
Throughout Africa, chefs are getting creative. From Ghana to Namibia, they're tweaking traditional recipes, or reaching into the past to revive ancient dishes.

One chef dazzling local taste buds is South Africa's Reuben Riffel. He's putting his hometown of Franschhoek on the map thanks to his inventive menus. Pictured spicy beef tartar, egg yolk, parsley and caper salad, Parmesan custard, pickled butternut discs.

With four acclaimed restaurants, three bestselling cookbooks and a star turn on Masterchef South Africa, Riffel's star is on the rise.

The South African chef is definitely one to celebrate his own roots and he suggests others to do the same.
"You need to look inward. You can learn from international chefs and international cuisines but I think it's time that (Africans) create," he says.
"We have amazing chefs that can cook beautifully but I'd like to see us leading the way at some stage as well."
"You need to look inward. You can learn from international chefs and international cuisines but I think it's time that (Africans) create," he says.
"We have amazing chefs that can cook beautifully but I'd like to see us leading the way at some stage as well."

One of Riffel's most sought after dishes is braised lamb neck with masala curry sauce, served with compressed pineapple, tumeric mash and tempura fine beans.
Watch this video to see how Riffel is using his roots to carve out a new culinary path.
Watch this video to see how Riffel is using his roots to carve out a new culinary path.

Margot Janse is another chef making waves. Originally from the Netherlands, she has spent the last two decades in South Africa. During that time, she's served as executive chef at Le Quartier Francais, where she has demonstrated a panache for giving local flavors a haute makeover (including a dish where she combines fermented turnip, linseed cracker and smoked honey).

Janse's unique approach to food is to embrace change for phenomenal results. Her gastronomic approach is brave, experimental and unrelenting. This snow globe dessert -- served with rice crispies and a local shrub called, fittingly, num num -- is one example of her ingenuity with food.

The restaurant ranked 88 in the San Pellegrino "50 Best Restaurants" list. Undoubtedly, items like this baobab fruit dish, embellished with coconut, honeybush and caramel, have helped put the restaurant on the map.

The Test Kitchen in Cape Town is another restaurant thrilling diners with its flair for the dramatic. One bold dish (pictured) includes barbequed langoustine "en gele" and langoustine tataki with liquorice powder.

The ultra-chic establishment -- duly awarded the 48th position on the annual "World's 50 Best Restaurants" list -- is a masterstroke from British-born chef Luke Dale-Roberts, pictured right with head chef Ivor Jones. Since landing in South Africa and embracing it as home, the venerated culinary artist has taken his knack for the theatrical to new heights, surprising patrons with an eclectic and formidable selection.

Even more wholesome, less high-end establishments are getting in on the act. One local chef is updating fufu, a popular staple dish found in many a Ghanaian home. Typically, the dish is a mixture of cassava and plantain. It is boiled and then pounded together vigorously using a pestle and mortar.

Accra restauranteur Raja Owusu-Ansah opened The Republic Bar and Grill with his brother, Kofi, back in 2012. The half-Ghanaian, half-Indian duo serve up their own version of fufu.
"Sundays was fufu afternoons," recalls Owusu-Ansah. "You have to be careful because (fufu) can make you gain a lot of weight if you do it everyday. But otherwise, it's a delicacy. It's a time for family to get together, to eat together."
"Sundays was fufu afternoons," recalls Owusu-Ansah. "You have to be careful because (fufu) can make you gain a lot of weight if you do it everyday. But otherwise, it's a delicacy. It's a time for family to get together, to eat together."

Another popular spot in the Ghanaian capital is PaJohn's. Run by PaJohn Bentsifi Dadson, the restaurant served up unpretentious but high-quality food amid a laid-back lounge atmosphere that has proved popular with locals.

Dadson says: "We try to make the original thing but give it a twist. For instance, what you have here, this is a jollof with pineapple... Initially when I wanted to add on to jollof rice, I thought 'sacrilege,' but times are changing!"

Antica Restaurants & Farm in Addis Ababa is one institution that has started experimenting with Ethiopian ingredients. Chef Yohannes Hailemariam has created several fusion dishes, including a lasagne made from teff.
