Wealthy, comforting stews laced with tomato and pepper. African music. Adinkra symbols illustrating Ghanaian proverbs and adages. Rising up in Yonkers, north of New York Metropolis, Eric Adjepong hadn’t but realized the influence of those key recollections. In the present day it’s clear to him that the tastes, smells, sights, and sounds of his childhood kitchen—the beating coronary heart of his household house—pointed to Ghana. Eric was born and raised in the USA, however each of his mother and father grew up within the West African nation. His mom, Abena, handed down the knowledge of her tradition to her youngsters. When Eric began cooking, that understanding grew to become the inspiration of his culinary path.
I first met the now 36-year-old chef in 2019 at a pop-up at Craft in Manhattan. He had just lately completed sturdy as a finalist on season 16 of Bravo’s “High Chef,” the place he explored the story of the transatlantic slave commerce and the various ways in which historical past nonetheless connects the flavors of West Africa to the USA, South America, and the Caribbean. As he and his crew cooked in Craft’s personal occasion house, I seen West African elements like palm wine and shrimp powder alongside Asian, French, Italian, and North American merchandise. He used these world elements in tandem; every bolstered the subsequent, lending their very own particular person flavors and textures. In dishes like jerk-rubbed steak tartare and corn and goat’s milk pudding with hibiscus-tinted tapioca, I may see that, in Eric’s kitchen, West African delicacies blended seamlessly with dishes from all around the world whereas retaining its id and depth—echoing the knowledge of enslaved Africans forcibly moved to new lands centuries prior.
Now a fixture on meals TV, Eric can be a youngsters’s ebook creator and an avid traveler. And he’s laborious at work on his first cookbook, Ghana to the World: Cooking the Classes of Sankofa, a venture on which I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with him since 2020. Lately, I caught up with him in his Maryland house kitchen to study how his travels have formed not simply that room, but additionally the methods he cooks for his household right now.
Let’s begin initially: We’ve talked so much about your childhood kitchen whereas working in your cookbook. For those who needed to describe it in a single phrase, what would that be?
I might say it was lively. Rising up in a two-family family with my three different siblings in the home, and my cousins, there was at all times so much happening. The power within the kitchen as individuals have been coming out and in, and my mother or my aunt have been cooking or catching up over tea—there have been at all times baskets of yams or plantains on the ground and massive luggage of rice—that lively kitchen is the genesis of a variety of my household recollections.
How would you describe your private home kitchen?
It isn’t as busy as that one was. [Laughs] I’m barely house now between journey and filming. After I do get again I nonetheless prefer to cook dinner. This week is an ideal instance as a result of it was my daughter, Lennox’s, birthday. I had household come down from New York and I made a bunch of meals. When there’s a household occasion, I really feel an identical power to the kitchen that I bear in mind rising up in, particularly when all people is available in and unpacks, and simply naturally congregates within the kitchen. It made me really feel slightly nostalgic to be there, with the identical cousins and siblings, however now it’s our youngsters operating by means of and taking part in.
What was the menu for the day?
Nicely it was a sleepover, so I made some eggs, bacon, and cinnamon rolls within the morning for the youngsters. For lunch, I made an excellent easy shrimp fried rice, roasted cabbage, and fried hen as a result of my daughter is a giant fan of fried hen.
What instruments do you at all times have readily available?
I’ve slightly bain-marie that I hold all of my go-to necessities in, like spatulas, wire whisks, a cake tester, tasting spoons, a mini strainer, tongs, and a Microplane. I journey with that in every single place I am going and if I’m at house, it’s proper subsequent to my stovetop.
What elements do you retain at house?
I at all times have roasted garlic and ginger paste someplace within the freezer, like my mother did rising up. You may take a few tablespoons and add it to rice, pasta, marinara sauce, stew, no matter. It’s a terrific foundational constructing piece. Lemons and limes. And I additionally at all times have spices like berbere or all-purpose seasonings like seasoned salts, a bunch of ’em.
One thing that got here up whereas we have been working in your cookbook is the thought of how house kitchens can transport you through cooking. Your mother cooking West African dishes in Yonkers, for instance, was making an attempt to be sure you and your loved ones had that connection to your tradition. If you’re house from touring, what do you prefer to make? Do you may have a go-to meal or are you experimenting, taking part in round?
I experiment probably the most with South [Asian] and Southeast Asian flavors at house. I really like Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian meals. There are a variety of similarities between West African delicacies and meals from these areas, within the number of textures, and of their earthy spices. I at all times attempt to take inspiration from current travels—I may even see a cool mixture of elements or a dish and I hold that in my reminiscence financial institution for once I’m again in my kitchen, or I simply hop into the pantry or the freezer, see what I’ve in there and simply begin riffing. I could also be trying by means of a cookbook and wish to strive one thing completely different. It actually all depends upon what the temper is.
What conjures up that type of experimentation?
I believe my impulse to mix meals cultures occurs organically by means of journey. I’m in a position to strive meals from completely different mom-and-pop eating places, Michelin-rated eating places, and even meals stalls, and I’m impressed by every kind of cooks, actually. You already know, I don’t meet lots of people who genuinely prefer to cook dinner. I meet lots of people who prefer to eat and prefer to go to eating places. However cooking is such a craft and I at all times respect when someone else, regardless of the place they’re from, loves that craft too.
That’s a terrific level. I labored with a bartender as soon as who stated individuals prefer to drink as a result of they like the best way alcohol makes them really feel, and that hardly ever do they just like the style. It’s a way to an finish. For lots of people, cooking’s type of the identical: It’s a way to an finish somewhat than a joyful course of.
I believe lots of people expertise that. However for me, I actually like the method. However there are additionally blissful errors that may occur in a kitchen, you understand what I imply? It’s all about not being afraid to strive new issues.
That’s good recommendation. I believe individuals assume if you cook dinner professionally or write about meals for a dwelling that you just don’t make errors, however we’re human! Have there been any current blissful accidents in your house kitchen?
Sure. It wasn’t something main, however I used to be embarrassed the opposite day ’trigger I used to be making a grilled cheese sandwich for Lennox and I fully forgot that it was on the range. The entire thing was burnt. [Laughs] So to your level, even cooks can mess up one thing so simple as a grilled cheese sandwich. Something can go awry if you’re not paying consideration.
