Ikoyi: A Journey Through Bold Heat with Recipes

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Pour the resulting custard into a wide pan and cook gently, whisking and scraping the edges with a spatula until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Standout dishes: Smoked Jollof rice and crab custard; fried Landes chicken and chicken offal hot sauce. This coupled with Ikoyi’s focus on often obscure spices means that most will have their work cut out obtaining the ingredients necessary to replicate his recipes.

In the essay on the plantain dish, I talk about Ridley Scott’s Alien, Mark Rothko, and how colors influence my sense of flavor and intensity. Blitz the broth in a blender for 5 minutes until very smooth, adding some filtered water if necessary, then pass through a chinois. The moment Jeremy stepped through the door of noma, you could see he had a ferocious appetite for knowledge.This debut cookbook tells the compelling story and journey of Chan and Ikoyi, with 80 recipes that Chan has carefully developed to encapsulate bold heat: his signature style. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Ikoyi, named as one of the World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2022, is one of the most original, flavor-driven restaurants of its time. There’s something interesting about creating minimal food that’s condensed and concentrated but multilayered and complex at the same time.

Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers.Each recipe in this fascinating book features a story about how the dish was developed, plus the influences of seasonality and produce from local producers. But if I was to create a half-Chinese, half-Canadian jollof, I knew it would have to stand up in terms of flavor. As the rice cooks, we simultaneously warm the crab custard, which acts as a glaze, added at the last moment, before we smoke the entire dish.

Against each of the Phaidon-published tome's 40 or so recipes are mini essays that range from 300 to over 1,000 words. Run by childhood-friend duo Iré Hassan-Odukale and chef Jeremy Chan, the innovative culinary mind behind the unique tasting menu, its menu is inspired by the spices of Sub-Saharan West Africa and produce from local farms and artisan producers. We gently toast the rice grains before steaming them in the broth to a very al dente, almost undercooked, consistency. Leave to cool at room temperature, breaking it up with your hands and adding some cold butter and oil to further break apart the grains. He discusses developing (and eventually abandoning) the concept of a Nigerian restaurant with his childhood friend—and Ikoyi’s managing director and cofounder—Iré Hassan-Odukale (the restaurant is named for the neighborhood in Lagos where Hassan-Odukale grew up).If you never have the great privilege to experience the extraordinary Ikoyi, then this book gives you an insight into the sheer brilliance and remarkable intelligence of Jeremy Chan. While chefs might not be able to get their hands on some of Chan’s ingredients they will appreciate his precise instructions and the fact that the recipes are presented are taken directly from Ikoyi’s own recipe folder. Chan acknowledges this in the book, declaring that “many of these ingredients will be difficult or at times impossible to procure” but that this challenge represents what it’s like to run a restaurant “with a kitchen comprising of a complex network of supplier and producer relationships”. Though most Ikoyi dishes are born out of subjective and abstract inspirations, jollof rice is an existing culinary tradition—and a fiercely debated one, at that. I talk about outer space and death and these morbid, disturbing images in my head, which are part of the inspiration for the restaurant.