How chef Pierre Thiam brought fonio from West Africa to US stores

Executive overview

Most American grocery stores offer a handful of grains — wheat, rice, corn, quinoa — while Africa's most drought-resistant ancient grain sits largely unknown. Pierre Thiam, a Senegalese chef in New York, co-founded Yolélé in 2017 to change that by building a commercial supply chain around fonio, a fast-growing, nutrient-dense grain that thrives with minimal water.

Fonio is easy to grow but hard to process. Yolélé's breakthrough was commissioning custom milling equipment that eliminated 50% waste and scaled output from one ton per day to two tons per hour.

The opportunity isn't just nutritional — fonio can create economic dignity in the Sahel communities that have grown it for 5,000 years.

Pierre's path from Dakar to New York kitchens

• Arrived in New York in 1989 intending to study in Ohio; got robbed three days later and lost all his money
• Took a busboy job out of desperation — the only role that required no experience
• Moved from busboy to dishwasher to prep cook; his chemistry background made the kitchen's reactions legible
• Became head chef at Boom restaurant in Soho within a few years
• Embarrassed to tell his family back in Senegal he was cooking — culturally a women's role — but his parents responded with relief and curiosity

Discovering West African cuisine as a professional identity

• While cooking family meal at Boom, served dishes from memory: caramelized onion and lime sauce, peanut sauce, cassava, okra
• Colleagues' enthusiasm prompted him to add African specials to the menu
• Identified the gap: New York called itself the food capital of the world, but Africa was absent
• Opened his first restaurant in early 2000s; eventually opened Teranga in Harlem

Rediscovering fonio

• Encountered fonio rarely as a child visiting grandparents in southern Senegal; it wasn't available in Dakar
• Rediscovered it while researching his first cookbook, traveling through the Casamance and Kédougou regions
• Local communities call it "the most delicious grain of all grains"
• Flavor profile: lighter and fluffier than couscous, slightly nutty, neutral enough to absorb any sauce — cooks in five minutes
• Nutritional profile: gluten-free, high in protein and amino acids, low glycemic index (beneficial for diabetics)

Why fonio disappeared — and why it matters now

• Colonization rebranded traditional African crops (fonio, millet, sorghum) as "country people's food"
• French colonizers made peanuts the cash crop in Senegal; farmers switched from fonio to monoculture peanut farming
• Senegal now imports baguettes and broken rice from Vietnam — neither crop grows there
• Africa's dependence on Ukrainian and Russian wheat exposed the fragility of relying on a handful of global crops
• Fonio grows in the Sahel with minimal water, requires no tilling, and its deep roots regenerate soil without releasing carbon

Building Yolélé

• Initial logic: if quinoa could go from obscurity to ubiquity, fonio could too
• Real motivation: witnessing youth from Kédougou risking their lives on boats to reach Europe for work
• Co-founded Yolélé in 2017 with Philippe Tevereau, a food industry veteran who had helped introduce quinoa in the 80s and spent years at Dean & DeLuca
• Logistics partner Woodlands Foods (importers in 60+ countries) joined after executives visited Kédougou and were won over
• Started sourcing from women's cooperatives in Senegal who processed fonio by hand

Solving the processing bottleneck

• Fonio's thick, inedible hull was historically removed with large mortar and pestle — two hours of labor per kilogram
• Mechanization had improved things but still left ~50% waste and couldn't meet GFSI food-safety standards required by large food manufacturers
• Yolélé commissioned custom milling equipment from a specialist supplier, sending tons of fonio for testing
• New machine: eliminates waste, processes two tons per hour, meets GFSI certification
• Opens access to "Big Food" buyers working toward sustainable sourcing goals

Growing distribution and awareness

• Secured shelf space at the Whole Foods next to Teranga in Harlem; in-store cooking demos caused bags to sell out
• Whole Foods expanded placement store by store across the Northeast; now in ~2,000 US stores including Target
• Built three distinct communities: African diaspora (heritage connection), gluten-free community (nutrition), and food-curious shoppers
• Social media — Instagram and TikTok — and brand collaborations supplement traditional media coverage
• Product line expanded from whole-grain fonio to fonio flour, fonio pilaf, and fonio chips