The Supply Chain Economics of Chef Pierre Thiam

When Pierre Thiam, who originally hails from Senegal, was cooking at restaurants in New York City in the ’90s, he had a realization: “Africa was absent. And this was the food capital of the world.” Thus began his mission of sharing West African food and culture with the United States. He first started a catering business, which then became a restaurant, Le Grand Dakar, in Brooklyn (it closed in 2011). He also started writing Senegalese cookbooks, but found himself facing a problem.

“Every time I’m writing recipes for my cookbooks, I’m thinking of substitutions for ingredients, because my audience didn’t have access to the ingredients that make our cuisine,” says Thiam. “And that’s really when the idea started to germinate: How do I figure out a way to make these ingredients accessible to this market, and in doing so, also have an impact on the communities that are growing those ingredients?”

This led him to fonio, a gluten-free ancient cereal grain grown in the Sahel region of West Africa. It has a low glycemic index, is high in protein and is a source of fiber, iron, B vitamins, zinc, magnesium and antioxidant flavonoids. And aside from being good for consumers, crucially, fonio is also good for farmers. It is drought and heat resistant, grows well in the region’s sandy soil and helps topsoil regenerate. It can be grown alongside other crops as well, making it an ideal sustainable staple for the Sub-Saharan ecosystem.

Until recently, fonio was hard to find — even in Senegal. After colonization, many West Africans began to rely on wheat, rice and maize instead.

“I grew up in Dakar, which is the capital city of Senegal, and I didn’t even have access to fonio there,” Thiam recalls. “But luckily, my grandparents were from the south of Senegal, and whenever I would go to visit during summer breaks, that’s when I would have access to fonio.” Thiam’s grandmother would prepare the fluffy grain with palm nut and peanut sauces alongside root vegetables, meat and fish.

Thiam spent years researching fonio and educating American chefs and home cooks about the grain through his cookbooks (it has a nutty flavor and is very forgiving if you add too much or too little water), before kick-starting a supply chain of small farms in West Africa. He then partnered with Philip Teverow, a food industry veteran who had helped bring quinoa to American markets during his 11 years at Dean & Deluca, to bring fonio to the U.S. in large numbers.

In 2017, the two launched their company, Yolélé, which roughly translates to “let the good times roll” in Fula, a West African language. Soon, fonio pilaf packets emblazoned with a playfully drawn map of Africa began appearing in markets like Whole Foods, first in New York and then nationwide.

Quinoa was actually a cautionary tale for Thiam: Although the grain originated in the Andes Mountains of Peru and Bolivia, it was not protected by any kind of designation of origin laws. As it rose in popularity, farmers began growing it around the world, and more efficiently, which hurt the South American supply chain.

“Food corporations just took all the quinoa and started growing it outside of the region where it’s traditionally been grown,” says Thiam. “To me, that defeats the purpose and the reason why I’m doing this — really it is to bring a model of development to the Sahel region, where I’m from.”

In order to avoid quinoa’s fate, Thiam works directly with small farms in the Sahel region, helping them increase their fonio yields in a sustainable way, without the use of pesticides.

Since launching, Yolélé has gained 2,500 points of distribution and increased annual fonio exports from West Africa by over 500% from where they were before they entered the market. According to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, 700,000 tons of fonio are grown annually in West Africa. In 2019, Senegal produced 5,100 tons of fonio, while Guinea produced 530,000 tons — the highest global output. It is also grown in Mali, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, among other countries.

In 2021, Yolélé launched chips made from fonio and flavored with other African-grown ingredients like moringa and baobab fruit. In 2019, Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery approached Thiam, after seeing his TED Talk, to partner on making a beer. They knew the beer culture of Africa and that Africans made beer from millet and fonio. Their first product, Brooklyn Brewery x Yolélé Fonio White Beer, debuted right before the pandemic, and last October they launched four-pack cans in Whole Foods markets throughout the Northeast.