Championing Nigerian Cuisine with Chefs Gbolabo Gibbs Adebakin and Nkesi Enyioha
Photo credit: Gbolabo Gibbs Adebakin and Nkesi Enyioha
For Nigerian chefs Gbolabo Gibbs Adebakin, aka Chef Gibbs, and Nkesi Enyioha, Nigerian cuisine has always represented a rich legacy of traditions, ingredients and bold flavors.
Similar to other African cuisines, the story of what Nigerian cuisine is has been told to mainstream audiences by those other than Nigerians. To truly understand Nigerian cuisine and Nigerian food culture, you have to hear the voices of those born into and know how rich it is. But also, know that the answer is not as easy as saying, “It’s spicy, it’s sweet, etc.”
“What is the Nigerian cuisine is one of the toughest questions to answer because we are so diverse in this country. It’s a huge country, not just land mass, even the population as well. And we are bursting with flavors from the South to the North and all the things in between,” says chef and restaurateur Nkesi Enyioha.
Both Chef Gibbs and Chef Nkesi are among those who are championing new narratives around Nigerian cuisine through their own voices as excitement continues to build throughout the country about reclaiming one’s cultural identity through food and further connecting Nigerian cuisine to global audiences and conversations.
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Celebrating the Richness of Nigerian Cuisine
Chef Gibbs is the director of events and partnerships for the Restaurants, Cafes, Bars and Clubs Association of Nigeria (RCBC) and former vice president of the Culinary Arts Practitioners Association of Nigeria (CAPA). Both experiences laid the foundation for his role as the convener of the Nigeria Food Summit that is happening on March 21 on Victoria Island in Lagos.
The event will be the largest gathering of chefs, restaurateurs, farmers, producers, manufacturers and more in one space to have conversations that move Nigeria’s food systems forward. “If I want to know about the food culture in America, there are so many things I could go on. There World Chef, there so many platforms, there Cuisine Noir and it is simply because there are structures built over a period of time that exist. And I realized that we didn’t have a lot of that here and that is why I felt like we needed to do something about it,” shares Chef Gibbs.
He adds that the time is right and that Nigeria is more than ready to be inserted into what’s happening on world food stages and for everyone else to know about the food traditions, ingredients and dishes that have not only stood the test of time, but also continue to influence cuisines today.
Learn more about the Nigeria Food Summit on its website and follow along on Instagram for event highlights. You can also connect with Chef Gibbs and Chef Nkesi both on social media.
