Fresh perspective on Afro-fusion foods: Meet Metro Vancouver's new generation of Black chefs

It's 11 a.m. on a Friday and the kitchen at Arike Restaurant in Vancouver’s West End is already buzzing with activity.

Sam Olayinka, the head chef and co-owner, is making monkey bread out of tiger nut flour, for a Senegalese dish.

“It came down to the roots of eating some of the first dishes with my dad and those flavors stood out to me,” says Olayinka. “I thought to myself, what could I do to have fun and be limitless and have a business.”

Olayinka is one of the new waves of Black chefs reinventing classic Black dishes and making them more appealing to the general population.

For now, Arike appears to be the only Afro-centric restaurant in Metro Vancouver offering fine dining, but it is not alone in this quest to make Black-inspired dishes more accessible to people.

Today, in and around Vancouver alone, there are about 20 Afro-fusion restaurants, a big jump from what it used to be even five years ago.

These new chefs are using their culinary skills to explore the past while also imagining the future and making Afro-centric food more popular.

There are Afro-Caribbean flavors, East African and Asian fusion, African and Middle Eastern flavors, to name a few.

“It just comes to me no matter the grocery store I end up in. Be it Japanese, Korean,” says Delali Adiamah, owner of Delhs Gourmet. She is gaining popularity on social media by putting her twists on traditional African dishes to create different layers of flavors.

“I just know what to do with the ingredients. I incorporate it into the African Ingredients I have at home.”

Adiamah has been remarkably busy this month baking “Agege Bread,” a staple from Nigeria, for the Coquitlam Heritage program.

These fusion meals are not just in celebration of Black History Month, but are how the chefs are setting themselves apart in a city that is famous for its culinary diversity. Their menus are specially curated to amplify their roots and culture.

Delali Adiamah, owner of Delhs Gourmet, speaks with CTV News.

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Dating back to the days of colonialism, food has been an integral part of the Black community. According to historians, the slaves that were taken from Africa brought with them some food items with which they tried to stay connected to their roots.

“Food played a central role not only in how we enjoyed each other’s company but in how we spread our souls,” says Dr. June Francis, the director of the Institute for Diaspora Research and Engagement at Simon Fraser University and chair of the Hogan’s Alley Society.

Hogan’s Alley was home to Vancouver’s Black community between the 1850s and 1970s, before the neighbourhood was demolished to make way for the Georgia viaduct. During that era, there were a handful of chicken shacks in the neighborhood that came and went, but just one is remembered by most people who know the history of the neighborhood. It is Vie’s Chicken and Steak House.

“It was the heart of the community," said Francis. "The people who were there and the vibrancy of the place.”

MORE AWARENESS NEEDED

Despite the growing popularity of the Afro-fusion dishes and menus across the city, the new vanguard of Black chefs is still facing a wide range of challenges.

“African ingredients are not the easiest to get just because the market is not fully opened up,” says Olayinka. “There are not a lot of these restaurants.”

Some see a lack of awareness and visibility of Afro-inspired foods as a significant problem.

“I believe there needs to be more African cuisines and chefs in mainstream media and on the menus of restaurants or even grocery stores,” says Adiamah.

For Francis, there is a need for better government policies that would enable more people and businesses to specialize in African ingredients and cuisines and improve the availability of the needed resources.

“We need support for growing, importation and (to) ensure food security for the Black community,” she says. “For too long, our cuisines have been appropriated by others.”

From starters to main courses and desserts, the new wave of chefs is working to make sure they are more than just a flash in the pan.