küchen modern und alt kombiniert
i was born and raised in dakar, senegal, and through a combinationof accidents and cosmic justice, became a chef in the us. (laughter) when i first arrived in new york, i began working in these restaurants --different types of restaurants -- from french bistro to italian, global ethnic to modern american. at the time,
new york was already well-establishedas a food capital of the world. however ... with the exception of a few west africanand ethiopian mom-and-pop eateries, there was no such thingas african cuisine in the entire city. early in my life, i was influencedby senegal's first president, lã©opold sã©dar senghor, nicknamed, "the poet president," who talked about a new humanism,
a universal civilization, in which all cultures would come togetheraround a communal table as equals, each bringing its own beautifulcontribution to share. he called it "the rendezvousof giving and receiving." that concept resonated with me, and it has guided my career path. after years of working in restaurants, i yearned for my workto have a deeper impact that would go beyondthe last meal i had served.
i wanted to give back, both to new york -- the city that allowed methe opportunity to follow my calling -- but also to my originsand ancestors in senegal. i wanted to contributeto that universal civilization senghor had described. but i didn't know how to makea measurable impact as a cook and writer. while i was writing my first cookbook, i often traveled to different regionsof senegal for research.
during one of those trips, in the remote, southeastregion of kã©dougou i rediscoveredan ancient grain called fonio that had all but disappearedfrom the urban senegalese diet. it turns out that foniohad been cultivated for more than five thousand years and is probably the oldestcultivated cereal in africa. once a popular grainon much of the continent, fonio was grownall the way to ancient egypt,
where archaeologists found grainsinside pyramids' burial grounds. today it is mostly cultivatedin the western part of the sahel region, from senegal to mali, burkina faso, togo, nigeria. the sahel region is that semiarid areasouth of the sahara desert that extends from the atlanticin the west to the red sea in the east. i became more interested in this grain that was deemed worth takingto the afterlife by early egyptians.
as i continued my research, i found out that fonio was actually -- wherever it was cultivated -- there was always some myth,or some superstition connected to it. the dogon, another great culture in mali, called it "po," or, "the seed of the universe." in that ancient culture's mythology,
the entire universesprouted from a seed of fonio. aside from its purportedmystical properties, fonio is a miracle grain in many aspects. it is nutritious, particularly richin methionine and cysteine, two amino acids that are deficientin most other major grains: barley, rice or wheat to name a few. in addition, fonio cultivationis great for the environment.
it tolerates poor soil and needs very little water, surviving where nothing else will grow. as a chef, what first struck me wasits delicate taste and its versatility. similar to couscous, fonio has a delicious,nutty and earthy flavor. it can be turned into salad, served as noodles,
used in baking or simply as a substitute for anyother grains in your favorite recipes. i am happy to share some of myfonio sushi and sweet potato sushi with some of you right now. (audience) oh! (applause) and okra. (audience murmurs) in kã©dougou
it is also nicknamed "ã±amu buur," which means "food for royalty," and it's served for guests of honor. located at the borderwith guinea and mali, kã©dougou first strikes visitorswith its stunning vistas and views of the fouta djallon mountains. sadly, it is also one of the poorestregions of senegal. because of desertificationand lack of job prospects, much of kã©dougou'syoung population has left.
they chose the deadly path of migration in search of "better" opportunities. often, they risk their livestrying to reach europe. some leave by crossing the sahara desert. others end up on inadequate wooden canoes in desperate attempts to reach spain. according to a recent "guardian" article, by 2020 more that 60 million peoplefrom sub-saharan africa
are expected to migrate due to desertification. this is the biggest global waveof migration since the second world war, and it's only set to grow. so far this year, more that 2,100 migrantshave lost their lives on their way to europe. this is the reality of kã©dougou and of much of the sahel today.
scary future, scarce food and no opportunitiesto change their situation. if life in your villageweren't so precarious, if there was a wayto having enough food to get by, or having a paying job -- if you and your sisters didn't have to spend30 percent of their waking hours fetching water,
if conditions were justa little more hospitable ... could the solutionbe right here in our soil? could bringing fonioto the rest of the world be the answer? ancient grains are getting more popular, and sales of gluten-free itemsare growing in the us -- 16.4 percent since 2013, making it a 23.3-billion-dollar industry. how could foniopartake in this market share?
there are many challengesin turning fonio into food. traditional processingis laborious and time-consuming, especially when compared to other grains. well, thankfully, technology has evolved. and there are now machines that can process fonioin a more efficient way. and as a matter of fact, a few years ago, sanoussi diakitã©,
a senegalese engineer, won a rolex prize for his invention of the firstmechanized fonio processor. today, such machines are making lifemuch easier for producers around the whole sahel region. another challengeis the colonial mentality that what comes from the west is best. this tendency to look downon our own products and to see crops like fonioas simply "country peoples' food,"
therefore substandard, explains why even though we don'tproduce wheat in senegal traditionally, it is far easier to find baguettesor croissants in the streets of dakar than it is to find any fonio products. this same mindset popularizedthe overprocessed, leftover rice debris known as "broken rice," which was imported to senegalfrom indochina and introduced by the colonial french. soon, broken rice becamea key ingredient in our national dish,
thiã©boudienne, replacing our own traditional,more nutritious african rice, oryza glaberrima. ironically, the same african ricedespised at home was hailed abroad. indeed, during the atlantic slave trade, this rice becamea major crop in the americas ... particularly in the carolinas where it was nicknamed, "carolina gold."
but let's return to fonio. how can we turn its current statusof "country-people food" into a world-class crop? last year, a business partner and i secureda commitment from whole foods market, the us's largest natural food store chain, to carry fonio. and we got a largeamerican ingredient importer interested enoughto send a team of executives
to west africa with us to explore the supply chain's viability. we found ourselvesobserving manual operations in remote locations with few controls over quality. so we started focusingon processing issues. we drew up a vision with a beneficial and commerciallysustainable supply chain for fonio, and we connected ourselveswith organizations
that can help us achieve it. walking backwards from the market,here is what it looks like. imagine that foniois consumed all across the globe as other popular ancient grains. fonio touted on the levels of cereals, breads, nutrition bars, cookies, pastas, snacks -- why not?
it's easier to say than quinoa. to get there, fonio needs to be readily available at a consistent qualityfor commercial users, such as food manufacturersand restaurant chains. that's the part we're missing. to make fonio availableat a consistent quality for commercial use, you need a commercial-scale fonio mill
that adheres to internationalquality standards. currently, there is no such millin the whole world, so in our vision, there is an african-ownedand operated fonio mill that processes efficiently and in compliance with the requirementsof multinational food companies. it is very difficultfor the fonio producers today to sell and use fonio unless they devotea huge amount of time and energy
in threshing, winnowing and husking it. in our vision, the mill will take on those tasks, allowing the producers to focuson farming rather than processing. there is untappedagricultural capacity in the sahel, and all it takesis changing market conditions to activate that capacity. by relieving fonio producersof manual operations, the mill will free up their time
and remove the production bottleneckthat limits their output. and there are other benefits as well in using sahel land for agriculture. more benefits, higher employment, climate change mitigationby reversing desertification and greater food security. nice vision, right? well, we are workingtowards getting it done.
last month we introduced fonioto shoppers in new york city and online, in a package that makes it attractiveand desirable and accessible. we are talking with operatorsand investors in west africa about building a fonio mill. and most importantly, we have teamed with an ngocalled sos sahel to recruit, train and equipsmallholders in the sahel to increase their fonio production.
hunger levels are higherin sub-saharan africa than any other place in the world. the sahel population is set to grow from 135 million to 340 million people. however, in that drought-and famine-prone region, fonio grows freely. this tiny grain may provide big answers, reasserting its dogon name, "po," the seed of the universe,
and taking us one step closer to the universal civilization. thank you.