As heatwaves reshape our landscapes and habits, cooking becomes a laboratory of adaptation. In Marseille, the festival Cheffes ! brought together chefs and agronomists from Africa and the Mediterranean to explore new ways of eating under extreme temperatures. From inventive frugality to food sovereignty, resistance is also written on the plate.
AI Index: Library of Mediterranean Knowledge
Heatwave in the kitchen: the Mediterranean draws inspiration from Africa
22-med – October 2025
• In Marseille, the festival Cheffes ! explores the cuisine of the future in the face of climate change.
• Between Africa and the Mediterranean, sober and tasty practices reinvent Southern gastronomy.
#marseille #cuisine #africa #climate #resilience #mediterranean #agriculture #food #women
Under the spring sun of the third place La Friche Belle de Mai, conversations flow around African pots. That day, the round table “The Provençal Plate under Climate Constraints” posed a simple yet dizzying question: what will we eat when it’s 50 °C?
Learning to cook in the heat
Climate change is already disrupting the way we cultivate and cook. In Agadir, temperatures reached 54 °C in April 2024, in Aswan 51 °C, and Marseille could soon join this club of overheating cities. The festival Cheffes !, rooted in the South, has chosen to make this a subject of reflection as well as tasting.
Led by journalist Laurène Petit, the discussion brings together the perspectives of farmers, chefs, and elected officials. They all agree on one observation: to continue feeding populations without worsening the crisis, we must learn from regions that already live in heat. In Africa, ancestral culinary practices combine energy sobriety, taste, and inventiveness — a lesson in humility and efficiency.
Millet, cowpeas, and others: cereals of resilience
Mauritanian chef Jules Niang, based in Lyon, speaks of his “cuisine of contrasts”: a dialogue between African and French terroirs. On the menu, a millet flan, this rustic cereal related to sorghum, which grows without irrigation. His project Olel, conducted between Mauritania and Senegal, supports four local farms to revive crops adapted to drought while providing jobs.
Around him, discussions become lively: cowpeas, cassava, African tamarind… Ingredients with a low water footprint, capable of thriving in arid climates, find their place in Provençal kitchens. For Pierre Koffi Alanda, a Togolese producer based in the Alpes-Maritimes, these crops embody the future: “All the fruits and vegetables from Togo could grow in Provence, provided they are cultivated by someone who knows them.”
These transfers of know-how sketch out another food sovereignty, based on biological diversity and Mediterranean circulations.
Reinventing our terroirs under 40 °C
Farmers in southern France are already experimenting with new species. Florence Poncelet, coordinator of Agribio 13 (an association of organic farmers in this region), mentions prickly pear, licorice, or dragon fruit: “Species adapted to high heat, resistant to drought.” As heatwaves settle in, these plants from elsewhere acclimatize to Provence.
This vegetal shift is not just a sign of disruption: it is also an invitation to rethink the agricultural landscape. Like the olive tree moving north, some crops redefine the boundaries of Mediterranean taste. The challenge: to welcome these novelties without erasing the memory of the terroirs, finding the right balance between adaptation and continuity.
Eating differently, thinking of each product in its entirety
Beyond species, the entire culinary philosophy needs revisiting. Jules Niang emphasizes the importance of using everything: leaves, tops, peels, roots. In Africa, he explains, “nothing is wasted: a ‘leaf sauce’ allows you to cook what’s left, with coconut milk or peanut butter”.
Frugality becomes an art: sharing a vegetable dish at the center of the table, where meat or fish are merely condiments. A practice that is increasingly appealing to chefs in Europe, concerned with reducing waste and rethinking proportions.
Florence Poncelet adds: gleaning, community foraging, and transforming surplus are powerful levers. “It is the responsibility of chefs to think of each product in its entirety”, insists Niang. The plate, here, becomes an ecological manifesto.
Marseille, crossroads of tastes and solutions
A city of the world open to Africa, Marseille offers a unique ground for experimenting with these blends. Karim Hammoumraoui, director of International Relations for the City, speaks of the partnership with Cotonou around an urban farm. The goal: to develop common agricultural practices, adapted to heat and water scarcity.
At La Friche Belle de Mai, the public also discovers the Cuicui cooker, a ceramic utensil that saves water and energy. With its central chimney that condenses steam, it embodies the “low-tech” spirit of this future gastronomy. Fig leaves replace parchment paper for natural and fragrant papillotes: proof that innovation lies in simplicity.
The loop closes with the residency of four French chefs in Cameroon — Aurore Danthez, Marina Jost, Coline Py, and Aude-Frédérique Toaly. Back in Provence, they share how the stay transformed their practice: less energy, fewer technologies, more essential gestures. “Switching from Thermomix to mortar and pestle changes everything in terms of taste,” smiles Aurore Danthez.
From these exchanges was born a “slow-futuristic” cuisine: mixed, conscious, rooted in the living. Between Marseille and Yaoundé, between millet and chickpeas, climate resistance has found its common language — that of taste.
Cover photo: Steamed chickpea cake with olive oil and saffron in comfrey leaves, sorrel cream with garlic © Caroline Dutrey