Michelin is coming to New Orleans. What does that recognition mean to a chef whose food was never waiting for Michelin to validate it?
For the first full episode of On Our Way, Noël Burgess goes inside Dakar NOLA with James Beard Award winner Chef Serigne Mbaye.
Their conversation starts with Michelin but quickly becomes something bigger: who gets to decide what great food looks like, which culinary traditions are treated as technically serious, and what recognition from institutions like Michelin can mean — and what it can't.
Serigne talks about Senegal, teranga, the discipline behind cooking rice, jollof, New Orleans and building Dakar NOLA on his own terms. He also opens up about fatherhood, ambition and what he wants his success to make possible for the African chefs coming behind him.
Near the end, Noël asks the question at the center of the series: What are you on your way to?
Serigne's answer changes the scale of the conversation.
On Our Way is a new interview series from New Orleans, hosted by Noël Burgess, going inside the worlds of the chefs, hospitality figures and cultural voices shaping the city.
New episodes every other week. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one.
(0:00) Harlem, Senegal and the Making of Serigne Mbaye (3:14) How Do You Get Demoted From Washing Dishes? (6:31) Why Winning James Beard Felt Like Graduation (12:01) Why Fine Dining at Dakar Starts With Washing Your Hands (14:38) Why Serigne Won't Let Michelin Define His Food (20:18) The Jollof Test a Three-Star Kitchen Might Fail (26:39) The Cooking Lesson Serigne Learned From His Mother (31:52) Why Dakar NOLA Belongs in New Orleans (42:42) Can Fine Dining Take Care of the People Who Make It? (49:37) The Critics Serigne Actually Worries About (51:41) How Fatherhood Changed Serigne (58:13) What Serigne Mbaye Is On His Way To
Host: Noël Burgess Guest: Chef Serigne Mbaye, Dakar NOLA Producer: Luis Montoya
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#OnOurWay #NoelBurgess #SerigneMbaye #DakarNOLA #NewOrleans
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