In recent years, cookbook publishers have begun to favor specificity over stereotype, offering readers a clearer window onto people and places that may be unfamiliar. “Foods from underrepresented cultures, specifically from Africa, are being covered in ways they haven’t been before, and it’s incredibly exciting and long overdue,” says Dervla Kelly, executive editor at Penguin Random House. She’s worked on books including In Bibi’s Kitchen by Hawa Hassan, which highlights foodways from eight East African countries, and the forthcoming My Everyday Lagos by Yewande Komolafe, one of a handful of cookbooks this season that reveal the nuances of West African cuisines on the mother continent and across the diaspora.
East Winds
Riaz Phillips. DK, Oct.
In this companion to West Winds, which focused on Jamaican cuisine, Phillips explores the foods of Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname, and their Chinese, Indian, and West African heritage influences. He underlines the similarities between callaloo and Nigerian ogbono soup, explains the origins of Surinamese pomtajer (a root vegetable–based casserole), and describes how West African descendants in Guyana turned to cassava, rather than flour, to coat egg balls.
My Everyday Lagos
Yewande Komolafe. Ten Speed, Oct.
In her debut cookbook for adults, recipe developer and New York Times contributor Komolafe introduces American home cooks to the cuisines of the Nigerian capital, where she spent much of her childhood and teenage years. She shares a visual glossary of essential ingredients and tips for procuring them, as well as chapters on processing African grains and making stocks and base sauces; the recipe roster includes crushed yam fritters, peppersoup with short ribs, and jollof rice.
Simply West African
Pierre Thiam, with Lisa Katayama. Clarkson Potter, Sept.
Senegalese chef Thiam draws connections between the foods of the American South and West Africa in this compendium of about 80 recipes inspired by the flavors of Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and others. The lineup of dishes “can be incorporated into your weekly repertoire, without compromising authenticity and deliciousness,” Thiam writes: he suggests drizzling lemony yassa sauce, often served with poultry, on a black bean–cassava veggie burger; serving a pain boulette (Senegalese fish sandwich) as an affordable lunch; and accompanying a grilled steak with baked ginger-chili plantain kelewele.
