The charcoal jollof question, settled

Our head chef on why the last four minutes over coals matter more than everything before them.

There is a moment, near the end of a pot of jollof, where the rice at the bottom starts to catch. Most kitchens treat that as a failure. We treat it as the point.

The base is unremarkable and deliberately so: blended red pepper, tomato, onion, a long reduction until the raw edge goes and the colour deepens to something closer to brick than red. Rice goes in, stock goes in, lid goes on, and then nobody touches it.

The last four minutes happen over charcoal, not gas. The pot sits directly on the coals and the bottom layer takes on a smoke that you cannot fake with liquid smoke, paprika or good intentions. Then the whole pot is turned once, so the smoked layer folds through the rest.

That is the entire trick. It is not a secret, it is just inconvenient — it requires charcoal in a professional kitchen, which most hotels have quietly stopped keeping. We have not, and we do not intend to.