"My interest in food has been for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories of my time growing up in Sudan are of grand celebrations, dinners with our large extended family, or intimate late-night meals before bedtime. I believe I have my late grandparents to thank the most for my lifelong passion that I’m eternally grateful for today, as it was their endless generosity and willingness for me to try new and interesting foods which spurred my interest and eventually gave birth to this book. I feel very blessed to have had the kind of childhood I experienced in Sudan, especially while watching the situation gradually deteriorate over the decades. Back then, people often made random impromptu visits over to one another’s homes, seldomly done today due to economic hardships, that made mealtimes interesting and unpredictable. It was not just what we eat that made such an impact, it was also the way we eat, and with whom, which left a lasting impression.
However, it was only decades later that I began to fully appreciate how attuned I’d become to eating food that feeds the soul, as well as the body. This realisation came out of a lack of Sudanese foods or dining etiquette over a sustained period while living away from home for university. I learned then that I needed to find a way of making Sudanese or another “soul food” part of my life, without having to rely on my mother’s cooking or Manchester’s Curry Mile. The truth is that I learned how to cook through the process of collecting these recipes, which should go to show that anyone can access these recipes, as long as you remain patient, passionate, and determined through the process.
I first gravitated to our kitchen to seek solace from a life lived mostly away from my own homeland. My goal was to build the knowledge that would nurture body, and soul, and help pave the way to a cultured adulthood. I found that the process of gradually gaining and applying knowledge of Sudanese recipes helped me feel more grounded in my diasporic identity. I wanted to share this feeling with other Sudanese around the globe who were equally eager to strengthen this vital ancestral connection. And in doing so, invite others who know little more about our homeland beyond the sporadic depiction of pain portraying Sudan as a troubled state reeling from civil war, ethnic cleansing, and more recently European migration and 2019’s nationwide popular uprising that led to today’s unrealised transition to democracy and civil governance. I took on this cookbook project because we rarely get an opportunity to discuss and describe a side of our culture that thrives despite these hardships, with very little culturally driven media on Sudan reaching international audiences. I ultimately wanted to use traditional food as a lens through which to document and pay homage to Sudan, to change this often reductive narrative that time and again dominates public opinion and overshadows a country steeped in multicultural influences. Reflecting the multi-cultural diversity of the country, the unique character of Sudanese cuisine as a fusion food highlights the interconnectedness of regional foods and provides substantial contributions to the art of global gastronomy.
Having collected a multitude of recipes from various Sudanese commumities, I realized that I was in a unique position to share this work with the world. I’d been raised and educated in the UK, and lived a life that is both deeply connected to Sudan and its relative obscurity, as well as the wider world. This was amplified further when I began sharing my world on the internet to excited followers both Sudanese and non-Sudanese alike. This project evolved to become my love letter and heartfelt tribute to the Sudan and its people, and I hope this work contributes to the preservation of an important aspect of our culture."
Omer Al Tijani in the Preface of The Sudanese Kitchen, 2025
We would like to thank Omer for this project, which we know was long-awaited by the Sudanese community and beyond. We extend our gratitude to the photographers who worked on this book for the field photographs (Ala Kheir, Duha Mohamed, Muhammad Salah) and the food photographs (Mazin Al Rasheed Zein, Manuel Krug, Antonie Robertson), without whom this project would not be what it is.
Almas Art Foundation is proud to present this exhibition of photophraphs from The Sudanese Kitchen, as part of our ongoing commitment to celebrating the rich cultural heritage of Sudan.