Recipes, portraits but above all the story of a culinary tour of France. For two years, French producer, director and author Vérane Frédiani went to meet African chefs or chefs of African origin who push the boundaries of creativity to enhance their different culinary influences, in Marseille, Strasbourg, Rouen, Paris…
What was your ambition with “Africa cooks in France”?
After the success of Marseille cooks the worldI wanted to take this idea further that cooking can bring everyone together in a positive way. Hence the desire to take a tour of France of the kitchens of chefs, most of them born in Africa, who cook in France today. The idea is to encourage everyone to do the same, to meet all these chefs and their inspiration. But also to shed light on the fact that French gastronomy has always been nourished by external influences. Today, we need these new chefs, with their new ideas, who mix ingredients and techniques from different African and European countries. It creates something super-interesting, like what the population and France are like today.
With this book, you are campaigning to have the creativity of the chefs you met recognized.
I think we need to talk about this hierarchy in gastronomy which annoys me. A gourmet dinner from a cuisine that is not French does not have to be “cheap”. Ingredients cost the same for everyone and everyone’s knowledge has the same value. It annoys me when people tell me that a Chinese, Thai or African restaurant is too expensive, when we have no problem spending 400 euros on a Franco-French menu.
