Ozoz Sokoh
Lagos, Nigeria
Ozoz Sokoh is a food explorer and exploration geologist passionate about food in its entirety – cooking, eating, dreaming, writing and photographing it, especially on her blog, Kitchen Butterfly. A ‘Traveller by plate’, she uses foodways – the social, cultural and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food to explore the world because ‘Food is more than eating’.
Well known for her street photography, she documents and shares the varied aspects of Nigerian culture from perspectives in food, human interactions with produce and products and much more.
In 2013, she coined the phrase 'The New Nigerian Kitchen' - her philosophy and practice to celebrate and document all aspects of Nigerian cuisine from classic recipes to reinventing and representing Nigerian food, unearthing history, sharing techniques, using old ingredients in new ways, focusing on in-season produce, monitoring trends and more. She has created a number of novel documents like the first-ever seasonal produce for Nigeria and only one of a handful on the continent; a guide to Nigerian tastes and flavours.
Her work has been featured on CNN African Voices, Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown, Food 52. She makes her home in Lagos, Nigeria but dreams of rain-drenched or sun-streaked mornings on the couch, good book in hand and a pot of tea in New York, Nairobi, Tokyo, Paris and Edinburgh. She believes that Nigerian food was, is and always will be worth celebrating. Viva la vida Naija food.
