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Culinary personality/producer and newly minted cookbook author Kiano Moju’s food journey began with an Easy Bake Oven (more about that later). The toy stoked a love for all things culinary, setting the stage for a successful career in digital media and becoming among the first Black female producers for Buzzfeed’s Tasty platform.
In turn, that profession inspired the release of Moju’s sumptuous new cookbook “AfriCali: Recipes From My Jikoni.” Part autobiographical, with personal insights about the ingredients and featuring 85+ mouthwatering African food recipes, the cookbook also serves as a love letter to the author’s African heritage.
The Meaning Behind AfriCali: Recipes From My Jikoni
“I was looking for a really simple way to describe the type of food I cook,” shares the Oakland, California, native about the cookbook’s unique title that pays homage to her African heritage with a nod to her upbringing in The Golden State.
She shares, “My mom is from Kenya, my dad is from Nigeria and I grew up in the Bay Area. Jikoni is Swahili for kitchen.” The goal with “AfriCali,” says Moju, was to present a collection of African food recipes that fit easily into daily cooking using readily available ingredients combined with uncomplicated cooking techniques.
The August release is also visually stunning, thanks to the culinary producer taking a hands-on approach to the cookbook’s art direction. “The recipes in this book are so close and personal to me. I wanted the entire book to be a reflection of my food, cooking, even down to the serving bowls [shown in the photos]—not just in the words,” offers Moju about the project, which took five years to become a reality, from inception to publication
“In between the recipes are also some travel photos I have from when I went to Kenya, Ghana and Senegal while I was working on the book. So you’ll see some of my photography from my trips in there as well.”
Bringing Tradition Into the Everyday
Recognizing that traditional recipes may require more preparation time, Moju inspires busy home cooks to try African flavors with her modern take on classic African food recipes remixed with fresh California produce and utilizing approachable cooking techniques.
About her intent in writing “AfriCali,” she says, “It’s about bringing tradition into everyday life. The foundation of these recipes you can find in your local store…Mind you, with every cuisine we all have our simple dishes and our complicated ones. With the book, I’m very intentional to curate something for our day to day lives—that’s in no way exhausting [to make]—and reflects African flavors. People are really going to be shocked to find out that you can make Kenyan food with four ingredients.”
The cookbook author notes, “When I’m writing recipes, I’m very much thinking what is the work flow of the home cook? I’m someone who loves cooking but I also love to be efficient in my cooking.”
To that extent, Moju falls back on a technique she calls “element prep,” where she’ll prepare a recipe’s ingredients in batches.
“So instead of me telling you in the recipe, ‘Season this with seven ingredients,’ I’ll say, ‘Put these seven ingredients in a bowl. We’re going to use some of it now and you can use the rest of that spice blend throughout the week whenever you cook again,’” she offers.
“Since you’re already going to do the work, let it work for you more than just the one time…To measure once is to measure once, but it will just give you much longer benefit if you make a little bit more.”
African Food Recipe Profiles
With a cookbook filled with recipes inspired by her Kenyan-Nigerian background, Moju admits there are probably more differences than similarities between the two flavor profiles. “Nigerian food is a lot bolder with its flavors than Kenyan food; it’s a lot bolder in its use of chilis and spices, for sure, and you can have a little more complexity to the dishes,” she explains.
“With Kenyan food, there’s two camps. Coastal Kenyan food has a long history of trade with the Middle East and there’s a big Indian influence. So if you’ve had and loved Indian food, coastal Kenyan food will be your jam. But then inland, where my family is from in the mountains, it’s incredibly simple. My grandma makes the best food ever, and she cooks with nothing but salt.”
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A Core Cooking Memory
The food philosophy Moju picked up during childhood summers spent on her grandparents’ ranch in Kenya is simple cooking techniques that maximize flavor. “My mom’s family is very traditional Kenyan-Maasai [with] raising cows, goats and sheep on the ranch…In hindsight, I was probably getting in the way, as any kid would be, but I always liked when we had to cook something,” she recalls, citing as a core memory her grandmother’s cooking technique over an open flame using hot stones.
“That process of learning how to start and manage a fire and then learning how to cook over that open flame was huge for me…It’s an awesome way to learn how to cook!”
Back in California, Moju’s mother noticed her daughter’s growing interest in cooking as the child shadowed her every move in the kitchen. So one Christmas, the budding chef received an Easy Bake Oven.
“The oven had those cake mix packets, and I would insist on feeding my family dessert that I made in my Easy Bake Oven. My mother finally said, ‘If she wants to feed us, she needs to learn how to cook real food in a real kitchen,’ and that’s why the Easy Bake Oven—and eating light bulb cake—was the thing that tilted my mom over to putting me in cooking classes,” laughs Moju, who at the age of seven was sent to cooking camp.
The cookbook author’s lifelong passion for food and its preparation was nurtured in those early years, eventually leading her to pursue a career in digital food media.
Today, the release of “AfriCali: Recipes From My Jikoni” is a testament to Moju’s love for her family’s African food recipes and is a work that she’s proud to share with food lovers everywhere.
“African food has been underrepresented in the food media space,” she observes. “But you can have African food, and the flavors of African food, in your everyday cooking. I’m hoping people look at this book and say, ‘Oh, I can do that,’” says Moju about what readers will enjoy and take away from her new cookbook.
For additional details and to start cooking, order “AfriCali: Recipes From My Jikoni,” available on Amazon and other online retailers. To learn more about Kiano Moju and her work, visit her online and follow her on Instagram.
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