At Restaurant Felana, Chef Bako is overjoyed to bring the culture of Madagascar to everyday kitchens in the Bay Area with staple Malagasy sakafo (food/cuisine). The way of the Malagasy people is simple: eat with an open heart, cook with organic, unassuming ingredients, and always feed the person next to you.
That is exactly how Chef Bako grew up in Madagascar. Chef Bako has memories of cooking from as young as six years-old when she would make black-eyed peas with her sisters. At the age of 12, Bako began cooking by herself to help take care of her older sister’s children. Once she got used to it, she fell in love with all the creative possibilities in the kitchen. Bako began professionally cooking for large parties in Fort-Dauphin along the southeastern coast of Madagascar where she alone catered for a foreign exchange program for American students. Now, Bako feels the most at home in the kitchen.
Here in California, Bako lets her creativity flow by adapting local ingredients to authentic Malagasy dishes. The core of Malagasy cuisine is vary (rice). Rice is so essential that it feels almost impossible to have any dish without it. And so, at Restaurant Felana, Bako complements rice with all kinds of organic pairings, ravitoto (pounded cassava leaves with meat), sakay (traditional hot sauce), and always fresh vegetables.
When you taste her food, Chef Bako hopes that you can feel both the love that she feels when she cooks and that love that she has in her heart for Madagascar.