In a quaint, restored house in the New Orleans Uptown neighborhood, the scent of spices like clove, paprika, cayenne, and garlic wafts through the windows. Those walking by can, at once, catch a scent of briny, freshly caught blue crab and the piquant smell of scotch bonnet. The confluence of flavors isn’t accidental. It’s the creation of Serigne Mbaye, a young, Senegalese chef bringing his culinary vision to life.
For Mbaye, fusing flavors to create a West African-Creole fusion cuisine is a craft and an opportunity for Black chefs like him to explore the creative lanes they’ve long been kept from venturing. The child of Senegalese immigrants—including Khady Kante, a highly revered Senegalese chef in her own right (she operated Touba Taif, one of NYC’s only Senegalese restaurants, from 1989 to 1991, and ran a restaurant in her home country of Senegal)—Mbaye remembers preparing one pot dishes with his mom. Dishes like domoda—which Mbaye described as a gumbo—or maybe jollof with chicken, fish, or shrimp, and sometimes, a beef stew with peanut butter. The one-pot characteristic of the food in Mbaye’s upbringing would parallel with what he found in an area influenced by enslaved Africans who came from his homeland. Here, Mbaye said, was an opportunity to tell a new story.