Africa Is Not A Country

Did you know that Benin produces its own mozzarella-style cheese? Or that hibiscus tea is the drink of  African royalty? French-Ivorian chef Loïc Dablé thinks you should, which is why he’s doing a food-art tour through Africa – including a recent pit stop in SA – to showcase the continent’s culinary treasures.

- Annette Klinger

I was raised in Paris, but both my parents are from the Ivory Coast: my father from a seaside town in the south called Sassandra, and my mother from Toulépleu in the west. In Sassandra, the cuisine is based around fish and seafood, and in Toulépleu, spinach and cassava are the staples. My childhood holidays were spent with my parents’ families in Abidjan. I vividly remember eating alloco, a dish of fried plaintain. All the dishes I grew up eating were recorded in my memory. It’s only when I grew up that I reclaimed these flavours in my food.

I received very traditional French training at École de Paris des Métiers de la Table and, after this, started working at fine-dining restaurants in luxury hotels in Paris. I became frustrated because I couldn’t use African food in these kinds of establishments. When I opened Café Dapper, which was in the African art museum Musée Dapper, I used my classic French training to give a contemporary interpretation of African food.