There’s more I want
to bring to the table.

Through my books, I’ve been trying to bring Africa to the world. Aferi is another way of doing that. This time, you can cook with it.

I love food, but that isn’t the whole reason. Sometimes I miss a familiar taste. A meal can bring something back in a way that words can’t: a place, a person, the feeling of sitting down at home.

At home with fire.

I’m also happiest with something on the barbecue. I cook on a barrel cooker, and I enjoy American-style smoking—the patience, tending the fire, seeing what time and smoke do to a piece of meat. I’m curious about what happens when those ways of cooking meet the flavours I grew up knowing, and others I’m still discovering.

Aferi gives that curiosity somewhere to go. Into a rub for the grill. Into a pot of pilau. Into the small pinch you add to your eggs before breakfast.

A continent worth getting to know.

People know suya, pilau and berbere. I love that those flavours have travelled. But there’s so much more across the continent, and I don’t think we’ve given it enough room.

I want to explore it myself, with other people, and share what we find. I want to keep asking questions, cooking, learning where flavours come from and finding ways to bring them into the meals we make now.

Something to share.

That’s what I hope Aferi becomes: a way to find a taste you’ve missed, discover one you haven’t met, and make something good for the people around your table.

Bernard

Founder, Aferi