Ilé Bistro Gives Los Angeles A Unified Theory Of West African Food

Tolu Eros, the charismatic Los Angeles chef/storyteller behind Nigerian fine-dining pop-up Ilé LA, will open his first brick-and-mortar location on Friday. Ilé Bistro at Citizen Public Market in Culver City will be a more casual offshoot of Eros’s elaborate tasting-menu pop-up, but the through line remains. Eros is here to shine a light on West African food and showcase the power of unity as he serves jollof rice and pepper soup.

“It’s been such a privilege to be able to raise this flag,” he says. “It’s always been my career dream to put West African food and Nigerian food on the global food map.”

The mission at Ilé Bistro starts with jollof rice, a deeply comforting, fragrant and flavorful tomato-forward dish that varies from country to country and even varies from family to family within those countries.

“Jollof rice is West Africa’s prized possession,” says Eros, a self-taught Nigerian-born chef who grew up in Benin City and Lagos. “It’s the one dish that every West African country has in common. It’s our food language. There’s a friendly feud between countries over who makes the best jollof rice. The Ghanaians say their jollof is the best. The Nigerians say their jollof is the best. The Senegalese are usually quiet, but they’ve recently joined the discussion and they’re like, ‘Hold up, hold up, we make the best jollof. We created it.’ And they’re not wrong. The people of Senegal created this tomato-based rice that has become a staple in every West African country. And every family makes their jollof rice slightly different.”

Instead of arguing about who makes superior jollof rice, Eros is bringing together elements of different preparations.

“Food is a unifying language,” he says. “It’s a global language. My theory, my ethos is that Africans are stronger together than we are separated.”

So Ilé Bistro is serving what Eros calls “unity rice,” which is a hybrid of three different styles of jollof rice.

Ghanaian jollof rice is known for its perfumed rice. Nigerian jollof rice is known for its smokiness. Senegalese jollof rice is known for its vegetables. So Eros has combined all those elements. He’s also merging spices he gets from Africa with local produce.

“I go to the farmers market and I see a lot of the vegetables we also grow back home in Nigeria,” he says. “We grow carrots, peas, green beans. So I select those vegetables from local purveyors. And I cook the food the way we cook it back home.”

The jollof rice at Ilé Bistro can be served with proteins like steak, blackened snapper and chicken that are cooked in cast-iron over a wood-fueled open fire. Cauliflower and oyster mushrooms are also available, along with toppings like slaw, black-eyed peas and a fried egg. Guests can add suya chili oil for a hit of spiciness. It’s an accessible, choose-your-own-adventure way for Angelenos to learn about the wonders of jollof rice.

And then there’s the soul-warming pepper soup at Ilé Bistro. One reason Eros started cooking was because he went to college in the United Kingdom and missed the food he grew up eating. He had never even traveled abroad without his parents or a guardian before this, so this was a huge transition. He called his mom and grandmother back in Nigeria and learned how to make Nigerian food. What he realized is he was tapping into some of his fondest memories.

“Growing up, my grandmother would make pepper soup as a show of love, as a show of care,” Eros says of the soup that’s known for its aromatic and peppery broth. “If you were sick, the one thing she would make is a nice big pot of pepper soup. My grandmother would say that pepper soup has the ability to cure malaria and also helps you feel love. She would make a big pot of soup and have you sit on a stool, covered with a blanket, in front of the pot and ask you to breathe in with your noise and up with your mouth. What happens is those spices penetrate your sinuses and your lungs. And then you would drink the soup, and the flavor is so soothing.”

Eros knows that he’s arrived at Citizen Public Market during an exciting moment in Los Angeles. Other new spots at the Culver City food hall include Bang Bang Noodles (with its spicy hand-pulled Chinese noodles) and Uoichiba Temaki + Chirashi (with its dry-aged seafood inside hand rolls), two other formidable operations that are changing the way LA eats and the way LA thinks about how to value food.

“I think there’s clearly a cultural moment going on,” says Eros, who harnessed the power of Instagram to build an impressive brand before he signed a deal for his brick-and-mortar spot. “There’s an appreciation for other cultures, from music to fashion to movies to food. Having us all here – having other people who are thinking outside of the box, who are truly trying to represent who they are and what they believe in – is one of the main reasons this is happening.”

So here’s Eros, a chef who’s dubbed himself The Billionaire Chef, a chef who’s ready to create his own path and to tell new stories while he reminds his guests why old stories and traditions matter.

“I feel like I’ve always had a voice,” he says. “I just didn’t know how that voice was going to be represented. I used to sing when I was a kid. I used to act. Now in Los Angeles, I’m realizing that one of the main reasons I moved here was to put my cuisine and my culture on the global food map but also to explore the entertainment side of who I am. My storytelling side.”

So sit down at Ilé LA or Ilé Bistro and he might tell you about the ongoing battle for the jollof rice crown in West Africa. Or he might tell you about how his mother is his backbone and how he’s conceived dishes that represent her triumphs but also her hardships. (After his mom was recently diagnosed with glaucoma, Eros created an edible cloud of candy floss with spicy sugar that melts away when you pour jus on top of it. The jus represents eye drops that clear up cloudy vision.)

“It’s just about really trying to represent my stories using different ingredients and preparations,” he says. “I always say that our goal is to deliver an unforgettable memory.”