-Eric Adjepong.
-Hi. -Hi.
“Top Chef” finalist. -How’s it going?
-Yeah. Pretty big deal, right? -Yeah.
It’s a huge deal. I mean, it really is.
-Not too bad. -It’s sort of like —
It’s a life-shifting deal. -I would say so, yeah. There’s definitely
a before-and-after kind of phase
after “Top Chef” happens. So, it’s hard to say where
everything’s kind of leading me, ’cause, like, the elevator’s
still kind of clicking up. But yeah, I’m just so very
fortunate to make it this far and kind of just to see
what happens from here, so yeah. -So, you went on the show saying
that you wanted to showcase what West African cuisine
was all about.
-For sure.
-What’s it all about? -Spice, flavor, heat.
There’s a lot of nuances. You know, there’s a lot
of combinations of things that folks are not necessarily
familiar with as far as, like, you know, taking grounded
spices like cinnamon and clove, nutmeg,
and then pairing it with, you know, habaneros
and tomato and things like that. I think there’s complexities
that a lot of, like, Western palates
and just folks who are just not familiar
with the food can really explore
and have fun with. -And one of the things
that Tom Colicchio said to you during the season
was all your life, you’ve been told that maybe this
is not the kind of food to cook. -Yeah.
Right, right. -And now you’re getting
to cook it. And really, I mean,
it’s been a showcase.
Like, I learned a lot about West
African cuisine from the season. -Yeah, yeah. You know, I grew up eating
this food for so long. It’s so nuts. We think about Africa being
the second-biggest continent in the world, you know, and yet the food
is so under-represented. I went to school
and didn’t really learn too much about African food. Some of the chefs that I worked
with weren’t so, you know, familiar
with the ingredients and products from Africa. So it’s essentially up to me
to kind of bring that out and really showcase
and put that forth. -I would say it needs acid, but I don’t know
the flavors of your food. -Totally get it.
I’m gonna do this really traditional West African
rice dish called waakye.
-One of the judges —
I don’t remember who it was — said, “I don’t even have a frame
of reference for this dish.” -For sure.
-And so often, you know, when you’re
making fried chicken, people very often
in this country have a frame
of reference for that. -A loose one, a general one.
Yeah, you have something. -Yeah, yeah, or a waffle.
-Mm-hmm. -People in this country
very often have a frame of — who are born in this country
have a frame of reference for that. But something like fufu,
as you were saying — fufu is as common as rice.
-It is, yes. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Cooking that type of food and
really putting myself out there during the competition
was a risk. You know, and in order to break
through that ceiling, you have to kind of present it.
It has to be done. For me to, you know,
cook the food for, one, for the judges
to kind of understand where the food is coming from or have some sort of frame
of reference to it, and, then, you know,
being judged accordingly. So yeah, there’s so many
different ways that it could have happened
and, you know, the chips could have fell,
but I’m definitely — third place is not too shabby.
So yeah. -Here’s what we need
to talk about. I mean, this is where
the dish comes in. -Okay. -Because being on a cooking
-competition show is hard. -Yeah.
It is, it is. -It’s really hard, and you’re
in this moment right now that is a very vulnerable space. -It is, yeah.
I mean, you know the deal. So, like, it’s tough, because you have cameras
in front of you, and you have the pressure
of the actually competition, and, then, you know, your mind
is racing a mile a minute, and, you know, you’re gonna be
judged in front of some of, like, the most legit palates
in the world. So it’s like that no
pressure-type situation, but it’s kind of nerve-racking,
right? So with the added kind of
pressure of cooking food that’s just so unfamiliar,
you know, I definitely could have came
with a modern American approach or, you know,
a classical French approach. -Yeah, yeah.
-But it was kind of a mission that was sort of bigger than me.
You know what I mean? Again, no one’s ever heard
of fufu on “Top Chef.” -I’m doing a West African
dumpling called fufu. -I love fufu! -No one’s ever heard of waakye
or, you know — any of these things
that when I grew up eating, those were like secondhand —
these are, like, things that I grew up, like — yeah, yeah.
-Right. And when they were like,
“Oh, you made fufu twice,” and it’s like telling somebody,
“You made rice twice.” Like, it’s so common.
-Right. Or — yeah, it’s so common.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Or it’s even, like,
a pasta dish. You know, people — yeah.
-Right. You made pasta twice —
like, of course — in a different shape. -You made pasta, yeah,
in a different shape. Right.
-Yes. Of course.
-It’s the same deal.
It really is.
So, again, some of those kind of glass ceilings
that you have to break and really have to kind
of reinforce in people’s minds. Like, you can present
certain things in different ways and can call it
different things. -I look forward to seeing
what’s gonna happen. You absolutely never know.
-Yeah. -I’m here at
The Washington Post. Who the hell knew, you know? -I’m here at
The Washington Post. Like, that’s —
-Yeah, that’s right. -It’s pretty crazy, right?
-That’s great, yeah. -Yeah, right, right, right.
You’re right. -Who knew?
-Yeah, right. It’s not a big deal, right?.
African Djembe Drumming 
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