patterns really nice lay sticks around. Um create that
Speaker 1: space only for sound drying things, or they will build
Speaker 1: raxis and sticks. Even the homes because you know our
Speaker 1: homes also can be dismantled. It's it's movable. We create
Speaker 1: space inside like a pantry which we will hang our
Speaker 1: account and then also just keep any other thing that
Speaker 1: related to food and cooking. Where does most of the
Speaker 1: beef girl that is raised or that that folaney or selling,
Speaker 1: Where does most of the girl local to the market,
Speaker 1: you know, slaughter and cell and most of the During
Speaker 1: this piece thing I was doing, I realized that sometimes
Speaker 1: even the cattles the area and it's not it doesn't
Speaker 1: belong to them. They do it for like politicians because
Speaker 1: they know how to do it. They know how to
Speaker 1: handle cattles. So people would decide to do it as
Speaker 1: a business and then almost like outsource it to a
Speaker 1: fully look fun to handle it for them, and then
Speaker 1: they will pay the person. Um, yeah, start the amount
Speaker 1: of which m should we add the cattle for them? Wow?
Speaker 1: And that's very complex because then you have people who
Speaker 1: are in power who are actually encouraging Fulani to raise cattle.
Speaker 1: But then the neighbors are taking it out on the Fulani.
Speaker 1: But this is what they need to make a living living,
Speaker 1: and they are quiet about it because they can't even
Speaker 1: comment maybe immediate because right, of course, of course it's
Speaker 1: very political. So um, what are you when you're in
Speaker 1: the midst of those um negotiations? Um, what are you saying?
Speaker 1: To people on either side? It is difficult because one
Speaker 1: most of these Fullney people they don't even understand the
Speaker 1: local language. And because they don't expect borders. I would say,
Speaker 1: we don't we we don't expect borders, so and they
Speaker 1: will come and settle. So whenever they has a fight,
Speaker 1: the locals will just impose the laws on them. For example,
Speaker 1: We're going to find you. If your cattles in, then
Speaker 1: we're finding you this and they are forced to just
Speaker 1: do it, and sometimes they can be stubborn also they're like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing and they will settled there the knowledge
Speaker 1: is start, so it's it's very chaotic. I always try
Speaker 1: to go there communicate, so I'll talk to them what's
Speaker 1: the problem is. They'll tell me fullarney, and then I
Speaker 1: will explain to the locals, which are like chiefs and
Speaker 1: all that. So it's it's hard. We end up settling
Speaker 1: it and then I'll come back to accur focus on
Speaker 1: my work and then the next one week or two
Speaker 1: weeks they'll call you again for the same issue. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know what I think, if you people
Speaker 1: are working together, you you understand the importance of agriculture,
Speaker 1: it will be easy, you know, whens to handing all
Speaker 1: this because they would also help in terms of protecting
Speaker 1: so if it's hard for them to get like a
Speaker 1: green air for the curtles after and then they would
Speaker 1: want to move. And one thing I've been also kind
Speaker 1: of course going to convince them is that this moving
Speaker 1: is very historic. You don't even need to move your cows. Honestly,
Speaker 1: when you think about it, you can just create a
Speaker 1: ranch and keep them in and feed them. But because
Speaker 1: of lack of education also just understanding in generality believe
Speaker 1: because it has been for like how many years, they
Speaker 1: just move, move when you can actually just be in
Speaker 1: one place. It's it's it's time we work smart. That's
Speaker 1: one thing I've been trying to, like um, convince them
Speaker 1: on it's time it works smart. This moving it's something
Speaker 1: that is very historic. You don't have to move anymore
Speaker 1: for you to you know, um, feed your your cattle.
Speaker 1: The situation depicted by Chef bin To here is a
Speaker 1: tense one. Fulani herdsmen are a nomadic group believed to
Speaker 1: be the largest of their kind in the world, and
Speaker 1: found across West and Central Africa. In search of abundant
Speaker 1: grass and water for cattle, herders inevitably will clash with farmers.
Speaker 1: These disagreements have turned violent, and armed herdsmen claim to
Speaker 1: have been provoked from armed gangs and farming communities who
Speaker 1: are trying to steal their cattle. As a warming planet
Speaker 1: diminishes grazing lands, Fulani herdsmen have gone further and further south,
Speaker 1: and so too has their conflict. And like many violent conflicts,
Speaker 1: it is based on the land. But since herders are
Speaker 1: selling mostly to local markets, the same communities who are
Speaker 1: condemning them are also the ones that are keeping them
Speaker 1: in business. Steps to expand and contain grazing areas are
Speaker 1: now being taken and with these sometimes deadly conflicts as
Speaker 1: the backdrop, chef bent his work as a culinary ambassador.
Speaker 1: It's more of the latter and less of the former.
Speaker 1: And Fulani fresh milk is termed because some and yogurt
Speaker 1: pinda on a popular milk is fermented milk with corn couscous,
Speaker 1: which is referred to as latch cheerity or One question
Speaker 1: I've I've always wondered is because we talk about like
Speaker 1: I know that folks, black folks and really um, the
Speaker 1: majority of the world has a hard time processing dairy.
Speaker 1: Um do are Foolani people? Like do you all have
Speaker 1: different stomachs or something? Or do you not? Do you
Speaker 1: not eat dairy? Like is it a different experience? Like
Speaker 1: of course I'm kidding, but like what like where does
Speaker 1: dairy fit into the to the diet? And um? Is
Speaker 1: it's something that just people UM are able to absorb somehow? Listen.
Speaker 1: I've also wondered because when I was younger, I could
Speaker 1: handle it, but now whenever I cross avocate it story.
Speaker 1: But I think it has to do with UM, your
Speaker 1: system in general. That's what they know that's what they've
Speaker 1: they've eating since they want because even has a baby.
Speaker 1: They pastelize the milk. We even pasteurize our own milk.
Speaker 1: Who have like this God, We will put the milk
Speaker 1: and boil it for some time traditionally and then shake.
Speaker 1: They have a way to hold and dance and it's
Speaker 1: so semonious. That's not just about specialize in the milk.
Speaker 1: They have a particular song they will sing while they're
Speaker 1: doing it. They have a particular dance. So it's not
Speaker 1: just about the food. It's also about them put in
Speaker 1: the culture, having this addition, you know, around it. So
Speaker 1: I think it's the system in general. They are used
Speaker 1: to eat adaptation. M hm. That's so amazing to me.
Speaker 1: I really, I really wish I had a fool on
Speaker 1: his stomach as much as much the area as I eat.
Speaker 1: I just suffer. You can't, guy, you get used to it. Um,
Speaker 1: what about I know that you do a lot of
Speaker 1: work with funio. Chef Pierre Tom is a big, big
Speaker 1: inspiration a hero for me. Um, Can you talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about funnio and and how that plays into
Speaker 1: your food as well? Okay, so for me, um, my
Speaker 1: love for it goes all the way back during that
Speaker 1: Civil war. Because I come from a huge family. I'm
Speaker 1: talking over one cousins. I am not joking, so cause
Speaker 1: imagine my my mom come comes from a very large family,
Speaker 1: my dad and all of these people going into this
Speaker 1: small village during the Civil war. You have over three
Speaker 1: people in this village and the rice couldn't sustain us.
Speaker 1: So it was really hard and the only thing that
Speaker 1: could really sustain us during that time was for New.
Speaker 1: It's easy to grow and also it doesn't take much time.
Speaker 1: It's to twelve weeks you can harvest, so it started
Speaker 1: there um and then I also learned a lot of
Speaker 1: recipes when I was in the village. So after I
Speaker 1: started trending reading about Chef P. L. Cham and seeing
Speaker 1: all the interesting things he was doing with for New,
Speaker 1: I decided to jump on the the wagon and promote
Speaker 1: it because it's something I eat all too growing up
Speaker 1: and then also have experienced firsthand how it came, how
Speaker 1: healthy it is, how also where it comes to sustainability
Speaker 1: in general. So for me it was important to no
Speaker 1: like be a voice for it was very important for me.
Speaker 1: So it's actually a huge part of my menu. I
Speaker 1: always try to share Phni. It's one of the status
Speaker 1: we use. It's the most we hardly use rice. Phon
Speaker 1: new is the biggest. UM. This is a huge part.
Speaker 1: It's in a nut shell. It's a huge part of
Speaker 1: my menu. It's actually hard to process. That's why because
Speaker 1: mostly like in the village, is because I actually work
Speaker 1: with women. We go phonew in the north of Ghana,
Speaker 1: and in the beginning there were only doing this it's
Speaker 1: traditional way. That's why I actually had to like stepping
Speaker 1: in terms of working getting people involved in order to
Speaker 1: help with machines and stuff. It's really tedious and at
Speaker 1: the end of the day after going through all that process,
Speaker 1: sometimes you get so much sand in it um because
Speaker 1: also you know, the grains are so tiny, the same
Speaker 1: size of a sand, So it's extremely tedious. So UM
Speaker 1: the reason why I started this movement when I was
Speaker 1: visiting for like inspiration and meeting these full learning women
Speaker 1: and some of them were complaining that, um, we're actually
Speaker 1: tired of staying home doing the same thing and women
Speaker 1: are not allowed also to own landing Ghana especially and
Speaker 1: they're not, so they wanted to get involved in this
Speaker 1: UM share it like processing Phonio just so they keep
Speaker 1: themselves busy. But the men challenge around this round. This
Speaker 1: is processing it, and these women do it on a
Speaker 1: daily basis because for them in the knot, that's like
Speaker 1: huge part of their diet. It. Our food is very
Speaker 1: plain and simple. So mostly we use for like enhancing
Speaker 1: flavor um flavoring and that we use the African barbsipe
Speaker 1: peper Sunday. Our food is very plain and simple, very
Speaker 1: plain and simple. Number. I want to ask you about
Speaker 1: African cuisine. Broadly speaking, it seems kind of like and
Speaker 1: we've kind of been saying. I talked to a Nigerian
Speaker 1: chef about this, um like DEBI that African food is
Speaker 1: kind of having a moment and that it is kind
Speaker 1: of again, broadly speaking, the only cuisine that hasn't been
Speaker 1: culturally colonized so big. So I want to know if
Speaker 1: you kind of agree that African food is having a moment,
Speaker 1: if you see that as um as true um, because
Speaker 1: in a global contact or I think one African cuisine
Speaker 1: is untouched, it's actually untouched. So I always tell people
Speaker 1: that we we are modern a ngelof rice. African cuisines
Speaker 1: were more. Actually, I don't consider jelove Frice African In
Speaker 1: case you don't know, jollof is the very popular and
Speaker 1: very contentious rice from West Africa, popularized in countries like
Speaker 1: Nigeria and Gambia and Senegal. And if you'd like to
Speaker 1: learn more about it and the beef behind it, you
Speaker 1: can listen to Point of Origin episode eleven where Chef
Speaker 1: your One Day Komo Lafe breaks it down in detail. Okay,
Speaker 1: back to Chef Mente. I just think it's just traveled
Speaker 1: all over the place and everybody they have their own version.
Speaker 1: So but it's a good thing because I think Joelofe
Speaker 1: has brought some attention also to African cuisine. Um, it
Speaker 1: has given us platforms also, so I feel like we
Speaker 1: have so much. It is rich. We we have no
Speaker 1: idea it is. There is so much because one thing also,
Speaker 1: I've realized the more I explore, the more curious I
Speaker 1: get when it comes to African cuisin, the more adventures
Speaker 1: I get to learn a lot. And then I also
Speaker 1: tend to like see all these similarities. Um, but I
Speaker 1: feel like sometimes it is not represented well in my opinion. UM.
Speaker 1: I remember going to an African restaurant in New York
Speaker 1: and I was expecting um a particular dish, which I
Speaker 1: know how important that dishes to called that culture, that's
Speaker 1: part of the world, and it was fused. So I
Speaker 1: really feel like we twick it. Sometimes it's it's the
Speaker 1: twicky too much because if you're eating French, because in
Speaker 1: it's French. In creating Chinese, it is Chinese creating Japanese food,
Speaker 1: it is Japanese food. So I really hope that we
Speaker 1: can embrace it as it is um all its flavors,
Speaker 1: its spiciness, the richness um. And if you want to
Speaker 1: make it look pretty, you can make it look pretty,
Speaker 1: but the tests should be original. So your view is
Speaker 1: that African cuisine is untouched, meaning that the versions that
Speaker 1: we're seeing, maybe like in restaurants it's particularly fair in
Speaker 1: the US, are such a small part. Yes, it's infinite
Speaker 1: everything that, Yeah, this this this interesting thing that we
Speaker 1: have it it is amazing. So I always I think
Speaker 1: it's important for us to know the base before we
Speaker 1: play around with it. It's okay to fuse, it's okay
Speaker 1: to recreate, but understand the the ingredients, understand the flavor building,
Speaker 1: understand the original dish itself before you you play around
Speaker 1: with it. Sometimes it's it's hard because there are days
Speaker 1: I just want to stay one of their persons authentic
Speaker 1: because if I'm trying to like preserve it. So that's
Speaker 1: why I documents a lot. Whenever I go to these
Speaker 1: full learning communities, I documents the authentic recipes that I
Speaker 1: will learn from the grandmother, different things, and then our
Speaker 1: document those. And there are days also I try to
Speaker 1: fuse it because sometimes it can only be that appealing
Speaker 1: to someone who doesn't know this cuising. It can only
Speaker 1: be appealing if you fuse it because and that's why
Speaker 1: I believe also m most other full oarning chaps has
Speaker 1: A don't really invested their time in it because Um
Speaker 1: stephanitiely it can actually be and it takes passion. It
Speaker 1: takes passion to really do it. One thing I would
Speaker 1: love to share with you also because it's it has
Speaker 1: been like a learning process for me. Um. A year
Speaker 1: ago I started working with Angio as an ambassador for
Speaker 1: peace between the full and eas and the farmers because
Speaker 1: they've been fighting a lot and we've been working on
Speaker 1: that because we want to get the full and people
Speaker 1: involving farming because they don't actually believe when it comes
Speaker 1: to like farming in general. Um, their focus more is
Speaker 1: on gir and cattle and that has caused a lot
Speaker 1: of problems when comes to like the farmers and the headsmen,
Speaker 1: because the cattles we go and invade the farm and
Speaker 1: destroy the firm, and we we've been trying to like
Speaker 1: educate them. Yeah, if they believe in farming, they will
Speaker 1: help the farmers protect the farm. But because they don't
Speaker 1: believe much on it, that's why they leave the cattles
Speaker 1: to go and invade, and cattle invasion has caused a
Speaker 1: lot of problems across Africa. So yeah, that's one thing
Speaker 1: we've been focusing on. That's that's very sensitive when you
Speaker 1: say headsmen right right, especially if there are Foulani farmers
Speaker 1: you mean exactly, no, just local farmers. So because they
Speaker 1: will come in, so they'll move into a town and
Speaker 1: then they will settle and they always try to like
Speaker 1: stay a bit outside of the town. It's almost like
Speaker 1: they hardly mingle with the locals. So they create their space, um,
Speaker 1: stay there, and then the cattles will go and invade
Speaker 1: these farms and destroy and that has caused like a
Speaker 1: lot of fights. So most times are going into like
Speaker 1: negotiate between these uh two. But I got to a
Speaker 1: point it was like you go, you negotiate one week
Speaker 1: later the calleg again or we're fighting again. You have
Speaker 1: to go. So we're thinking, why if these people believe
Speaker 1: in farming, if they are actually famine and they know
Speaker 1: the value, because you cannot just sustain yourself with just
Speaker 1: offers and your small ingredients that you're going behind your backyard.
Speaker 1: I think that would help in terms of settling all
Speaker 1: these issues across Africa. I always want them to know
Speaker 1: that Fuller is a modern headsman, because I feel like
Speaker 1: the focus has been only on that. When you say Fuller,
Speaker 1: Ne's almost someone is gonna panic in the room. So
Speaker 1: I really wanted to change that. And also at least
Speaker 1: whoever comes to my match to live as an ambassador
Speaker 1: for the full and is that okay? Apart from them
Speaker 1: being headsman and all the political thing that is going around,
Speaker 1: the name Fulan is, but also the accuisine they have
Speaker 1: something That accuisine is rich, you know, their culture is interesting,
Speaker 1: stories and everything. Of the many interviews that I've done
Speaker 1: for this podcast, Chef Binas is one that really stood
Speaker 1: out for me. The nomenclature of culinary ambassador has been
Speaker 1: a catch all term for chefs whose ethnic, racial, or
Speaker 1: sometimes just appropriative identities are meant to represent as a
Speaker 1: proxy for a larger group. As a black man in
Speaker 1: the United States, especially one whose professional life is in
Speaker 1: predominantly white spaces, I am, whether or not I like it,
Speaker 1: a proxy for an entire racial group. And when your
Speaker 1: identity is a threat, it raises the stakes of the ambassadorship.
Speaker 1: When you are an interpreter and ambassador in quotation marks
Speaker 1: and a deadly conflict, as Chef bin Too is, it
Speaker 1: makes me think about the people that we've given the
Speaker 1: title to in the past and its generosity or in
Speaker 1: some cases it's burden culinary ambassador. Growing up in Sierra
Speaker 1: Leone's brutal civil war, Chef Binta understands very well food
Speaker 1: as a matter of survival and the tension between what
Speaker 1: parts of our past are brought into the future. As
Speaker 1: she says, for the Fulani people, given their nomadic customs,
Speaker 1: a meal is not just food on a plate. I'd
Speaker 1: like to thank our guest today, Chefata Binta. You can
Speaker 1: learn more about her work and Fulani food ways at
Speaker 1: wet Stone Magazine Dot com and if you'd like to
Speaker 1: learn more about African food ways, you can check out
Speaker 1: episode eleven Niger, which examines Nigerian food and also systems
Speaker 1: of Power with Tune day Way on Como La Fa
Speaker 1: and Chef Michael Elec Bedett. We'd also like to thank
Speaker 1: our incredible podcast producer Selene Glazier. Selene, you are the best.
Speaker 1: To our editor and wet Stone partner and director of
Speaker 1: video David Alexander in London. I appreciate you, Dave. Thanks
Speaker 1: to our wet Stone production intern Quentin le Beau, and
Speaker 1: last but not least, my business partner Mel she who
Speaker 1: makes all things at wet Stone possible. Thank you Mel.
Speaker 1: We'd also like to thank our partners in production at
Speaker 1: I Heeart Radio to Gabrielle Collins, our supervising producer and
Speaker 1: executive producer Christopher Haciotis. We'll be back next week with
Speaker 1: more from the world of food worldwide. H