AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
From trendy restaurants in Washington, D.C., to buzzy pop-up dinners in Brooklyn, West African food is having a moment. Justin Kramon reports on one chef who's using an unexpected sense to recreate the Nigerian flavors of his youth.
JUSTIN KRAMON: It's hard to explain Shola Olunloyo's job. Raised in Nigeria and now based in Philadelphia, he's a technical consultant in the food industry, which means he's the guy you call when you have a cooking problem.
SHOLA OLUNLOYO: Similar to just calling in the Navy sales and doing, like, a quick extraction, and nobody knows you were there.
KRAMON: Many major restaurants in Philly and beyond have relied on him to design menus or choose an oven. Like a true fixer, Olunloyo takes a meticulous, unsentimental approach to his work. But he holds a special place in his heart for one dish.
OLUNLOYO: Nigerian jollof rice. From the time I was like - have any memory of, like, being a human being, I remember jollof rice.
KRAMON: He's cooked the dish since he was 10 years old, and because of those memories, he knows when it's done simply by the sound of the rice in the pot.
How confident do you feel that you could nail the doneness completely by sound?
OLUNLOYO: Pretty confident.
KRAMON: I decided to put that to the test to see if Olunloyo could cook a jollof rice by sound. The culinary fixer accepted my challenge, and I brought two exacting tasters to his home in South Philadelphia to judge the results.
CRAIG LABAN: My name is Craig LaBan. I'm the restaurant critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
DERA ND-EZUMA: My name is Dera Nd-Ezuma. I am the owner and founder of Suya Suya West African Grill.
KRAMON: We head outside to the coal-powered burner in Olunloyo's backyard to watch him cook. Nigerian jollof starts with some aromatics sauteed in a heavy pot.
OLUNLOYO: This is just red onions, yeah. A hint of thyme. And some curry powder.
KRAMON: You add a spice tomato sauce, which holds a lot of the flavors, and some broth.
OLUNLOYO: Then you add your rice, cover it pretty tight, and let it cook till it's essentially done. So now is where sound becomes important.
KRAMON: Like, literally, we can't see what's going on.
OLUNLOYO: Yeah, we can't see. Listen to this.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOD BUBBLING)
OLUNLOYO: There's a wet bubble, which is different from a dry sizzle. You see what I mean?
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOD BUBBLING)
KRAMON: Restaurant owner Nd-Ezuma, who grew up in Nigeria, says he's seen his mom cook this way. She'll be sitting in the living room and call out to his sister in the kitchen.
ND-EZUMA: Telling her, reduce the heat. I can hear this making this sound.
KRAMON: As the critic LaBan puts it...
LABAN: Great chefs have all their senses awake when they're cooking.
KRAMON: Olunloyo updates us on the rice.
OLUNLOYO: The sound is more...
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOD BUBBLING)
OLUNLOYO: ...Higher pitched now, less wet.
KRAMON: He says there's one final step to a Nigerian party jollof.
OLUNLOYO: Let it burn just a tiny bit on the bottom.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOD BUBBLING)
OLUNLOYO: Yay.
KRAMON: Hearing the sizzle of the rice, he knows it's done.
What level of confidence do you feel right now?
OLUNLOYO: Feel 100% confident.
KRAMON: We go inside to taste. Nd-Ezuma first.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRUNCHING)
ND-EZUMA: It's just even. You know, nothing is overpowering the other. So the tomato, the chicken stock, the smokiness, it just hits you.
KRAMON: LaBan next.
LABAN: It's, like, a warm, sunny, beautiful flavor. I just love crunching on that rice. I'll give him two thumbs up, which is pretty rare for me.
KRAMON: LaBan points out that Olunloyo made his name cooking French sauces and technically innovative food. But...
LABAN: When Shola cooks something like jollof rice, he starts with a memory of home.
KRAMON: Or as Olunloyo says...
OLUNLOYO: Fundamentally, it's the same thing that I used to eat going up. I think I am just as excited or surprised as you guys.
KRAMON: That all those years of detailed technical work have led him right back to his childhood. For NPR News, I'm Justin Kramon in Philadelphia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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