Chef Fatmata Binta is a resident at the Palm Heights Hotel in the Cayman Islands, where she shares the beauty and bounty of West Africa through the world-famous flavors of her Fulani Kitchen that she pairs with stories of her nomadic people and the rhythm of African beats.
She is all heart and soul and in her methods she is sustainable.
This is due to her heritage.
Chef Binta.
Apag Studios is a studio.
The world's largest nomadic group are the 20 million people of the Fulani. Binta's life is a story of nomadism, adaptation and survival. Binta has taken her all over the world on an intuitive journey, just as her pop up dinners have done.
Binta's parents were first generation Fulanis who moved to Freetown from Conakry, the capital of Guinea. Binta was a member of a large family and food was always at the center of her life.
Binta was groomed to take over a kitchen someday, in marriage, because she was always integrated in the process of peeling onions or scotch bonnet, as a Fulani girl.
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I remember growing up in a place where food was a big deal. There was a lot of depth to the food, community, culture, tradition. My mom and aunties loved to eat. I only realized how sustainable they were when I woke up and watched them take a basket to the market every day. Everything was carried in a single basket. They would bring home all of the colorful ingredients.
The way the food was eaten was beautiful. No shoes, seated on mats, hands, and ingredients would make appearances when the weather is nice. Although they were pastoralists, their diet was mostly plant based. The young people learned their values here.
Binta's mother, Fatimatu Bah, used to sell Fry Fry, a street food made from black-eyed peas, at her shop.
One of Binta's most profound food experiences as a child was when she was six years old, when she sustained third degree burns from a pot of hot oil that her mother had laid on the floor.
She shows me the tell-tale marks on her hands, as she laughs, "I should have known something when my love for food only grew stronger."
Binta was taught the tricks of the trade by her paternal grandmother, Kadijatu Bah, who owned a local restaurant and taught her how to minimize waste when cooking. Binta's grandmother would tell her that the rice would cry if Binta dropped a single grain on the ground.
When the Civil War broke out in Sierra Leone, Binta returned to her mother in what would be a completely different life, one in which food would take on a profoundly different role.
Life in a war zone was hard. The family couldn't go to the market because they couldn't leave home. Binta's mother and aunts only had a few ingredients.
Binta says that they were able to create something and share it because of the simple ingredients that came from different homes.
Binta explains how they would have to remove the roaches from the rice. These were the best meals I have ever eaten. I don't know why, but it was the best.
The experience would give her two of the most poignant lessons that she still holds close to this day, that food does not have to be complicated to taste good, and that food has the power to create a bridge between people and communities.
Binta was forced to return to her home in Conakry with her mother and her large community of three hundred to four hundred people, because the war became so heated that it would have only accommodated half the population.
It was then that food became more important than ever before. Young Binta is excited about being sustainable.
We would have to walk a mile to get water and firewood. Everything was organic. If we wanted a sweet potato, we had to take it to the kitchen and bring it back to the farm. The meals were prepared fresh and from scratch. We had to find a way to feed everyone because there were so many of us. My grandmother came up with the idea to grow fonio.
Binta would eventually make space for impacting the lives of others, as a lifelong ambassadorship would take root here.
A sustainable solution to feeding many mouths is to grow and harvest Fonio in as little as 6 to 8 weeks.
fonio was made in a variety of ways by the family. Binta was 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 The ancient grain was adapted for lunch and dinner.
Binta went to school in Freetown at the age of thirteen and then went to university where she majored in International Relations. She would make home cooked meals for her peers who would eagerly pool resources to purchase ingredients for their talented friend.
Binta went to Spain as a means of making ends meet and later in the year of 2014, when the outbreak of the E.C. epidemic took over Sierra Leone, she relocated to Accra, Ghana to attend a cooking school. The decision would take her to the institute.
Binta was worried that her mother would not approve of her choice to go to school for food preparation. I was worried that she wouldn't find it sustainable.
Her family heritage would be at the forefront of her practice.
After graduating from a cooking school, Binta found that she didn't like being in a commercial job. She began to notice that her beloved African cooking traditions were slowly fading away, and particularly those of the Fulani people.
She had to do something.
The people only know of the Fulani as a tribe. She says that they are sterotyped and looked down upon. I know how beautiful these people are, and they are also hospitable. It was important for me to tell their stories.
Binta quit her job after that. She wanted to educate the world about her people's culture so she devoted herself to learning more about it.
Binta was accepted as a speaker of a common language and would spend several days living among and cooking with groups. She would return to the area and host dinners.
Chef Binta is at a settlement.
The photo is of the city of Accra.
She says that one time it would be a Mat inspired by Malian Fulanis. She was repeatedly told that dining on a mat was both a grounding and connecting experience as she shared her experiences with others.
Binta grew more certain that the world could learn from the lessons of her people when she returned to her native land.
At first, her dinners did not take off as she had hoped and she would invite her friends to experience the food and newfound recipes that she had acquired so that they would not go to waste.
Her mother was worried.
She didn't understand it. She would call me in the morning and ask me if I wanted to do something and I couldn't let the memories of my childhood fade away. I had to change the narrative of my people.
Her time would come soon.
A group of Yale students who were visiting Africa attended one of Binta's events. Word spread and her leap of faith paid off, as they did not pay for the meal.
She was able to achieve some of her goals before she died.
Binta was the winner of the Best Chef Awards in the Rising Star category.
She says that the award is only to highlight her work, but the work continues. It is my responsibility as an African chef to be an ambassador for where I am from, to put it on a global stage without it being diminished. I want to stay authentic as long as I can.
Binta has begun to take the next steps in her life's work. People will have the chance to learn about and be inspired by the Fulanis when plans for aculinary village with a test kitchen are finalized.
The Fulani Kitchen is currently in Africa, North America, Europe and now the Caribbean.
At Tillie's restaurant in the Cayman Islands, I am surrounded by a group of people from different cultures and I am surrounded by an animated air of anticipation. I explore the diaspora of West African cuisine, a merger of African ingredients that have found a unique home in harmony with the bounty of Cayman's produce and I immediately shift gears from self-conscious to soulfully sustained.
The Palm Heights Hotel in the Cayman Islands has a restaurant.
Binta is Fatmata.
Chef Binta takes center stage before the party of onlookers, taking avid listeners on a multi-sensory journey down the roads of her past, where food came from her back yard and her mother's Fry Fry was the talk of the town.
I value food a lot. It is powerful and sacred. She says that food is the universal language that breaks down barriers. It is important for anyone who sits on my mat to leave as an ambassador for the people.
If Fatimatu Bah could see her.
