Lisa Katayama and chef Pierre Thiam have written the cookbook “Simply West African” on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
“Simply West African” by Pierre Thiam and Lisa Katayama hits bookstores September 19
By Kate Bradshaw
This story was first published in The Mercury News Sept. 5, 2023.
Renowned Senegalese chef Pierre Thiam has been a fixture on the New York and global food scene for years as executive chef at Nok by Alara in Lagos, chef at the Pullman Hotel in Dakar and owner of Teranga in New York City.
In 2017, he launched Yolélé, which works with West African farms to promote and market fonio, a grain, in the U.S. It was a move that would change his life. At his TED Talk about the grain that year, he caught the attention of Lisa Katayama, a former journalist and now his wife.
These days they live in Oakland — a move prompted by the pandemic — and have just welcomed their second child. And the new “Simply West African” (Clarkson Potter, $28) his fourth cookbook, but the first they’ve done together, lands Sept. 19. (This conversation has been edited for brevity.)
Full story here.
Kate Bradshaw 
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