Rising-star chef stuns with her Togolese cuisine at takeout spot Fufu n' Sauce
- ambale
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 14 minutes ago
Reported by Ian Froeb | Post-Dispatch
The brick-and-mortar location of Fufu n’ Sauce, which opened in June in Vinita Park, continues what has become a familiar journey for St. Louis restaurants.
Adjo Honsou, the chef and owner, introduced her Togolese cooking through dinner parties for friends and friends of friends. She undertook a series of public pop-ups, each of which sold out. She bought a food truck.
The Fufu n’ Sauce truck was a hit. Two years later, Honsou says, “people will call me at 11 p.m. like, ‘Where’s the food truck?’”
You might find it parked outside the new restaurant. The brick-and-mortar Fufu n’ Sauce, located on Page Avenue at Midland Boulevard, is modest in size and takeout-focused, though on one visit I did see a customer sitting in the waiting area with his to-go container open, scooping up stew with a piece of the eponymous fufu.
The menu is compact and, for the most part, served to order from a cafeteria-style setup. This makes sense as the next step for the Fufu n’ Sauce operation after a food truck, but I worry this description sells the experience short. Look at my fellow diner eating in the restaurant’s lobby. You don’t want to wait to dive into your bowl of egusi and fufu or oxtail stew with jollof rice.
Yes, the storefront might be small, but Fufu n’ Sauce’s spirit is expansive. The restaurant debuted with more buzz than most thanks in part to the truck’s existing fan base, but also to Honsou’s rising profile. Last year, she was a contestant on the third season of the PBS series “The Great American Recipe” and won the competition.
Without this background, you would still know something special is happening here. Consider that oxtail stew — or, to use its proper name, the oxtail in palm nut stew, the dish that Honsou prepared for the “Great American Recipe” finale. The oxtails, which begin in a pressure cooker and are finished in the stew, are so tender you can scoop the meat from the bone with your fork or a generous pinch of the doughy white fufu made from yams and plantains.
