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Not every food tradition deserves to survive. It is an uncomfortable thing to say, particularly when we come from cultures where food and memory are deeply intertwined. We are taught to respect what came before us. To learn the recipes our mothers inherited from their mothers. To remember the way our grandparents cooked. To protect the dishes that tell us where we come from. And I believe there is enormous value in that but somewhere along the way, we started treating traditi

Whenever people hear that I am a chef, one of the first questions I usually get is: “What’s your favourite dish to cook?” Or: “What do you cook best?” It is an understandable question. Cooking is the part of being a chef that people can see. They see the plate. They see the restaurant. They see the chef in whites, moving around the kitchen, tasting, seasoning, finishing. But after more than 15 years in food and hospitality, I sometimes find myself struggling to answer that qu

A West African Tasting Menu London Experience At the Table is Chef Dumebi’s West African tasting menu London experience, an intimate evening built around a changing six-course menu exploring the ingredients, dishes, techniques and food stories of West Africa. It is a space to cook creatively, explore new ideas and tell some of the stories that sit behind the food. The menu moves across West Africa, drawing inspiration from familiar dishes, regional ingredients, street food, h

If you are thinking about starting a food business in Nigeria, you have probably already been told to find your niche, create a menu, set your prices and start selling. That advice isn't wrong. It is just incomplete because the hardest part of starting a food business is rarely figuring out what you want to cook. The harder question is: Can you build a business around it? I have watched people with great food struggle because they treated the food as the business. It isn't. T

If we want better restaurants, we have to build better people. Hospitality career progression has to be part of that conversation. We talk a lot about restaurant concepts, menus, interiors, service and investment, but underneath all of that are the people who have to make those businesses work every day. If we want people to build careers in hospitality, we have to give them more than a job. They need opportunities to learn, take on responsibility, specialise, lead and unders

There is a particular kind of restaurant experience we have come to associate with “good hospitality.” The waiter speaks softly. The table is perfectly set. Everyone seems to know exactly what to do. Service moves at a certain pace. The language is polished. The room is quiet enough to hear your conversation. None of these things are bad. In fact, there is a lot African restaurants can learn from well-run hospitality businesses around the world: good training, consistency, me