A city chef and a country farmer take us on a journey through the process of getting food from the farm to the dining table.
From the planting of rice to the process of cooking the jollof, all paths lead to the stomach. These two men show us how each chosen passion brings value to the other.
Chef Michael Elégbèdé, and Agricultural specialist Olayemi Banjo are two Nigerian men who have a passion for food. Though their paths are very different, there is a vital bond and symbiotic relationship between chef and farmer i, and Dangote uses a well-thought out ad campaign to emphasise it.
Olayemi Banjo had always been curious about the process of growing food. Though his father was also a farmer, he wanted Olayemi to study Engineering. However, after studying Mechanical Engineering Craft Practice, his fascination with plants inspired him to start farming. That was 20 years ago. Mostly self-taught, Olayemi started with farming maize and cassava, before becoming a rice farmer. For him, he dreams of the day Nigeria becomes self-sufficient and starts feeding other nations.
In this campaign, Olayemi welcomes Chef Michael to his farm, showing him around the process of production and allowing a space to deepen the understanding of each other's skills.
Coming from a family of chefs, Chef Michael was born in Nigeria and raised in the United States. He left the path of being a medical doctor to follow his childhood passion of cooking. After studying at the Culinary Institute of America, he developed a successful career in the US but has returned to Lagos to open his own restaurant. With a specific love for Nigerian food, Michael draws inspiration from the aromatic foods his chef grandmother used to make as a child.
The journey of food
A list of Nigerian staples would be incomplete without rice. This, Chef Michael understands, and applies his new flavours and techniques to innovate traditional dishes like rice.
The Chef said: “It’s very important to me that I travel around the country and experience people’s culture, traditions around food, and that I encounter different farmers from those regions, so we form relationships.”
His journey to know where his produce comes from, leads him to Mile 12 market to buy ingredients, Epe fish market in Badagry to buy "shiny nose" fish and finally, to Olayemi Banjo's rice farm on the shores of the remote Ikere dam in Oyo state. The farm is where Olayemi works with Dangote to train youths in farming techniques. He shows the Chef around the farm and teaches him how he sows his rice seed.
After the introductions, Chef Michael got to the work of preparing shiny nose fish, jollof rice, roasted sweetcorn and deepfried plantain on firewood.
“I think the best banter and the most beautiful connections happen around the dinner table”.
After the food was done, Olayemi Banjo, Chef Michael and other workers on the farm, sit down to enjoy the platter prepared while the sun sets over the farm.
from pulse.ng - Nigeria's entertainment & lifestyle platform online
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