Shola Olunloyo is opening the door for the next generation of African chefs in the U.S.

In 2017, I was invited to participate in a festival at the Culinary Institute of America — the Hogwarts of chef schools is how I have since came to understand it — called “Worlds of Flavor.” This was the first time I had the opportunity to cook alongside other chefs of color — specifically, Black chefs with African roots, cooking African food at a level that would inspire and command me to step out of my comfort zone.

It was there that I met Shola Olunloyo, the 45-year-old Nigerian wizard of gastronomy who secured the first-ever residency at the nonprofit Stone Barns Center, home of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, the world-renowned restaurant with two Michelin stars in Westchester, New York, helmed by chef Dan Barber. There, Shola took the reins from Barber with a West African-inspired menu from Jan. 13 to Feb. 6.

But how many people have heard of Shola? By his own admission, he is underexposed.

“I’ve never had a publicist, I’ve never written a book, my website looks like s–t, you know,” he laughed. Shola doesn’t get invited to food symposiums; he doesn’t have a public-facing profile that rewards his knowledge through high-profile brand partnerships or a portfolio of global cooking demonstrations. And yet, without a PR machine behind him, he has quietly built the trust and respect of his peers around the world.

So, who is he? Why do so many of the world’s finest chefs respect his work? How did he get on Barber’s radar and earn a residency of such stature without most people knowing who he is?

Who is Shola Olunloyo?

Shola arrived to our Zoom interview with a smile, in the middle of testing a recipe. Mondays and Tuesdays are his own personal recipe development days where he makes wild and rare koji, miso, garum and long-term pickles and ferments. He likes to highlight lesser-known West African ingredients using Italian, French and Japanese methods. He has a hard boundary around these days of creative introspection.

When asked to describe what he does, since he is a chef without a restaurant, he said, “I build a relationship with food and flavor and find the right forum for it.”

This is what occupies Shola through his private dining clients, restaurant pop-ups and collaborations and in his rigorous research-and-development work for manufacturers and brands.

Shola has a placid, measured energy. He is a man in control. Unflappable, even when speaking of his only restaurant venture going wrong, which lost him his life savings, he said, pragmatically, “I ended up with $1,000 left in my bank account and had to start again. So, you know, I felt anger, rage, but I just went back to the things that inspired me five years ago to push the envelope and find a new studio and start doing my pop-up dinners. And that’s what I did. Backwards and forwards.”

I had been following Shola’s Instagram @studiokitchen for some years before I met him. I regard him as something of a Black Heston Blumenthal, a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking — but cooler. His account is akin to a modern science of cooking for Africans. He is an open book, sharing his recipe ideas, concoctions and techniques for the world to glean inspiration and instruction, free of charge and without comparison or competition.