NAVY YARD — From Ethiopia to Mozambique, diners can get a taste of African cuisine and the cultures it has influenced at the city's first-annual African Food Festival this summer.
The event will take over the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Duggal Greenhouse the weekend of Aug. 13-14, featuring dishes like Mozambican grilled peri-peri chicken flattie with chakalaka rice, vegan meals like smoothies and crunchy collard wraps, and even African tacos.
Festival-goers can also nosh on goodies from several food vendors, celebrity chefs and African restaurants from around the city, including Fort Greene mainstay Madiba.
The weekend’s events include food demos, chef talks, and tea and coffee ceremonies.
Several chefs will participate in a friendly “Jollof Off,” a competition to see who whips up the best version of the traditional West African rice dish made with tomato paste, spices and vegetables or meat.
Cooks from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal will serve their joloff to celebrity chefs and food bloggers, who will judge the dishes in a blind taste test.
Ticketed VIP events will also give guests access to meals by chefs like Brooklyn’s own Pierre Thiam, who has been featured on TV shows with Bobby Flay and Anthony Bourdain.
But organizer Ishmael Osekre said the festival won’t just be limited to food, but will also immerse guests in all things Africa.
“I wanted to have all the experience in one place, you can have all of Africa now, in eight hours,” Osekre said. “I hope that people come out of the festival experiencing Africa — the joy, the liveliness, the energy, the range of colors.”
Guests can browse and purchase African art and clothing, attend a poetry reading or a yoga workshop, and enjoy live music by seven female DJs from around the world.
The festival will be both family and environmentally friendly, Osekre noted.
Organizers are working with experts from the Duggal Greenhouse to make sure that all of the waste from the weekend is disposed of properly, and leftovers will be donated to local shelters.
Tickets to the food fest start at $30 for a day’s general admission or $50 for a weekend pass. VIP events start at $120. Children under 10 get in for free.
To buy tickets, click here.
