The pulse of a city beats loudest during its festivals, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the two-day ‘One Lagos Food Festival’ themed ‘Flavours of Lagos’ where eateries, ‘bukas’, restaurants, patisseries, top hospitality firms and food enthusiasts meet to give cosmopolitan Lagos crowd a gastronomical food and drink experience that even the most ordinary menu is anything but sumptuous. Omolola Itayemi reports
Like blades of grass bursting through a crack in a thick slab of concrete, something is seeking to break through the walls we have put between the way we perceive, experience and taste our food and beverage whether local, continental or oriental. Welcome to ‘Flavours of Lagos’.
On 2nd and 3rd October in the upscale Eko Atlantic Waterfront, you can hardly walk the smooth tarred long stretch without stumbling upon dishes of savoury meals, decadent deserts, unapologetically rich traditional dishes, various beverages from smoothies to well-brewed ‘Amir’ tea that tantalize all of your five senses. Life doesn’t come with a manual; hence, there’s no one right way to enjoy your meal but thanks to those chefs on ground willing to push our culinary boundaries, permitting us to experience flavours, scents and textures we’ve never considered before; whereby broadening our sense of possibilities with their life-cooking demonstrations, workshop and cooking classes. The presentation alone was pure art, and the flavour made my knees buckle as my pen flew off the page recording my bliss.
There are ‘fat-lite’ food without the thermodynamics, accessible haute cuisine, edgy dishes unlike what you have tasted before, gluten-free dishes, basically, there is something for everybody. Service runs on oiled wills and the staff seems to be having fun as the guests. “Does your energy ever dip?” I asked the Head Chef at Ocean Basket restaurant after having watched him attend to the 3rd foodie ogling his menu without buying whilst I waited for my order. “Not really,” he says, smiling and onto the next customer. That was the general ambience of the festival, workers are engaging with sunny dispositions, ready to offer a bite and sell as well, you’ll be too happy to drop your debit card.
Taste of Lagos Food Festival in partnership with One Lagos Brand bestowed on us a gastronomical experience we won’t forget in a hurry with chefs and food honchos tweaking the classics slightly, but within the bounds of decency. Newcomers like Nellies tweaked ugu, a locally sourced vegetable used for soups into tasty tortillas chips and garri sweet flakes. The Arewa kitchen redefined northern staple food and spices without losing its origin and taste. It was the perfect platform for newcomers to shine and shine they did.
What this festival has offered typical Lagosians with their savorfaire is the ever changing nature of food and the need to define what is ours and consume it. Nobody understands this better than the commissioner of Culture and Tourism, Lagos state, Mr Folorunsho Coker, a hospitality guru himself. In a small chat with him at the venue, he reiterated the promise of the state government to always provide an enabling environment for business. An ardent advocate of Community Tourism, he is of the belief that we can only be taken seriously in tourism business when we know what tourism products and services we have, where they are and when they happen. Coker is not only on the right part but has become the poster child for what a good tourism administrator should be.
I know ‘One Lagos’ is all about branding the state but I needed more clarification on what the significance of the festival is. He replied: “Part of the problem with tourism is people don’t know what is available where and when. We looked at the diverse culinary arts we have in Lagos: Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa as a base, we have also got Indian, Lebanese and everything is mingled together. Now we are defining the different culinary experiences in Lagos in different ways you have seen as around. We looked at it, why don’t we just create something like the flavours of Lagos? “The ‘flavours of Lagos’ is a very broad thing but we just started off with food, we spoke to some vendors and people in the business selling everything from chips to ugu to kilishi. We asked them, how can we drive business for you? They said ‘people don’t know us.’ I said fine, why don’t we have a festival of food i.e. ‘Flavours of Lagos’? Remember we already have the One Lagos Fiesta, which is a musical festival. It’s exploring other ways we can look inwards to redefine the experience in Lagos and consume what we have here.
“Secondly, the governor said at the beginning of his tenure that he was going to run an inclusive government where nobody will be left behind. Again, flavours of Lagos is about everybody’s food including children and special diet. When I walked around and spoke to vendors, 60% of their food was sold out on the first day. With that, I know we are on the right part.”
After a successful day one, large number of people came out for the second day not minding how fierce the sun was, guess word got around. I was more relaxed the second day and had a few words with guests, who most were quite elated about the experience. One thing they all wanted to know was when is the next one? and I also wanted to know if they are keeping statistics to be able to prepare for the next one. I ran it through the tourism boss of Lagos state and his reply confirmed what I suspected. He replied: ‘When I asked one of the food vendors the same question, she said, every week.
That basically sums up how most of them feel. This is a collaboration involving Lagos state government, the vendors and corporate sponsors. We can come together to drive these kind of events involving corporate sponsors such as NBL, Pepsi, Mikano etc.
“So, at the end of the day, they get something back, they get more exposure and their products are consumed, vendors make money, small businesses employ and energize the system.
So, it’s a win-win situation for all. We help in creating a platform for enabling business environment in Lagos. That’s what we do. On Statistics, Yesterday we had about 18,000 people, a rough estimate.”
Attractions at the event include a VIP lounge, bouncing castle for the kids, Face Painting, Stage performances, Dance competitions, beer, Champagne, Cocktails and many more. Top Nigerian acts such as Olu Maintain, Vector, the ever beautiful Waje and others were on hand to thrill guests with amazing performances while the show was hosted by Pencil the comedian and MC Bonus.
Late in the evening of the second day, as I was leaving, I could still see young children catching their fun, yes, it was that much of a family affair. As Fela protégée, Dede Mabiaku gave us the popular 1973 tune, ‘Eko ile’ to the audience delight. I figured, it couldn’t have resonated better with this event and the oneness of ‘One Lagos, See Tomorrow’ motto.
Some lunches and dinners linger in the memory. A perfect Amir tea-wine, perhaps, a sautéed snail well dipped in pepper – each ingredient plays its part, that’s what I experienced. I was such in a good mood. I didn’t haggle over the N500 the area boys charged me for parking at Kuramo. Organizers need to take that into cognizance next year.