The African Gourmet

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Recipes, ingredients and the stories behind African food, written by Ivy Newton since 2006.

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Books by The African Gourmet

Little Gourmet African Food Adventure book cover

Little Gourmet African Food Adventure (ages 4-8)

African Proverbs Cryptograms: 148 Puzzles

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Latest from the kitchen

What Do You Feed Someone With Ebola? Inside the Acute Care and Recovery Diet

What Do You Feed Someone With Ebola? Inside the Acute Care and Recovery Diet Supportive Nutrition in the Red Zone: The Clinical and Cultural Realities of Feeding Ebola Patients By The African Gourmet · November 8, 2026 An archival examination of clinical guidance, biocontainment constraints, and the reliance on West African convalescent foodways during acute viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks. An authentic Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) layout showing high-risk field tents partitioned by oran…

From Yam Stakes to Space Gardens: What African Trellises Teach

Trellising Under Constraint: A Shared Spatial Logic In the yam fields of West Africa, a farmer trains a climbing vine up a stake, lifting its leaves off the ground and into the light while the tubers fatten underground. Aboard the International Space Station, astronauts tend lettuce, mustard greens and dwarf tomatoes in small plant chambers where every inch counts. These scenes are separated by technology and environment, yet they share one idea: when space is tight, growing up instead of out is not a gardening extra. It is a way of making more food from less room. …

Indigenous Names and Knowledge of Cocoyam (Taro) in Africa

Indigenous Knowledge of Cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta) in Africa Did you know one humble root answers to dozens of names across Africa? Cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta), also called taro, is Koko to the Yoruba, Ede to the Igbo, Magimbi in Swahili, Amadumbe in isiZulu and Saonjo in Malagasy. Part of: African Cuisine › Swallows & Starchy Staples Cocoyam is the starchy tuber of the taro plant, and it goes by many local names across Africa. Ede. Magimbi. Koko. Amadumbe. One root, countless names across Africa. Cocoyam in Africa: The Resilient Companion Corm Coco…

Wood Ash Water in Cooking: An Old African Way to Soften Beans

Wood Ash Water in Cooking: An Old African Way to Soften Beans This is not culture as decoration. This is a working system. This is chemistry that survived history. Written by Ivy Newton | The African Gourmet Did you know a spoonful of wood-ash water can turn stubborn dry beans soft? The ash principle is simple kitchen chemistry: water filtered through clean hardwood ash turns alkaline and rich in potassium carbonate, and food soaked in it softens before it ever meets heat. One tablespoon in a pot of dry beans cooked them to a soup-like tenderness. Part of: African Cu…

The Hard History of Zanzibar Cloves, Told by a Swahili Proverb

Did you know the cloves in your spice jar carry a hard history? By the 1840s, Zanzibar and Pemba were the world's main clove suppliers. The Swahili proverb Adhabu ya kaburi aijua maiti, “the torture of the grave is known only to the corpse,” names what those numbers hid. The Hard History of Zanzibar Cloves, Told by a Swahili Proverb Adhabu ya Kaburi Figure 1. Clove trade bustling port and export activity that defined Zanzibar's metric of success. The Hard History of Zanzibar Cloves: Adhabu ya Kaburi The Hard History of Zanziba…

How the Forbidden Fruit Story Met African Food Traditions

How the Forbidden Fruit Story Met African Food Traditions Did you know Africa's food stories saw eating as a gift long before the Forbidden Fruit arrived? The Genesis account framed food as a test, with shame and toil as the price of one bite. Indigenous traditions honored food as sacred and shared, like the Igbo New Yam Festival and the communal injera plate. Over time, the two blended, as Ethiopia's 180-plus vegan fasting days show. Part of: Research Guide › Meaning & Cosmology The layered table is the way African kitchens took in the Forbidden Fruit story while keeping ol…

The Fisherwomen of the Dawn: Nigerian Women Who Fish by Canoe

The Fisherwomen of the Dawn: Nigerian Women Who Fish by Canoe Blessing and Esther — fishing at a freshwater lake in Nigeria, carrying skill, gossip, and the weight of the bucket Did you know some of Nigeria's best fishing knowledge lives with women in dugout canoes at dawn? In this composite story, drawn from real Nigerian fisherwomen's accounts, cousins Blessing and Esther cast handmade cane poles before the ferry boats churn the water, then clean the catch on the bank and fry or roast it over coals, eaten with cold garri. Gossip, kinship and skill travel t…

Questions Readers Ask

What is The African Gourmet?

The African Gourmet is Ivy’s home for sharing, exploring, and keeping alive African culinary heritage, online since 2006. Here, foodways—ingredients, techniques, rituals, ecology, labor, and trade—are treated as a way into understanding culture. The site is a living timeline, bringing history and today’s kitchens together so you can see culture changing in real time.

Why "Gourmet" in the name?

The name goes back to our beginnings as a culinary anthropology project and to a value we still hold: discernment. "Gourmet" here means a careful, taste-and-smell-first way of keeping food traditions alive. We choose depth over breadth, giving each post—whether a West African stew or the political story of a cashew nut—the care and context it deserves.

How do you check your facts?

I check my sources, note where stories disagree, and credit the people who shared their knowledge. My aim is to go beyond a list of facts and tell each food's story carefully, in layers. You can browse the stories by theme in the Research Guide.

How is content selected and organized?

We choose what to write about by asking three things: significance, context, and enduring value. Each post is tagged by theme (Foodway, Ingredient, Technique, Ritual, Ecology, Labor, Seasonality, etc.) and must meet our sourcing standards. We aim to be specific—tagging by ethnolinguistic group, region, and nation—so Africa’s many food stories are never flattened into one.

What geographic and cultural scope do you cover?

Our hope is to keep food traditions alive across all 54 African nations. We especially want to lift up stories that are too often overlooked. You will find deep looks at major cuisines alongside small, very local practices that broader surveys often leave out.

How do you handle sources when archives are silent?

When written records are absent, we cite living practice as a valid source. We hold ourselves to careful standards: interviews are written down (with permission), practices are observed in context, and knowledge is credited to the people and communities who hold it. This lets us honor what can’t be held in the hand—sensory knowledge, oral techniques, ritual contexts—with the same care as a printed text.

Can researchers and the public access the site?

Absolutely. Everyone is welcome here. All 20 years of posts are searchable and organized for many uses: academic research, lesson planning, journalism, and your own learning. We encourage citation. For in-depth research help, please contact us.

How does this work ensure genuine cultural preservation?

By working the same careful way since 2006, we have built more than a collection; we have created an irreplaceable record of context. We keep not just a recipe, but the labor, seasons, and meaning around it. This long, patient commitment helps future generations understand not only *what* was eaten, but *how* and *why*, in all the richness of its cultural moment.

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