Having come out on top at the 6th edition of Africa West Food, this young professional chef is writing the history of Burkinabe cuisine in the annals. Portrait of a trained chef and outstanding restaurant trainer who combines cuisine and intelligentsia!
For a long time the Burkinabe torch shone internationally in many fields, except in the culinary art until the light of the small silhouette of Emilie Yaméogo made it spring from its slumber. A story of family education that became a passion, even a question of hoisting the Burkinabe flag to the top. What started as a child’s game turned into a passion.
Emilie Yaméogo, the only daughter of eight children, is writing the history of Burkinabe gastronomy.
Modest and almost self-effacing with a small, slender figure, but with a well-rounded mind and unwavering determination when it comes to cooking. This young rising chef, who is in the process of “avenge[ing]” her country, which until now had a bad press in terms of culinary art, while it is full of great chefs hiding in anonymity, according to a chef from Burkina…
Victims of bad press, Burkinabe women who have long been criticized for not knowing how to cook, have had their revenge.
While the fact of saying that they do not know how to cook is considered false by the president of the Association of restaurateurs, actors of the catering trades & food processors of Burkina, master Benjamin Lucien Compaoré, who has stayed in several countries of the sub-region, but also tested as many as possible.
Indeed, people judge based on flavors, however, this cannot be a criterion for judging a cuisine. “Otherwise, Burkina is not behind in terms of cuisine, but it is because it does not make a lot of noise like elsewhere. As usual, the Burkinabe has always been modest, even if he is better in one area, he always wants to remain anonymous,” he confided, while reassuring himself that things are changing with the rising generation.
Precisely, since her arrival in the world of Burkinabe cuisine, and with the support of her elders, “Emi” has piled up trophy after trophy at the national level in just a few years of experience. As for these national awards, she cites among others, the super chef Etalon d’or Burkina Faso, the title of the amazon in the mothers category and the 1st trophy and gold medal in the vegetarian category. To complete the circle, she won the most coveted trophy in the sub-region, the West African Food Festival during the 6th edition held in Accra in May 2024.
Accustomed to competitions since her secondary school days, she is the one who offered the country its first international trophy in cooking. “Emi”, as her close friends call her, wants to write the history of Burkinabe cuisine on an international level. The young soldier of Burkinabe gastronomy dreams of going even further like the great chefs that the world has known.
“Even if it’s not what we wanted for her, today, we are convinced that it’s what makes her happy and she does it well,” says her older brother Olivier Yaméogo, while expressing his pride for his younger sister. For the mother, the only wish is that she can go as far as possible. “Because when I taught her to cook, it wasn’t so that she would make a career out of it but rather because she is a woman and in the Moaga culture, every woman must know how to prepare and when she gets married, she will be able to do it for her husband and children. That was the only reason, but if she made a career out of it, what can I say, except to wish her good luck.”
“The doctorate in the kitchen…”
With this young chef, ambition is not relinquished. Emi wants to go as far as possible. With a degree in Hotel Business Management and the title of best chef in West Africa at the West African Food Festival, she is considering a master’s degree and, why not, a doctorate to take Burkinabe gastronomy as far as possible so that this cuisine enters the list of the great cuisines of the world. The young chef campaigns for a cuisine allied to the intelligentsia because there is material in terms of local products that must be valued and made an element of economic development in Burkina.
Yvette Zongo
Photo and video credit: Ange Auguste Paré
Lefaso.net
