When Ayo Balogun was a teenager spending the summer cooking with his grandmother in Western Nigeria's Kwara State, his uncle took him out for an exciting night in the country's capital Lagos, living it up at all sorts of restaurants, from dive bars to posh clubs. "It was just one night. And I've been trying to recreate that evening since then. It's like, you're always chasing that thing," he said. Now in Brooklyn, after moving to the US in 1998, Balogun is the chef of Dept of , one of the hottest new restaurants in New York, praised for its warm atmosphere, heart-warming dishes and mission of introducing regional Nigerian cuisine to American palates.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230323-dept-of-culture-new-yorks-hottest-west-african-table

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