The Work Behind the Plate: Quiet Sustainability in African Kitchens

It Doesn’t Always Look Like a Movement

There are no awards for fixing the water pump.
No standing ovation for rebuilding a menu when an ingredient doesn’t arrive.
No climate certification for the staff retraining after the power cut spoiled your mise en place.

But those are the decisions that make sustainability real.

Not the declarations. The dailiness.
Not the image. The infrastructure.

And more often than not, that work is being done by women. Quietly. Consistently.

What Gets Called Sustainable—and What Gets Ignored

I’ve seen food systems where “sustainability” lives on labels and slide decks.
And I’ve seen kitchens where sustainability lives in choices:

  • When to dry instead of refrigerate

  • How to portion when supply is unreliable

  • How to build menus that can flex without compromise

My mother did this in her New York kitchen.
I watched her soak and ferment cornmeal for kenkey, not because anyone required it, but because it tasted like home—and because no shortcut would do.
She never called it a system. But it was.

Now, I run a kitchen where that kind of care has to scale.
And it’s not always graceful.

Midunu: A Test Kitchen for the Future

At Midunu, we don’t just cook. We troubleshoot.

We make decisions like:

  • Source locally or meet demand?

  • Train slower or hire faster?

  • Stick to our values or accept the easier offer?

And we’ve had to say no—to investors, to logistics shortcuts, to partnerships that didn’t align.

We’ve said yes to things that are harder:
Yes to building shelf-stable products without additives.
Yes to trusting smallholder farmers over convenience.
Yes to flavor that respects the land it came from.

This isn’t the sustainability that photographs well.
But it’s the kind that lasts.

This Earth Day, I’m Thinking About the Work No One Sees

The scraped prep list.
The cracked fridge seal.
The menu edit at 11 p.m.
The quiet leadership it takes to make it all work.

Sustainability isn’t a spotlight. It’s a system.
And every day, someone is holding it together—with care, with clarity, with no need for applause. This post is for them.

For reflections on African foodways, sustainability, and the future of flavor, explore the full archive.

Selassie Atadika