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Food Appreciation

Chef Zoe Adjonyoh demonstrates honoring and paying respect to West African cuisine

By Bates College

February 10^th, 2023

Honor and Recognize

Zoe Adjonyoh, a chef, writer, entrepreneur, and founder of Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen, served up a cooking demonstration in Commons on Feb. 8, following a public talk the night before.

Adjonyoh’s talk focused on the idea of “decolonizing” food, which means to honor, recognize, and name the Indigenous cultures that produce the food we consume — the recipes, ingredients, and even the way we eat.

Part of Black History Month events at Bates, the visit was sponsored by Bates Campus Events and Dining Services.

Chef Zoe Adjonyoh distributes autographed copies of "Zoe's Ghana Kitchen" to the tables where students who have registered for her presentation will sit.

Turning Up the Heat

Assisted by Jason Tardif, Dining Service’s first cook supervisor, Adjonyoh showed students how to make fried plantains and red red stew, a simple and delicious Ghanaian dish made from black-eyed peas, and possibly named for its colorful ingredients: tomatoes, red palm oil, red onions, and red chili.

Part of decolonizing the food is making it familiar and accessible, she said. Red red stew is a great intro to some of the spices and sources of heat, like Scotch bonnet, a kind of chili pepper. Scotch bonnet adds heat to the dish, but also a sweetness, which can be unfamiliar to some people.

“It's like breaking people's stereotypes down a little bit of what they expect it to be,” she said. “Sometimes it's about starting with what's traditional, understanding it, introducing that, and then having that process, that learning, that education, gives you some license to go further with it.”

“You have to know the rules before you can break them.”

Lifelong Learning

Adjonyoh’s visit wasn’t only an opportunity for students to learn, but also the Dining Services team. Owen Keene, Dining Services’ executive chef, has made sure that his team has opportunities to continue to learn, whether by attending professional conferences or having invited guest chefs come to campus to talk and teach.

Appreciating — rather than appropriating — the food we make, Adjonyoh said, means “explaining where you got it from, because it's not yours to take. You can't own it: somebody else owns it. You have to honor that, and pay respect to that history and that knowledge that you are borrowing from.”

And try to learn about the people making, selling, and consuming food at every step of the journey, from seed, to kitchen, to table. “If you're a chef, you have a responsibility to be educating your customers or diners about where the food comes from, why you've decided to cook it,” said Adjonyoh.