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LERATO | Chef & Author

@leratofoods

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🧑🏽‍🍳 Spice Queen | Traveller | Broadcaster
📕 Bestselling author of AFRICANA
🗣️ The Kitchen Cabinet @bbc
✈️ Culinary Retreats @africanaretreats

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Imagine walking into a bookstore on one of London’s busiest streets… and finding your own cookbook on the shelves! 😭📕

Years later…still finding readers like you. Moments like this remind me why I write: to share stories that matter, stories that last beyond my lifetime.

Thanks to everyone who’s read, gifted, or cooked from Africana. Your love keeps it alive. 💛

📕 Signed copies now at Waterstones Tottenham Court Road. Go grab one if you’re nearby. ❤️ And ofcourse you can order copies online as usual.

#waterstones #Africana #londonbookshops #cookbookclub #signedbooks #booktok #AuthorLife #blackauthors #Waterstones #africanauthors #africanbooks taken in Waterstones Tottenham Court Road by @leratofoods

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a year ago

How we spend a day in the Marrakech medina on my retreat 🇲🇦🫅🏽

The rush of the medina isn’t something to battle against, but to flow with - like a performance where you are both audience and actor.

Leaning into its ebbs and flows, from haggling and wandering through the souks, to quiet pauses in palatial spaces with enchanting food and tea. I love the balance of food, culture, intention, excitement and calm.

And this is how I share Morocco on my retreats.

This and more to come on my Marrakech retreat this year.

DM “MOROCCO” if you’d like to join us.

#retreatlife #cookeryretreat #wellnessretreat #foodandtravel taken in Marrakech, Morocco by @leratofoods

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6 months ago

@meta hosted me to an incredible day in their London HQ. It was AFRICANA day 📕 with a tour, a fireside chat with the team and over 6000 team members across London feasting on recipes from my cookbook. Can you believe it?

And no, I didn’t cook a thing. I just wrote the book and the chefs did an amazing job cooking a vibrant feast from all across the continent. I just remembered I didn’t eat any plantains! 😂

Thanks to the team at Meta with Bel, Tobias and Chefs Ben & Chris for organising such an incredible event, and to my formidable team who share my passion and purpose. —We discussed Africana, my inspiration and mission for writing such a book covering such vast territory and diverse cultures, the importance of documenting our stories and recipes, the power of using food to bring people together, sustainability and seasonality at the core of our shared cultures across Africa, plantains and much more.

Met wonderful people and enjoyed engaging conversations and signed books. I am thrilled, energised and passionate as ever. What a great event! 💃🏽❤️

Check out my stories for all the fun and clips from my talk! ⬆️

📸 @urszula.soltys.photography ⭐️

#Africanacookbook #behindthescenes #cookingthebook #metabookclub #adayinmylife #meta #speakerlife #authorgram #lifeofanauthor #femalechef #africanauthor #africanchef #africanauthor #femalefounder taken in London, United Kingdom by @leratofoods

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3 years ago

PLANTAIN SHAKSHUKA from my cookbook to the rescue! Sunshine for breakfast anyone?☀️🍌🍳

Comment PLANTAIN and I’ll send you the recipe.

🧑🏽‍🍳Grab your ingredients
- plantains
- eggs
- spices
- tomatoes
- herbs

#breakfastisserved #brunchinspo #shakshuka #plantain #africanacookbook by @leratofoods

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9 days ago

I’m a sweetheart, really. ☺️👻

#luccaitaly #tuscanwedding #travelwithme✈️ #womenwhotravel #ladolcevita taken in Lucca,Toscana by @leratofoods

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10 days ago

How many times did I say cecina? 🇮🇹😂 I must speak the language! Save this for your next trip to Lucca, Tuscany! ❤️

Made with just chickpea flour, water, olive oil and salt, this delicious Ligurian-Tuscan speciality is also known as socca across the border in Nice. 🇫🇷

Different names, shared culinary histories. I love discovering these delicious connections through food!

#foodandtravel #cecina #italianfoodlover #tuscanfood #luccaitaly taken in Lucca,Toscana by @leratofoods

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11 days ago

Good food, great friends & fabulous boobs in Tuscany. 🇮🇹🤭🥰 Girls’ trips should always be this good.

Have you tried cecina?

#tuscany #girlstrip #femininepower #womenwhotravel #luccaitaly taken in Lucca, Italy by @leratofoods

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14 days ago

Tuscan Fiorentina 🥩 + Nigerian suya = 🔥

A marriage made in heaven!

📍L’Oste di Lucca, Tuscany

#tuscanyfood #fiorentina #beststeak #fusioncuisine #beefsuya taken in Lucca, Italy by @leratofoods

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24 days ago

The power of community…& Cake! 🍰

Once a year as summer draws to a close, a street party is organised in our little haven in London. There is food, face painting, music, laughter and joy all around. For once I was in the country and invited to judge the cake competition. Quite the challenging bake off!😅The rich, moist and fruity Black Forest Gateau won and the crowd descended upon it with gusto! 😆

Next I’ll be judging Masterchef! 🧑🏽‍🍳

#powerofcommunity #community #cakecompetition #bakeoff taken in London, United Kingdom by @leratofoods

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25 days ago

A love affair with Tuscany. Day 1 - in no particular order! Dive in for a spectacular time! 🥰🍾🎉

☀️ Fresh faced at the airport enjoying duty free 🥰

🌟 Arrived in Pisa via @ryanair ‘public transport’ 😒 ✈️ - 30 mins by road from Lucca, where we’d be based for a magical wedding 💒

🍾 Champagne …oops I mean Prosecco on arrival at the charming @villalapreziosa - our home for the next few days 🏨

In town with the girls, feasting at @lostedilucca. The bistecca alla Fiorentina was to die for. A Tuscan delicacy! So good we ate there twice in 3 days! Thick cut, bone-in, seared over the hot stone. 🔥

Limoncello might just be my new favourite drink. After our cocktails the restaurant owners gave us neat limoncello shots! You know I’m a light weight so I only had a sip! 😅🍋

Yet we paraded the streets ‘drunkenly’ you would have mistaken us 40 year old queens 👸🏽 for teenagers! 🤭

#tuscanylovers #luccaitaly #fiorentina #tuscanfood #italianfoodlover taken in Lucca, Italy by @leratofoods

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a month ago

40 is the new…? 👀🥰🔥

#fortyandfabulous taken in Morocco, North Africa by @leratofoods

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2 months ago

I can’t believe how selfish I’ve been… 😭

I’ve been eating my way through some truly glorious places and barely sharing any of it with you.

So, since there are quite a few new faces around here, a proper reintroduction feels overdue…

I’m Lerato 👋🏾 A chef, broadcaster and the author of Africana - my award winning cookbook with over 120 recipes celebrating the food, people and stories of the African continent. I’m incredibly proud of it and hope it continues to inspire us all to cook, eat and learn more about this extraordinary continent.

Food is my passion, and also my way of life.

I travel to eat, learn, meet people and collect stories snd then bring them home to share with you through my recipes, cookery classes, my book, TV, radio, newsletter and our retreats where you can travel and experience all these with me.

And apparently I’ve been hoarding quite a lot. 😂

Morocco. Kenya. Tanzania. Portugal. Paris. Summer in London. And Italy, here we come! 🇮🇹

So consider this me making amends.

More food, stories and recipes from my home(s) and travels are coming your way, and undoubtedly more moments of me losing all composure over something delicious. 😂

Now I want to know about YOU!

Where in the world are you joining me from? 🌍 And what first brought you to my page? 🥰

📍Essaouira, Morocco
@lamouetteetlesdromadaires

#foodandtravel #eatwithme #travelwithme #essaouira #moroccotravel taken in Morocco, North Africa by @leratofoods

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2 months ago