At his restaurant, Ilé, Chef Tolu Erogbogbo delivers the flavor's of Nigeria to Los Angeles.
A gathering of complete strangers takes place at a restaurant in Hollywood, somewhere close to the world-famous Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Only a few glass doors are at street level in a vast residential complex that is designed in a geometric pattern; one of these doors has a tiny sign that reads "Ilé" so that visitors will know they have arrived at the correct location.
Tolu Erogbogbo, also known as chef Eros, offers experience dinners here. These are exclusive gatherings that are broken up by tales that he tells while each course of a seven-course meal is brought out to the table. The cuisine draws its inspiration from the flavours and many cultures of West Africa, particularly Nigeria. Eros describes it as "authentic with a modern twist," and this gives him the creative freedom to subtly bend and blend recipes, to give dishes that have been passed down through generations a little bit of a contemporary flair, and of course, to plate things beautifully because he is aware that in today's world, "the camera eats first."
This is not the first culinary endeavour that chef Eros has worked on, nor will it be the last. After he had left his own country, he started learning how to prepare Nigerian food. Eros received his early education at Benin City, which is located approximately three hours outside of Lagos. He later attended a university in England where he majored in business. When he started to feel homesick, he called his mother and grandmother, and they took him through making some of his favourite recipes from the family. It was the flavour and familiarity of coconut rice and egusi (a soup thickened with agushi seeds) that brought him back to his childhood, and the experience inspired him to pursue a career in the culinary arts.
What followed were several years of gaining knowledge through actual experience. Eros relocated back to Nigeria and, along with his mother, started a restaurant that "failed awfully." Then there was Cookie Jar, a bakery that started off with little more than a simple plate of cookies but has since grown into selling Parisian-style cakes and other baked goods. As a result of the growing interest in his work, Eros began hosting private dinners in Lagos, during which he prepared predominantly French and Italian cuisine. Soon after, he was attending to the needs of some of the wealthiest people in Nigeria, such as Folorunsho Alakija, a millionaire businesswoman and philanthropist, and Aliko Dangota, an industrial magnate.
One day, someone dubbed Eros "the billionaire chef," and ever since then, he has been known by that moniker.
However, his menu began to bother him at some point in time. He was aware that he was about to serve food that people had sampled numerous times before, and he was curious about how people would react if he made some adjustments. He tested the waters by offering a few Nigerian dishes at dinners and soon found that those were the meals that guests spoke about the most. He decided to continue presenting Nigerian cuisine. Therefore, he moved closer.
"I started to apply international techniques and standards to Nigerian cooking, and the result was remarkable," Eros said. "The result was remarkable because I started to apply those techniques and standards." "Not only did the dish look and smell amazing, but there was also an interesting tale associated with it."
at work til 11pm today so aate someone elses pad thai who didnt want it (didnt eat the fried chicken tho cuz pain) and my other marron glacee). we are doing an experiential dinner for a club ofcollectors... shit is cray i will share pics eventually pic.twitter.com/aLXp9fIJ9d
— yumyumyum (@zoinksround72) November 28, 2022
Eros's goal, as a Nigerian who wants to introduce the cuisine of his home country into the discourse about food around the world, is especially to achieve authenticity in flavour. He may experiment with the presentation of a dish by, for example, emulsifying carrots and then arranging them in a lovely puddle below a salad dressed in palm wine vinaigrette; but, "it tastes like it's meant to taste," he assured me. There is not any pepper soup with caviar on top, nor is there any jollof rice that has been desiccated into edible dust. In addition to the importance placed on the food's flavour, an emphasis is placed on the dish's colour and texture in order to provide diners with an unforgettable culinary experience that is true to the origins of the food. In order to accomplish this, Eros imports spices once every two weeks from Lagos. In addition, there is a Nigerian and West African music that was curated by the chef and serves as an integral component of the whole atmosphere.
Although there is no substitute for actually going to Nigeria, Eros is hoping that dinner at Ilé will be the next best thing. Of course, a wonderful meal cannot replace the experience of actually going to Nigeria. This communal dining experience is, in a way, a recreation of his happiest childhood memories. During those times, his cousins, grandparents, aunties, and uncles would regularly crowd around one table to feast on whole roasted chickens, coconut rice spiced with crayfish, and afia efere, a white soup thickened with pounded yams and gently sweetened with aiden fruit. This dining experience is a recreation of those happy times. The telling of stories was just as important to the occasion as the food that was served. Eros, even at an early age, imitated his elders by telling tales himself, some of which were genuine and others of which were embellished, and all of which earned him the label itan, which might be translated as "story man."
During the third course of a recent supper at Ilé, staff members poured pepper soup into individual bowls at each table. Pepper soup is a mainstay of Nigerian cuisine and is created with indigenous spices such as erhe (also known as calabash nutmeg) and alligator pepper (also known as grains of paradise). I had never heard of the meal before, but the broth, which was transparent and unassuming, was excellent and so hot that it made my eyes water. While we sniffled and sipped, Eros recounted the condensed story of his career as a chef, beginning with his first 'failure' many years ago and ending in 2023, when he served this distinctive soup to hundreds of people at a dinner honouring Outstanding in the Field at Coachella. It was a sign of how far he's come when, in the middle of a desert thousands of miles away from Nigeria, he saw so many people enjoying this food.
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In the United States, Eros is just getting started. He is capable of so much more, and he is likely to come up with even more original ideas in the future. It was the people, the weather, and the fruit that drew him to Los Angeles in 2021, and he has since settled there. He is excited to see where his cooking and stories will take him in the future.
Eros stated, "I like to think of myself as a culinary entertainer, which is fitting considering this is the city of entertainment." "I hope to tell our story as a culture on a global scale, maybe with Netflix, Hulu, or Disney — and to bring people to Nigeria, to the villages, in order to show them the real origin story."
A culinary programme that teaches West African cuisine is still another notion that he toy with. So is the concept of a gourmet residency in Vegas, which would allow him to feed hundreds of people each night.
"People will come to experience West African culture; everything from music and dance to fashion and storytelling," he added. "They will come to experience everything from music and dance to fashion and storytelling." "But the focus will be on the food," the speaker continued. It will become an event that is worth going out of your way for.