Adejoké Bakare, owner and head chef of Chishuru, became the first Black woman to receive a Michelin star in the UK this month. She told The Guardian that her triumph seemed “quite surreal.”
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” she stated on February 6, one day after being awarded. “Until this morning, I was just enjoying the recognition, which I am quite grateful for. But after watching the reactions on social media today, I’m starting to feel a weight of duty on my shoulders, which is beautiful.”
According to Michelin’s chief inspector in the UK, Bakare’s “style is unique, and the restaurant is a wonderful reflection of her personality and her cooking – it is fun, full of life, generous, and hugely enjoyable.”
Bakare was raised in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, with a Yoruba mother and an Igbo father. Around the age of eleven, she began collecting cookbooks and developed a passion for food and cooking. Meanwhile, she was advised to pursue more traditional career paths and enrolled in a biological sciences program at a university in Kaduna.
During that time, she mentioned that her culinary experience included working at a fish and chip cart while studying. Bakare moved to the UK and worked in several fields, such as care and property management.
She started a supper club in 2017 to pursue her longstanding desire of becoming a restaurant entrepreneur. She then won a competition at Brixton Village to open a three-month pop-up restaurant that would eventually become Chishuru.
Since its inception as a pop-up in 2020, the restaurant has traveled to several sites in London before landing in Fitzrovia in September 2023. Her restaurant specializes in Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa-influenced West African cuisine. According to the Guardian, her signature recipes are sinasir (fermented rice cake), moi moi (bean cake), and ekoki (corn cake).
Bakare stated, “We are at the forefront of West African food and have much more to do, so we focus on that.” and simply build and expand that way. Being an independent restaurateur and chef can be immensely liberating. We set our own rules, answer to no one, and do our own thing. As a black female chef, I am not sure I could have done it any other way.”
Chishuru was one of 18 new restaurants to gain a Michelin star this month. Given that the bulk of the recipients were white men, Bakare said she felt odd throughout the ceremony. Nonetheless, she thinks that the enthusiasm she has seen among young women in the sector will lead to better results.
When asked if the industry should be more diverse, Bakare replied, “Absolutely.” Especially in London, where there is so much food and so many people, you can eat the globe if you know where to look. I believe more magazines, more food writers, should venture out and investigate all of this.”
Bakare is the first Black woman to receive a Michelin star in the UK, and the second in the world. Mariya Moore-Russell, an American chef, became the first black woman to get a Michelin star in September 2019.
