00:00 The fact that you think you can beat Nigerian Jollof
00:08 is already a problem.
00:09 I am going to show you how we make our masterpiece,
00:13 which is known as Benechin Oche.
00:15 Look at the fish alone.
00:16 This is clearly not a simple dish.
00:18 So today I welcome you to my kitchen, a Ghanaian kitchen,
00:22 where we are going to prepare the best Jollof in the world.
00:26 No debate about it.
00:27 I wonder how that Jollof is going to taste.
00:30 I doubt it tastes good.
00:32 Ghana, is this your best?
00:34 Is this your best?
00:37 Thank you very much, Liz, for that warm introduction.
00:39 Now, I'm going to start on my extreme left.
00:42 And Fatou, you tell us your name and what country you represent.
00:46 My name is Fatou Elekomoloshi and I am from The Gambia.
00:50 My name is Ahmed Sallesu and I'm a Nigerian.
00:53 Okay. And Michael here, I'm from Ghana
00:58 and I have been in the Jollof business for a very long time.
01:01 What for you is good Jollof?
01:04 For us, our Jollof has a special ingredient that goes into it.
01:08 And I've seen the Ghanaians prepare this.
01:10 I've seen Nigerians prepare this.
01:12 And this secret ingredient is missing.
01:14 You cannot have the authentic taste without that.
01:17 And that I won't tell you.
01:18 Interesting. Okay.
01:20 So, Ahmed, what is good Jollof?
01:23 Good Jollof is Nigerian Jollof.
01:25 I have seen a lot of Nigerian Jollof
01:27 and I can tell you that soggy rice is definitely not good Jollof.
01:31 No, you apparently didn't see Nigerian Jollof.
01:33 I mean, Nigerian Jollof is clean.
01:35 Nigerian Jollof is tasty.
01:37 Nigerian Jollof is made with long grains.
01:39 And then all the necessary, you know, things by the side,
01:43 which I won't tell you.
01:45 Yeah, because we hold the patent.
01:48 So you come, beg on your knees,
01:50 and then we sign it off and then you get it.
01:52 So they are talking about things that they won't expose or talk about.
01:56 But I'm going to tell you that as a young Ghanaian boy going to school,
02:02 there was a must read for, or there is a must read for every Ghanaian school child.
02:07 The book is titled The Commissioner for Jollof Rice.
02:10 And this book was written in 1982.
02:12 This book, is it online?
02:13 It is online. You can look it up.
02:15 Okay, let me just check it quickly.
02:16 Say the Commissioner, Commissioner for Jollof Rice.
02:19 And every Ghanaian child has to read this in school.
02:22 But this book has zero reviews.
02:24 So how authentic is it?
02:26 Not even zero reviews.
02:27 My problem is it has zero.
02:28 It's only 40 years.
02:29 It prepares us for a day like this.
02:32 When we Ghanaians have to defend ourselves against people
02:36 who want to supplant our heritage.
02:39 And here's the important thing.
02:41 I've seen the Gambian Jollof.
02:42 Mushy, a bit waterlogged.
02:44 Where did you see it?
02:45 Where onions were already looking soaked.
02:47 They looked steeved.
02:48 Those onions should be caramelized.
02:51 They should be burnt.
02:53 But already what you're showing me
02:55 is definitely looking like some soaked onions.
02:57 It's streaming.
02:57 Oh my God, I need some help.
02:58 - The problem is not even the onions.
03:00 It's even the variety of rice you guys use.
03:03 Hang on, hang on, hang on.
03:04 - We use long grain rice.
03:06 - No, you don't use long grain rice.
03:07 - Now we do.
03:07 - You use basmati.
03:08 - No, no, no, no, we don't.
03:09 - No, no, no, no.
03:10 You guys use basmati.
03:11 So you are making, you cannot use biryani
03:13 or any other variety from the Himalayas.
03:17 And then tell me that you're making jollof.
03:19 Please just leave it there.
03:21 There is jollof and then there's Ghanaian biryani.
03:23 I'm totally fine with that.
03:25 (laughing)
03:26 - Okay, Fatou.
03:27 - When it comes to the original jollof
03:29 as custodians of the dish,
03:31 I can tell you, we don't use long grain.
03:34 Okay, we use the broken rice.
03:36 And that is why Senegal and Gambia came together
03:38 in the early 2000s to rebrand our own jollof
03:43 and call it chebujin or bennechin.
03:46 Because what we're doing is far different
03:49 from what you people are doing.
03:50 You people are in a tomato contest, okay?
03:53 Because that jollof I see,
03:55 the one that you're bragging about,
03:56 that Ghanaian jollof,
03:57 is definitely screaming red rice.
04:00 The jollof is supposed to look like some burnt red
04:03 and not obvious tomato skin looking like red.
04:07 - She is insulting jollof.
04:09 - Absolutely, I agree with you.
04:10 - If you're talking about broken rice.
04:10 - Excuse me.
04:11 - If you're talking about broken rice,
04:13 just tell me.
04:13 - Coming from those who clone the dish.
04:14 - If you're talking about broken rice,
04:16 just tell me that us, the Gambians,
04:19 or the Senegalese, you know,
04:21 are simply doing couscous.
04:23 Because--
04:24 - No, no, no, no.
04:25 - We're not friends.
04:26 - We're not friends.
04:27 - No, really.
04:28 - I mean, we're not agreeing.
04:28 - Let me tell you, there were two quick seconds.
04:30 - Let me give some context here.
04:31 It's a bit like football, you know?
04:33 Football started, they say, in England.
04:35 But today, when we talk about the people
04:36 who play football very well,
04:38 the English team struggles.
04:40 So, I mean, granted,
04:41 it could be from the Senegambia region.
04:44 But when we talk about the best jollof rice,
04:46 it is definitely Ghana jollof rice.
04:48 - If it feeds into your ego,
04:50 the both of you, especially the Ghanians,
04:52 take it, but UNESCO said it,
04:54 and in fact, it has been confirmed.
04:55 - No, the UNESCO thing, yeah.
04:56 - Wait a second.
04:57 - No, it's inconclusive.
04:58 - I'm coming, I'm coming.
04:59 UNESCO said it, it has been confirmed in regional contests.
05:02 Who are you to denounce it?
05:04 Okay, the women of Senegambia were cooking this dish
05:07 back then for, you know, the colonialists
05:08 that were there, settled in there.
05:10 So when they moved to other countries,
05:12 to other parts, you know, in the sub-region,
05:14 they requested the same dish,
05:16 but they were asking them to cook,
05:18 the women to cook the dish of the Wolof women.
05:20 And during that process,
05:21 the pronunciation changed from Wolof to jollof.
05:25 - It obviously shows that when it comes to jollof,
05:28 we three here cannot agree.
05:30 And lots of people across the region,
05:32 in Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria,
05:35 Guinea-Bissau recently,
05:36 even Sierra Leone have all joined the jollof conversation.
05:41 And what other thing it shows is that
05:44 there's a lot that brings us together
05:46 across the sub-region, more than divides us.
05:49 And that is what we are trying to showcase here
05:52 with the conversations about jollof.
Comments