Ivorian chef Charlie Koffi and his French counterpart Matthieu Gasnier are reimagining Ivorian cuisine in their own unique ways.
Benefiting from the distinctive qualities of local products, some of which are unavailable outside the continent, African cuisine offers an array of unparalleled flavors. Some chefs take pleasure in reinterpreting it to "globalize" it further, using ingredients like fonio, sorghum, taro, or yam.
In Ivory Coast, Chef Charlie Koffi, along with his French counterpart Matthieu Gasnier, adds a distinctive touch to some typically Ivorian dishes. In the kitchens of his restaurant in Abidjan, Charlie Koffi combines local products with French culinary expertise. Like him, many chefs, some trained abroad, are increasingly revisiting local specialties. "These are recipes that I enjoyed so much during my childhood that revisiting them was something almost obligatory as a chef," he confesses.
One of his flagship dishes is an interpretation of gouagouassou sauce, iconic in Ivory Coast. A rabbit simmers in a pot surrounded by African eggplants, red oil, akpi powder (an almond), and fèfè (a type of pepper).
A lover of Ivorian cuisine, his native country, Charlie Koffi trained in France before opening his establishment, Villa Alfira, in Abidjan in 2017.
In a brightly lit room of the restaurant, overlooking a basin where fish swim among small succulent plants, Eric Guei tastes the gouagouassou casserole he ordered. "I find the flavors" and "daring" in a dish that "mixes Western know-how" and "local flavors," explains this customer.
He shares this hearty and well-presented meal with his friend, Yasmine Doumbia. "Gouagouassou is a traditional Ivorian dish," and "seeing it in such a restaurant is truly a pleasure," she marvels.
The place stands out from the "maquis," typical informal and lively restaurants where grilled chicken and fish, traditional sauces, attiéké (cassava semolina), and alloco (fried plantains) are eaten with hands.
Inspiring Placali
A few kilometers away, a section chef at the upscale restaurant "La Maison Palmier" presents her new creation: an appetizer inspired by placali, a typical Ivorian dish consisting of a sticky okra sauce, pieces of meat, and dried fish accompanied by fermented cassava paste.
In the hands of Hermence Kadio, an Ivorian trained in Abidjan, placali becomes light. Okra is grilled, cassava is puffed, and transformed into chips.
The head chef of this elegantly decorated restaurant, Frenchman Matthieu Gasnier, offers such appetizers every week, with the idea of "awakening memories in people who are familiar with these dishes." Half of his clientele is Ivorian, he indicates.
"Even though our cuisine aims to be international because it's a five-star hotel, I think it's nonsense not to give a nod to all the beautiful products around us," he asserts.
In the savannas of the northern part of the country, where the climate is hot and dry, "we will have a lot of cereals" like "fonio" or "sorghum," details Charlie Koffi, while in the southern forested area, "spinach leaves," "taro," and "typically tropical products" like bananas or yams grow.
According to chef N'Cho Yapi, founder of the Association of Culinary Emotion Creators in Ivory Coast, more and more of his colleagues are revisiting local dishes, a trend that started in the mid-2000s.
Upscale restaurant chefs "used to make Western dishes" with imported products, he recounts.
But "the cost of living has become a bit expensive," so they turned to lower-priced products "that they had on hand," he continues.
In addition to the financial aspect, N'Cho Yapi notes among these chefs a desire to provide "access" to local cuisine for the "grand luxury restaurants" that have flourished in recent years in Abidjan.
On her part, Valérie Rollainth, an Ivorian chef trained in France at the Paul Bocuse Institute, believes that the cuisine of her native country needs to be reinvented as it is no longer suited to the sedentary lifestyle of Abidjan residents.
"Vegetables are nonexistent," the dishes are "overcooked," and they lose the nutrients of the food, she explains in workshops she conducts on nutrition, "shocked by the amount of oil" sometimes used.
According to her, local products should be consumed differently, such as okra, "very good for diabetes" if eaten raw.
"Some diseases are related to diet," she asserts. And in Ivory Coast, "not everyone has access to healthcare, but everyone can have access to healthy food," she assures.