Iquo Ukoh is a Nigerian food blogger and expert with over 30 years of experience. Her passion for West African cuisine is rooted in her rich heritage and her desire to share it with the rest of the diaspora. Her new book “Memories on a Platter: My Journey with Nigerian Food” shares some of her most treasured recipes, allowing readers to truly get in tune with Ukoh’s experiences–all the while getting a taste of Nigeria.
AFRO: How did you get your start in the world of culinary arts?
IU : I studied nutrition and dietetics as my first degree and then I joined a multinational food company. However, I’m the first daughter in the family so I was thrown into the kitchen at a very tender age. In the part of Nigeria where I come from, women are known for their culinary prowess and I could not escape that. I was the one that was in the kitchen most of the time. Yes, I have a sister, but the whole responsibility of taking care of the kitchen and helping mom in the kitchen rested on me.
AFRO: How did you transition from a science based part of the food industry to the marketing and media side of it ?
IU: For about 35 years I was working for a company and I was actually in marketing. It was a food company– 35 years of my life was around food, but I was using marketing for food, which was more or less understanding the media and how to promote food.
When I retired from my nine to five I said, “It looks like the next best thing to do is to stay in the world of food.” I went into food blogging just before I retired.
When I retired, I then went full time into food blogging and that’s how I started full time with the media side of food. I think my experiences of traveling around Nigeria while working made it very easy for me to step into the food blogging space.
AFRO: You have a new book out, let’s talk about it. What inspired it “Memories on a Platter: My Journey with Nigerian Food” ?
IU: When I started food blogging, I started clearly seeing the gaps that were in the food space in terms of documentation. But just to backtrack a bit, I had my mom stay with me for about two years before she passed and as I was still building recipes and posting and all of that I asked her to share with me a recipe I remember from my childhood that my grandmother used to make. And by this time, my mom was 90 herself and she could not remember the recipe anymore.
That got me thinking that I needed to quickly document recipes that I have and the one she had given to me so that I can actually confirm some of those recipes. I also did this with recipes I had gathered whilst working throughout most parts of Nigeria. I felt it was my place to document Nigerian food in a way that I believe the global audience and Nigerians themselves would appreciate. Yes, there were a couple of recipe books largely focused on recipes but the story side of the relationship Nigerians have with their food was not told– this was my inspiration for “Memories on a Platter.”
AFRO: What do you want readers to take away from your book ?
IU: The book “Memories on a Platter” is a way for me to preserve the Nigerian food culture. My dream is for Nigerians to better understand the relationship they have with food. I’ve been seeing a lot of fusion food lately and I worry that over time we may lose the originality of our dishes. Someone needs to document this, and that’s what I’ve started to do. I want younger chefs to know our ingredients and how they’ve been traditionally used so they can draw inspiration from them and adapt them to today’s reality.
Another inspiration for the book is for Nigerians living in the diaspora. It’s so easy to lose touch with your culture and origins when you’re far from home. A book like this helps keep people grounded, reminding them where they come from and what our food represents. At the end of the day, food, music, and language are what tie us to our culture. Food, especially, plays such an important role in helping us stay connected.
This book serves multiple purposes: to help people in the diaspora stay rooted, to inspire young Nigerian chefs to build on traditional recipes and ingredients, and to celebrate how food is intertwined with our lives. It’s not just about recipes. I’ve included stories and even used Nigerian languages in some of them to show how food fits into our daily lives. With the situational pictures I’ve taken across Nigeria—not just studio shots—I hope to bring these dishes to life. Ultimately, my goal is to preserve and celebrate the richness of Nigerian food and culture.
AFRO: What do you want the world to know about Nigerian cuisine ?
IU: First of all, I think the world should know that there’s a lot of diversity in our food and our culture. We’re not just about Jollof rice– that’s the first point. The other thing is that we have flavors, layers of flavors in fact, that could be appreciated by the rest of the world. Just as we have appreciated food from other cultures, Nigerian food and its culture is quite vast and diverse and I must say, deep, if I can use that word. The third thing is that whilst the world has come to appreciate our music, fashion, etc., I think it’s our turn now to showcase our food.
It is about time that we export our own culture and get people to appreciate our foods. And let’s face it– the ingredients that we use in some of those dishes are quite universally available, and therefore there shouldn’t be any problem with anybody trying out some of our dishes. Those are the kind of things I want the rest of the world to know about Nigerian food.
AFRO: How are you looking to impact the Nigerian culinary arts scene ?
IU: I have several platforms where I continue to discuss Nigerian food and its deep connection to our culture. On YouTube and across most of my social media handles, I’ve shared numerous recipes and will continue to do so. More importantly, I believe Nigeria is beginning to approach food from an intellectual perspective. This year, we held our first Food Summit, and I’m excited that an even larger platform is planned for next year. I was privileged to share my thoughts there, contributing to the effort of helping the younger generation appreciate Nigerian cuisine.
Looking ahead to 2025, I plan to host many experiential events to bring this vision to life. These events will also be amplified through social media, ensuring the conversation around our food and culture reaches even more people. The work of promoting and celebrating Nigerian food will continue, and we’re gearing up to achieve even more in 2025.
Culled: Afronews
