Do you remember where you were on 30 October 2014, when Jamie Oliver published his jollof rice recipe? I don’t, personally, but it caused rather a stir amongst West Africans, who were universally shocked and dismayed at Jamie Oliver’s misappropriation of their national dish. Jamie’s recipe included vine-ripened tomatoes, coriander, parsley and lemon – none of which are associated with authentic jollof – and though he tried to style it out as a ‘twist on jollof rice’, the guardians of the one true jollof were not amused, and ripped the counterfeit dish to shreds via Twitter. They called it #jollofgate.
Britain does have a history of this sort of cultural misappropriation – chicken vindaloo, anyone? – but the outcry against non-conformist jollof seems particularly fervent, as Jeremy Chan and Iré Hassan-Odukale have found out since opening West African-inspired restaurant Ikoyi, just a short walk from Piccadilly Circus in London.
‘We’ve had people refuse to eat our jollof rice because they think it’s so off the mark,’ says Jeremy, Ikoyi’s head chef. ‘Sometimes they even come over and tell me how to make it! There's no authority on jollof rice, so no matter how aggressive people get, there's no bible to turn to. There's no superstar chef of Nigeria that has the original recipe.’
Yes, Ikoyi takes inspiration from West Africa – the name itself comes from the neighbourhood of Lagos, Nigeria, where co-founder Iré Hassan-Odukale grew up – but this is far from traditional West African food. Jollof rice emerges from the kitchen billowing with smoked bone marrow and miso, deep-fried plantain is crimson with raspberry salt, and suya – a traditional West African barbecue dish – comes marinated in roasted kombu paste. As a result, when diners walk through the door expecting typical Nigerian home cooking, they’re not always happy with what they get.
‘We’ve had reviews like, ‘this food is an embarrassment to my culture’ or ‘as soon as I smelled the food I felt sick,’ says Jeremy. ‘One person even said, ‘the owners need to get rid of this Chinese chef and get a real African cook in the kitchen’. It’s pretty intense!’