Tuesday, June 07, 2016

What's next for BETUMI?

Once The Ghana Cookbook finally came out last November, everyone's been asking me: what's next? I"ve been wondering about that, too. There are so many possibilities I'm not sure what to pick. Some of you know that I recently suffered the loss of my mom, too, after I returned from Brazil in May. That's led me to some solemn reflections on life. . . 

I hope the next couple of months to get some clarity. I return to Ghana for 2 months on June 14. Most of the time I'll be based at Ashesi University in Berekuso, but with periodic trips down to the Tema-Accra area.

My ideas span from writing in the memoir genre (as I did with A New Land to Live In) to pursuing the Ghana kitchenwear product line, formalizing this  "network" of African food writers, developing African gluten-free doughs and pastries, adopting "tapioca" crepes from Brazil, and teaching. . . Someone has asked if I'll be blogging from Ghana. I've taken quite a respite from sharing here, and I hope to pick that up again during June, July, and August.


Check back and see how things develop here at BETUMI: The African Culinary Network.

P.S. The photo to the right was taken recently with award-winning owner/chef Leonardo Paixão at his fabulous (and multiple award-winning restaurant) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Glouton.





Wednesday, June 01, 2016

West African Cuisine at the Global Table



News Flash. Sunday, May 29, 2016: The Ghana Cookbook placed 1st

in the 2016 Gourmand World Cookbook awards for "Best African Cookbook published outside of Africa"!  Pierre Thiam's Senegal: Modern Senegalese Recipes from the Source to the Bowl, tied for 3rd place. 



These awards are listed on pages 185 and 184, respectively of the global awards booklet.

As Publishers Weekly noted back in August last year  with The Ghana Cookbook and Senegal: Modern Senegalese Recipes from the Source to the Bowl,  "This season, West Africa comes into focus." It's been a long wait, but Africa's time is coming.