Lerato Umah-Shaylor’s entry into the culinary world began as an infant, strapped to her mother’s back, while her mother was running a restaurant in their native Nigeria. An intense curiosity about food followed her into childhood and beyond. Her mother instilled in her an appreciation for home-cooked dishes such as melon seed soup (egusi) with pounded yam. Her dad taught her to love black-eyed pea mash (ewa agoyin) served with burnt onions and red pepper sauce, sizzling spice-rubbed steak-on-a-stick (suya), and other street foods.
Umah-Shaylor now lives on the English Sussex coast, where she’s “closer to flocks of British sheep than tropical mango trees.” But, as she writes in “Africana: More Than 100 Recipes and Flavors Inspired by a Rich Continent” (Amistad, $37.50), she maintains “an undying love for Africa, a passion for adventure and discovery, and a desire to share the beauty and generosity of African hospitality.”
She’s been doing just that ever since she started university in London with ambitions of becoming an economist, only to opt for a career in food instead — as a caterer, cooking instructor, food columnist, and now cookbook author. Having traveled the continent, she reveals its vibrant diversity from one country to the next, with dazzling yet doable-sounding recipes accompanied by evocative stories and descriptions.
She begins with a guide to staple produce and pantry favorites, with sourcing information for less familiar items (argan oil, grains of paradise), then proceeds to recipe chapters organized by method and occasion (Drinks, Dips and Sharing Plates; Roasts, Grills, and Cooking with Fire). Recipes reflect her upbringing and travels through various regions: Juicy Berbere Meatballs in Tomato Sauce (Ethiopia); Spice Island Coconut Fish Curry (Zanzibar); Honeycomb Pancakes with Orange Blossom and Honey Syrup (Morocco).
Mango and Lime Piri Piri Chicken, a weeknight-friendly sheet pan entree based on the Mozambican tangy chile marinade, lived up to its enticing description when I made it, and has me motivated to try the many other recipes I’ve bookmarked.
Through her joyful and tantalizing prose, Umah-Shaylor conveys what she means when she describes Africa as not just a physical place, but “a feeling, a belonging to something otherworldly and yet worldly.”
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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