Afro Fusion Cuisine owner connects with spices
When Yollande Deacon wants to make a connection with someone, she cooks.
Peanut stew is her favorite — and her most requested dish.
A native of Cameroon, Deacon came to Milwaukee in 2001 to attend Marquette University. After fruitlessly searching the city for the flavors of home, she set about creating her own. Starting with spice blends, she’s built a product line that now includes sauces and sausages inspired by both her African roots and the Jamaican flavors learned from her mother-inlaw.
The owner and chef at Afro Fusion Cuisine recently purchased a building for a restaurant and has plans to serve dishes she’s been unable to find on menus in Milwaukee. Irie Zulu, at 7237 W. North Ave. in Wauwatosa, is slated to open in October.
Deacon, who is expecting her second child, lives in St. Francis with her husband and their 4-year-old daughter.
The beginning
I came to Marquette University in 2001. It was June, and I was very fortunate to live with a local family in Wauwatosa. What I could not find was the food that just reminds me of home.
Connecting by cooking
African cuisine, people have an idea of what it is, maybe they’ve read books or been to Peace Corps, but it is always a nebulous or sometimes over-the-top idea of what the food is. The best way to have people connect with my background, my identity and who I am is through food.
The very first day I was on campus, I got this question. What do you guys eat? Do you eat crocodile or elephant? There are a lot of misconceptions.
Coming to America
My family sent me here with my grinding stone. It is a traditional spice grinder. My stone is important to me. I came also with a little bit of local spices, the local nutmeg and white pepper specific to Cameroon.
First impressions
I was very shocked by how much processed food people eat here. I hadn’t had a can of food my entire life before I moved to Milwaukee.
Callaloo connections
The second date I had with my husband, I don’t think his mother even knew it was a date, but we stopped at her house. Her way to show love is feeding you. You cannot stop there and not eat. That day, she served me a dish called callaloo; it is very popular in Jamaica. We have the same in Cameroon, but it tasted different, yet had the same vegetables. It is the spices. Allspice, thyme, scallion are the base, and I added that to my pantry.
Sausage and spice
Milwaukee is a sausage town. You have everything from Polish to Italian and German. But people haven’t tried the flavor of great African sausages. People just don’t know. Ours is just different flavors, very recognizable as Jamaican or African. We do a Nigerian-style sausage. We have a South African style, then a merguez, a north African sausage.
Africa in one bite
Peanut stew. Whenever I make it, I win hearts and souls. It is easy but very distinctive. There is nothing in my mind like it. African peanut soup, specifically the west African one, is pretty, savory, smooth, smoky and whimsical. It just has layers of complexity that taste so well with rice, noodles, anything. I even use it as a dressing.
Feeding her family
My daughter actually loves Italian food. She is 4 years old and loves pizza and pasta. My husband makes pizza from scratch with her. That’s her request. She feels our food is often spicy, which surprises me. My choice is always African food.
I do try new things. My daughter goes to day care, and now she’s asking for cheese balls. I have no idea what those are.
Mom’s meals
I have three sisters here. My mother is here baby-sitting now, because my sister had a baby. She’s staying until my (new) daughter arrives. When I think about my mother, I think about what she’s going to make. That’s how she shows love. She brings us food.
A Milwaukee must
When I have my family come, I always take them to sample cheeses. We really enjoy sampling Wisconsin cheese. One of my favorite places in Milwaukee is Larry’s Market.
What they always ask for is the beer. So nobody comes and visits without having a brewery tour. Beer and cheese, always the first thing.
Cookbook she could never part with
“The Soup Bible.” I can adapt the recipes by using my spices any way I want. I buy cookbooks pretty much every month. I have a ton, and always a selection by my bed.
Spinach and substitutions
There are a lot of greens in Africa. What is callaloo? It doesn’t grow here. We substitute greens by mixing. You can mix spinach, collard greens and kale to get the right textures.
Guilty pleasure
I love yogurt. If there’s one thing that I cannot get enough of, it is yogurt. I have tried almost every kind of yogurt out there from homemade to anything in the store. If my husband forgets the yogurt, he has to go back to the store.