Dept of Culture, a Nigerian chef takes over New York City

When Ayo Balogun was a teenager who loved the National Geographic and spent his summers cooking with his grandmother in Kwara State, Western Nigeria, his uncle took him out for an exciting night in the capital Lagos, living it up at all sorts of restaurants, from dive bars to posh clubs. 'Like, 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'.

Now in Brooklyn, Ayo is the chef of Dept of Culture, one of the hottest new restaurants in town, praised for its warm atmosphere, its heartwarming pepper soup and its authentic mission of introducing a very regional Central Western Nigerian cuisine to American palates. Food magazine Eater just listed it as one of the Best restaurants of 2022 and the prestigious James Beard Foundation shortlisted it for its annual revered award, that will be announced in June.

Dept of Culture – Ayo’s parents were civil servants, hence the name – opened only a year ago in a former barber shop in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, not far from the Civil Service Café, where Ayo organised his first pop-up dinners. Tiny but elegant, it only has one communal table and a counter with four stools. It hosts 16 people a night, and it’s booked for months.

Written and directed by Anna Bressanin

Director of Photography Ilya Shnitser

Edited by Laura Plasencia and Anna Bressanin

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