Shwen Shwen 12 Well Court, Bank Street, Sevenoaks, Kent (01732-969630) Maria Bradford, the chef-patron of Shwen Shwen, grew up in Freetown before moving to Kent, says Jay Rayner in the Financial Times. In recent years, she has made a name for herself by popularising the food of her birth country – and now she has opened Shwen Shwen, which means “Fancy Fancy” in Krio, a Creole language spoken across Sierra Leone.
"Serious care has been taken" with the place – from the décor to the multi-textured ceramics - and the food is excellent too: with precision and originality, it spotlights this "still unfamiliar" cuisine. Melting beef marrow is mixed with puffed black rice and a peanut-based spice mix, and is presented in two long beef bones, along with flaky golden flatbread. Pepper-spiced poussin is served with palm butter sauce - "and extraordinary confection" made with kan kan kan spice, scotch bonnet, smoked chicken, palm cream, white wine and "a whole bunch of other things besides". The "fire and earth tones" of Sierra Leone's cuisine are readily apparent in Bradford's cooking. For those, like me, long aware of her work, "this is the restaurant we've been waiting for".