Inaugural Yale Global Table Fellow Chef Selassie Atadika Shares Lessons on African Culinary Heritage

Chef Selassie Atadika delivers her lecture on “New African Cuisine: Where Culture, Community, and Cuisine Intersect with the Environment, Sustainability, and Economy” on October 1 in Luce Hall. Photo by Stephanie Anestis.
 

On September 30, Yale welcomed Selassie Atadika, Ghanian culinarian, educator, and food systems advocate, as the inaugural fellow to kickstart the Yale Global Table Program — a new partnership between the Yale MacMillan Center, the Yale Schwarzman Center, and Yale Hospitality that brings culinary thought-leaders from around the world to campus to illuminate the connections between sustainability, health, culture, and community. During her time at Yale, Atadika collaborated with students, faculty, and dining services to create immersive experiences that aim to reshape how the university approaches global food systems, both academically and operationally.

Selassie Atadika is the chef and founder of Midunu, a nomadic and private dining enterprise that celebrates Africa’s cultural and culinary heritage by integrating West African flavor profiles, local and seasonal African ingredients, and African hospitality into its culinary experiences. As the founding chef, Atadika leads the creative vision of the enterprise, bringing her Ghanaian roots and global culinary experiences to Midunu’s dishes.

Atadika engaged with Yale students, faculty, staff, and community members in a variety of ways over the course of the week, including with a public lecture and reception, as a guest lecturer in Professor Nico Hernandez-Aguilera’s “Food Systems and Climate Services” class, and by leading a series of intimate cooking classes and discussions over meals with students at the Schwarzman Center. She also trained Yale Hospitality staff members on the preparation of her menu to be featured at the Rooted dining station in Commons starting in November.

Atadika was a guest lecturer in Professor Nico Hernandez-Aguilera’s “Food Systems and Climate Services” class, where she also served her signature drinking chocolate. Photo by Daniel Vieira

Atadika gave the Global Table Chef’s Lecture, “New African Cuisine: Where Culture, Community, and Cuisine Intersect with the Environment, Sustainability, and Economy,” at Luce Hall on October 1. She opened her presentation by inviting audience members to imagine their favorite dish — prompting attendees to share a variety of dishes they had encountered at home, in their favorite restaurants, and abroad. Atadika, who was born in Ghana and moved to the US when she was 6, said that losing access to her favorite childhood dishes led her to consider the importance of food systems.

Before beginning her journey as the founder of Midunu, Atadika served as a UNICEF emergency specialist for a decade. Recalling her humanitarian work, Atadika shared that she had the opportunity to travel to over 40 African countries — where she fell in love with dishes from each. Atadika enjoyed dishes like maboké in the Central African Republic, doro wat and injera in Ethiopia, and nyama choma in Kenya — to name a few. Atadika’s decade-long experience with UNICEF across over 40 African countries has provided her with a unique understanding of the links between food access, nutrition, and cultural preservation, which informs her efforts to incorporate African foodways into global sustainability solutions.

“I wanted to share this with other people, but I understood that it was something that most people didn’t have the ability to understand,” she said. “I started thinking more about what those food systems look like.”

In analyzing food systems—complex networks that include all actors and activities involved in food production, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal—Atadika considers four main aspects: cultural practices and traditions, geography, preservation, and sustainability. In explaining how each of the four aspects shape food systems, Atadika drew on her diverse experiences of studying African cuisine. For example, Atadika spoke about traditional Ghanaian sustainability methods and preservation techniques, Senegalese rice farming, and the celebratory nature of jollof rice.

Atadika continued by sharing four key lessons she has learned from cooking in kitchens across Africa:

First, many African cuisines are fundamentally plant-forward, with dishes often highlighting beans, lentils, and nuts. Second, many African cooking practices are no-waste. For example, cassava, which is often misconceived as poisonous, is a staple in some African cuisines, as it is safe to consume when cooked properly. Third, African cuisines often prioritize bold flavors over fat, with flavor being infused into each step of preservation — as in salted fish, for example. Last, wild and foraged foods are important in African cooking, pointing to the centrality of biodiversity. African cuisines, as highlighted by Atadika, present effective models for addressing global issues like biodiversity loss, food waste, and soil depletion through practices that emphasize plant-forward cooking, zero-waste methods, and the use of wild and underutilized ingredients.

Atadika also touched on other key features of African dining and cuisines such as communal dining. She recalled her time in Senegal, where she fondly remembered how her hosts fed her the best pieces of their dish as a sign of hospitality.

Atadika’s experiences in the kitchen are deeply integrated into the way she thinks about culinary heritage, sustainability, and the rise of emerging influences in African food spaces. She explained her concerns for Africa, noting that there isn’t enough of a policy framework to protect some of the key ingredients of Africa’s culinary heritage.

Moreover, Atadika shared her concerns about soil depletion, the rise in diabetes as a significant health issue in Africa, and the policies that exacerbate these food-based issues. She shared a three-fold vision for how African food systems could be improved: document and analyze “underdog” ingredients, invest in value chains and content creation, and generate demand and pursue education campaigns.

Amidst these concerns, Atadika believes that her business is making a positive contribution. Her business plan centers around creating a unique dining experience, introducing chocolates made with Ghanaian cocoa, and incorporating underappreciated spices — like dawadawa, a popular seasoning in West Africa — into her dishes.

“You create a business case with advocacy — if someone eats something that’s thoughtful and it’s delicious, the idea behind it works,” she explained.

But her work in understanding food systems, she says, cannot survive as an independent endeavor.

“I think that each and every one of us has a role to play in our food systems,” Atadika said. “It’s important for us to understand our food systems… and turn them into something that is dynamic.”