Interview
Time’s Table with Aji Akokomi - akara, rice and stew and Mexican corn cake
By Joanna Sarah-Freedman
11 Oct 2024
7m
Every now and then a meal becomes more than just a meal. It could be innovative and exciting – the kind that shapes your cooking going forward. But there’s something equally magic about the dish your mum used to cook you growing up, or even the reliable weekly staple you knock together on repeat.
In this series, Time’s Table, we chat to people about the food that has left an impact on a time in their life – be it their past, present or future. Trust us, you can learn a lot about someone through what’s on their plate.
Time's Table with... Aji Akokomi
Since moving from moving to the UK in his late 20s, Aji Akokomi has been on a mission to spotlight the flavours of West Africa – and a very worthy mission, too.
Having grown up within a Yoruba family in Ibadan, Nigeria, he was used to the likes of moi moi, pounded yam and suya, but African restaurants were scarce and ingredients even scarcer.
A keen home cook, Aji set about hunting for supplies, studying traditional cooking techniques and experimenting in the kitchen. Inspired by the lavish parties his mother threw back in Nigeria, he would invite friends and colleagues round for big, African feasts, opening their eyes to the food of his hometown.
His first restaurant, Akoko, was an extension of this, showcasing an under-appreciated cuisine and crucially proving it deserved a place on the UK’s food map.
One Michelin star later and it’s pretty clear he’s done just that. Akoko now has a much acclaimed sister restaurant, Akara, which opened last year, and serving elevated takes on African classics, both are not only a love letter to Aji’s heritage but also a defiant statement that such food has mass appeal.
There’s no doubting that Aji is a trailblazer of the African food scene, but what are the meals that make him who he is today? We asked him about the dishes that mark different times in his life – a nostalgic favourite, a present staple and one that’ll inspire his future cooking, to dig a little deeper.
Past: Akara
“If I had to pick a nostalgic dish it would be an akara. It’s a savoury dough made from water, onions, black eyed beans, salt and chilli pepper, and in Nigeria I always used to have it for breakfast with pap, which is a sweet, creamy porridge.
“My first memory of eating it is in the kitchen as a child, probably around five , and I just gravitated to the pap because it was sweet, and akara was the kind of healthy side you didn’t wanna touch.
“But I remember I started liking it when I was a bit older. My parents are from Ondo State, and every December we would travel back to the hometown. There’s [a town] called Osu where an entire road is covered with akara sellers.
“You’d park, stretch your legs, and then queue to buy akara and bread. They were spherical, so tasty… and the freshness of the bread! That's a memory that stays with me.
“What’s special about akara is it’s one of the most essential, authentic African foods that you could ever think of, really. It stays so very West African, from the ingredients to the technique.
“A lot of things that are now considered African – chilies, tomatoes, red bell peppers, onion, ginger, garlic – were actually brought into Africa. Even cassava, which is so, so popular in Africa [wasn’t initially from there]. What's very original to Africa is rice, okra, yam and black eyed beans.
“Akara has been taken into the new world – to Brazil, to North America – but the method used to create it is very similar to how my mum would have done it.
“In West Africa you have akara on its own, with pap, and with bread, but it was fascinating to learn that in Brazil it’s not eaten with bread at all, it's split open and then filled with prawn, crab, salad and whatnot.
“Me being a Yoruba boy…I really wanted to understand my culture [as it existed] before slavery.
“When I looked further I found that was the practice hundreds of years back in Africa, before the introduction of bread.
“I researched it way back when I opened Akoko and realised that not only should we be using African produce but also learning about the techniques, the stories, the flavours…what makes something African?
“It was about actually understanding all of that, and also researching the impacts on African food from America, Brazil and parts of South America. When the knowledge came through, that’s when I knew the next restaurant had to be called Akara.
“It’s a spiritual food, and also a way to connect to your ancestors so that history that’s preserved. I thought, ‘oh, I see why we eat it every morning without being told why.’ It’s about knowing it has travelled that far.”
Present - Beef stew and rice
“When I find myself cooking at home, it’s always rice, beef stew and boiled eggs.
“It's so delicious and umami, the stew. You just get some chop or oxtail, boil it down properly and then sometimes further fry it. Then, get the stock from it and add potato, tomatoes, chilis, red bell peppers and cook it down to a reddish consistency with all the meats.
“We serve it with plain white rice, fried plantains and boiled eggs, and that's all the dish put together.
“It’s a quick go-to African food. We grew up eating that dish – even my wife, who has parents in Nigeria and came here when she was four.
“Any Black people whose parents are African will crave rice, because it’s something our parents gave us.
“My son, who was born in bred in Chelsea… his favourite food is rice and suya! We go out to eat food from all over the world, but when we’re at home, we cook African food – it’s very intentional.
“I've always loved cooking African food, particularly the Nigerian food I grew up with.
“My mum was always cooking back in Nigeria. She had a bakery and we used to throw parties all the time, entertaining people. My dad was also a senator, so there was never any time we cooked for just a few. At any point in time you'd have more than 10 people in the house.
“From the age of about nine I was just really interested. Every time they called the girls to help with vegetables, peeling, cooking, I was always there helping out.
“It was just cooking over fire in a big tent outside. We did everything from scratch and you knew where every ingredient was from. You bought cows and goats and chickens and they were butchered in your house.
“It was a bit of a struggle [when I moved to the UK]. There was a lack of ingredients. If you wanted [African food], you would actually have to look for it.
“That’s [what prompted me] to open Akoko. I worked in an office and I used to invite friends to come round to my house, but I wouldn't just give them a cup of tea, I'd cook them five or six courses. There would be days of preparation and cleaning up after. I got that from my mother.
“I served Nigerian food even when it wasn’t cool, and then I made it cool, even to people who weren’t necessarily from there. It has always been cool to me!”
Future - Kol’s Mexican corn cake
“I've been to too many restaurants – I've just been studying them! I've been to Kitchen Table, I've been to Chisou, I've been to Mountain, I’ve been to Dorian.
“I think one that particularly strikes me is Kol. The way Santiago [Lastra] showcases Mexican food using culture is so vivid but yet exceptional.
“What they do now has serious roots to Mexican culture and cuisine. They always show the inspiration… usually somewhere in a Mexican village, where a grandma taught them.
“Every time I go to Kol I see the growth of the restaurant, but without moving away from the core.
“Before, when Kol was a pop up, they had this dessert. It's a Mexican cake baked in corn leaves. It tastes sweet but not too sweet, with a little bit of savouriness going through it.
"It’s so special to them that now it’s a restaurant which is probably going to be two stars soon they still have it on the menu.
“It’s basically the same… a little elevated. I love how the fine dining-ness carries through from starters to desserts.
“Whilst Mexico is not known to have desserts, it’s about really researching the things that could lend themselves to one.
“That’s where we’re trying to go with Akoko, and I want to do more of that. Desserts are not very African, but now I want to create that journey from start to finish.”
Featured image: Akara/ Supplied
