ABOUT ME

Chef Fafa is a creative African chef who fuses both African, Western and Asian ingredients together to create her own unique recipes; like the Cocoyam & Coconut tart, Crispy fried Plantain etc

She also touches on traditional Ghanaian dishes and finds quicker and easier ways to prepare them. An example been her 'Fresh Fufu in a pot recipe', 'The Perfect Jollof rice', 'Waakye' to mention but a few.

Chef Fafa spent most her time in the kitchen with her Mum and learnt the traditional way of cooking at weekends in Ghana. The traditional methods included but to mention a few, char grilling tomatoes to make stews, grinding spices in an earthen ridged pot with a wooden pestle and grinding chillies on a stone slab. Fafa enjoyed watching her Mum enhance the natural flavours of ingredients by adding spices at the right time, the importance of cooking at the right temperature and food presentation.

Chef Fafa fondly talks about visiting the food market at dawn with her Mum (the perfect time to get fresh produce) , watch her Mum carefully select the best of ingredients through smell, touch and the importance of building great relationships with grocers and farmers. A trait she still has, when she visits her local grocers for ingredients. 

Chef Fafa comes from a family of foodies and restaurateurs which has inspired her style of cooking including spending time with her Grandma in Togo (which shares a border with Ghana).

 Fafa learnt how the same ingredients were cooked and tasted differently in both countries,(Togo has the French influence in their cooking methods). A favourite memory of her Grandma was the freshly caught Char grilled fish, smoky spicy Tomato salsa  with salad and baguettes accompanied with her tales of wisdom, which encapsulates Fafa's methods of cooking.

Fafa spent time with a Lebanese and Ghanaian (from a different tribe) family which again exposed her to some Middle Eastern dishes with her favourite being the Za'atar bread. 

 In 2000 Fafa moved to the UK and worked in Marketing and as an Insurance broker and trained as an Interior Architecture ,however it was meeting her now husband that influenced her to start 'Ndudu by Fafa'. 

('Ndudu' means 'Food' in Fafa's Ghanaian language called 'Ewe').

Chef Fafa has embodied the term 'a twist upon a twist' with her Food blog, YouTube page and second series of her popular cookery show 'Ndudu by Fafa' on Sky 235, ABNTV. 

Fafa has featured on BBC talking about her fusion recipes, as a guest Chef  on ITV, This Morning and CNN Africa, sharing her flavoursome dishes.  Fafa has written for a few magazines (Vital Woman, Mambo Magazines) about her recipes and hosted various events  including one at the SouthBank centre and Facebook headquarters.

Fafa started incorporating her husbands  English heritage of ingredients to her African ingredients and methods of cooking and has carved a niche for her recipes which has earned her the title of the most influential African Foodie for 2016. Watch out for dates for her Pop up events as they sell out quickly before they're even made public. 

Fafa has a great following on Social media namely  ' Instagram, Facebook and Twitter under the name 'Ndudu By Fafa' where she shares recipes via her blog www.ndudu-by-fafa.blogspot.com, interacts with her fans and her great attention to details with food styling, presentation and picture taking is clear to see. 

Fafa's passion for cooking is evident when she talks about it and it's incredible to watch her film her own videos, edit them and document the recipes especially now that she's writing her cookery book. 

 

 

Quote
"My love for cooking is heightened by the sense of escapism it offers me and the inspiration to tap into my creativity". 
By Fafa Gilbert

 

Chef Fafa on BBC

Chef Fafa with Peter Okwoche(BBC)

Chef Fafa on ITV, This Morning 

Chef Fafa with Rylan Clark & Ruth Langsford

YouTube
Do check and subscribe to my YouTube page 'Ndudu by Fafa' for more inspiring recipes. 
Click here

 I'm passionate about different ingredients,herbs, spices and flavoursome dishes. 

Welcome to my world of 'CREATIVE AFRICAN COOKING'

Welcome to 'NDUDU BY FAFA'. 

Writing for Mambo Magazine & Afro Retro BCN

Cookery show on ABNTV Sky 235 or Freeview 252

 

Chef Fafa featured in Radiant Magazine