Photographs ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS, LERATO UMAH-SHAYLOR
Puff puff (a type of doughnut)
Lerato is the award-winning author of cookbook Africana, a chef, and a leading voice in contemporary African cuisine. Lerato also runs supper clubs, cookery classes and cooking holidays, and writes a newsletter called Cook with Lerato (leratofoods.com) where she shares recipes and stories.
I started cooking at a young age, growing up in a home where food was an event. We had a family cook called Papa – originally, he was a chef at a hotel health club my mum visited, she enjoyed the food so much, she convinced him to join our family. That’s my mum, very persuasive! Papa would cook most of our meals during the week andI was such a curious child, always asking questions. We were really spoilt with great food. I loved curries, rice, beans, stews, samosas and puff puff (doughnuts). I just couldn’t believe someone could create something so delicious. I moved on from asking questions to asking to help him in the kitchen.
Mum would cook more Nigerian meals for us. My parents were separated so we’d spend weekends at my father’s house, where there was far less importance placed on meals, so I ate a lot of street food. I fell in love with agoyin, a slowcooked bean dish brought to Nigeria by neighbouring tribes from the Republic of Benin. Soft black-eyed beans, served with a red hot pepper sauce and lashings of oil.