The Senegalese foodie whose secret ingredient is passion

Record ID: 1436793

  • Title: The Senegalese foodie whose secret ingredient is passion
  • Date: 15th October 2019
  • Summary: DAKAR, SENEGAL (RECENT) (REUTERS) SIGN READING (French): 'WELCOME TO DAKAR" BUS TAXI DRIVING PAST FISHING BOATS ON THE BEACH FISHING BOAT SENEGALESE FLAG WITH AFRICAN RENAISSANCE MONUMENT IN THE BACKGROUND AFRICAN RENAISSANCE MONUMENT (SOUNDBITE) (French) FOOD BLOGGER, IBRAHIMA NDOYE, SAYING: "Hello, I'm Ibrahima Ndoye, Iba, from "Les Ateliers de Iba" and we are here today
  • Embargoed: 29th October 2019 11:29
  • Keywords: gastronomy cooking World Food Day cuisine mbakhalou saloum videos about food african food food blogger social media followers
  • Location: DAKAR, SENEGAL
  • City: DAKAR, SENEGAL
  • Country: Senegal
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA001B17KHG7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Dakar, the city of sun, sea, multicoloured pirogues and painted buses.
    It's also the city of 'Iba's Workshop', the kitchen of Senegalese food lover Ibrahima Ndoye (DOY), Iba (EE-ba) for short, at his home in Hann Mariste (MA-reest), a residential neighbourhood in the capital city.
    Busy all week with his day job in sales, Ndoye does most of his cooking on the weekend before posting videos on his Facebook page and Instagram accounts known as 'Les Ateliers d'Iba' (Iba's Workshops). On Saturdays’ Ndoye trawls through the central market of Kermel for ingredients, then rushes home where he has built a kitchen-come-studio to set up his camera and cook.
    "We are here today to show you a very local recipe, a Senegalese recipe, the Mbakhalou Saloum" Ndoye tells Reuters from his kitchen.
    For a successful Mbakhalou Saloum (ba-kha-LOO, sa-LOOM) you need vegetables, meat, dried fish, chilli for the kick, rice to give it body, and ground peanuts - one of Senegal's main agricultural crops. It is a very rich and substantial dish considered amongst the top five favourite recipes in Senegal.
    A key ingredient is the Netetou (nay-tay-TOO), also known as Soumbala (soom-BA-la) in other parts of West Africa, a widely used spice made from seeds grown in the Sahel region which lifts the flavours of the dish and gives it a very distinctive West African character.
    Ndoye says there are not many foodie sites in Senegal and those he used to follow before he started three years ago were rudimentary, bland and un-informative.
    Thanks to his tiny but colourfully designed home kitchen, Ndoye is breaking the mold, producing compelling videos and photos with plenty of information on ingredients and clear instructions on how and when to use them.
    He has found a winning formula. Today Ndoye has more than 113,000 thousand followers on Facebook and 20,000 on Instagram. "I wasn't expecting to have such a significant following," he says proudly.
    He says his followers include Senegalese diaspora who miss home cooking or are married to a partner who isn't familiar with Senegalese dishes.
    But the ingredients are not available everywhere. Some cities, like Paris, have a relatively large community of Francophone West Africans who stock the typical spices and condiments of their home region.
    "A lot of other nationalities are interested in our cuisine. I receive plenty of messages from people who live in England, Italy, New Zealand, Australia and they more or less know Africa or have African friends, African partners and want to know about African cuisine," says Ndoye.
    This blogger-chef tries to make the recipes simple and accessible to all and will sometimes change some of the ingredients. But essentially, he says, he keeps the recipes as authentic as possible because, he says, Africans don't appreciate fusion cooking or adventurous adaptations.
    "In Europe, especially in France, people like to make some changes to dishes but in Africa it is not accepted, we are sometimes criticised for that," Ndoye said.
    Ndoye loves the Internet. He says it enables him to share, get new ideas, and offer a different view of the world to people across the whole planet, or even send a wave of taste and colour to the homesick abroad.
    Food blogging is still a new concept in Senegal and less widespread than in Europe or the US so there are fewer sponsors and bloggers have to fund everything themselves.
    "Yes, brands are starting to come, they want to collaborate, and we try little by little to do it, It is not always easy because the online aspect is not very well known here yet. In other countries it works well, the things they post online are usually sought after by brands and they are well paid, but it is a bit different if we talk about the general situation in Africa," he says.
    His friends Abdulaye Mbaye, Ibrahima Sy and Walide Diouf love coming to Iba's house to share a meal. It's their custom to eat from one plate. Walide Diouf says Ndoye has been passionate about food since they were children.
    "When we were young, he always bothered us with his vermicelli, from a young age he indulged in this," says Diouf.
    Ndoye says his food blog is helping him live his dreams.
    He says that even though it consumes an enormous amount of his time, he tries to answer questions and respond to comments from his fans, because he is hoping to touch more and more people all over the world and encourage them to share his love of food.
    (Yvonne Bell, Christophe Van Der Perre)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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