It’s Official. Nigeria Makes Africa’s Best Jollof

On Saturday morning, Nigeria emerged winner of the annual Jollof Wars, an event organised by CANEX. The venue of the contest was the National Theatre and three chefs were representing Senegal, Ghana, and the host country. 

Chef Stone, the session’s MC, set the tone for the contest, reminding the audience that this is a “friendly rivalry” and the unifying power of jollof—despite the battle-inspired name of the annual event. Behind him, the three representatives, Senegal’s Chef Lilian, Ghana’s Chef Koya, and Nigeria’s Chef Dee, exerted themselves as the audience, more packed than earlier sessions at the gastronomy session of CANEX, looked on. 

In the audience, Chefs Coco, Hilda Baci, and Fregz mingled with the audience. They were to play moderators and would get the chance to taste the freshly made jollof first but they would not be allowed to vote. In keeping with the structure from the two previous editions of the contest, the winner would be decided by the audience. The first edition had been won by Ghana and at last year’s event, in Algiers, Senegal was triumphant. 

After all three jollof versions were passed around in trays, the audience was called to vote by marking a card designed for the purpose. The cards were then stacked accordingly and counted by the moderators; the audience counted along. The smallest pile, which was also the third jollof to be shared, was counted first, and on to the largest pile, was the second jollof passed to the audience. 

In the end, Chef Stone and his moderators announced what countries had which votes. Senegal received 14 votes, Ghana got 28 votes, and Nigeria received 43 votes.

“Nigeria has the best jollof in Africa,” Chef Stone declared. The audience cheered at the announcement and Chef Dee beamed on the stage. 

“The fact that we can do this rivalry about which jollof you prefer, Naija or Ghana, and still be able to get along is all good fun,” said Chef Stone.   

Speaking after his win, Chef Dee said that he had tears in his eyes when he left his home because he was representing his country. “I was under a lot of pressure,” he said. “Representing Nigeria on home soil? There was no excuse. It’s not about me. It is about Nigerian food, Nigerian flavour.”

The winner, who runs a food business in the Ajah area of Lagos, shared that he wrote a book titled The Science of Jollof but chose to delay its release until after the Jollof Wars. “I told my wife, ‘Let’s wait; if we win, it will be good for our launch’”. 

Asked how different the jollof he made under the pressure of the contest is different from his usual jollof, he said, “Everybody here would have been crazy for my jollof. We had to use an induction burner and it’s not good for jollof because jollof needs different types of regulation. You start from low, then medium, and at the end of the day, you want high heat to smoke it. But here, my jollof started smoking from the beginning. And I was scared. Luckily, I was able to manage it.”

For Chef Stone, who said he has tried cooking Senegalese and Ghana jollof, it was only normal for Nigeria to win this year’s Jollof Wars.

“I expected Nigeria to win,” he added “There were more Nigerians in the crowd, which means more of them will gravitate towards Nigerian jollof.” 

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