Which country makes the best jollof rice? D.C. foodies put it to a blind test

Six Cups, Six Nations, One Pot of Rice: Washington’s Blind Jollof Showdown

Ecorescuezone.com – West Africa’s most enduring culinary argument — Nigeria versus Ghana, with Senegal quietly insisting the dish was born on its soil in the 14th century — found an unlikely referee in a line of two thousand people snaking past Union Market in Washington, D.C. On a recent Saturday morning, the organizers of the Jollof Festival handed out yellow boxes containing six color-coded taster cups, each holding a spoonful of rice cooked down with tomatoes, spices, and meat in a style unique to a different West African nation. The verdict? Left entirely to the tongue.

Jollof rice, in its many regional iterations, is more than a meal. It is a marker of identity, a dish that appears at weddings, funerals, and every Sunday that stretches long enough to justify a pot. At least ten countries across West Africa and the diaspora claim a version, and the debate over which is “the best” has simmered for generations. By staging a blind tasting, the festival strips away national pride and forces participants to judge flavor on its own merits — or, more often, to discover that their childhood memory of the dish is simply irreplaceable.

The Line at Union Market

Friends Julie Agbasi and Shakesha Coleman arrived early, eager to compare notes cup by cup. Agbasi, whose family roots run deep in Nigeria, described one sample with theatrical alarm:

“It bites you at the end! It’s very slow — it builds up and then at the end you’re like, woo!”

She added that while Nigerian jollof remains her comfort food, she was genuinely curious about what the other regions had to offer. The samples themselves ranged in color from a deep, brick-red to a vivid yellow, flecked with herbs and oil. Some tasters declared they could identify the country of origin from a single bite; others simply marveled at the breadth of flavor profiles packed into what looks, from a distance, like the same bowl of rice.

Maggie Duncan August, an attendee with Ghanaian heritage, laughed as she sorted through her preferences:

“You know when you have good jollof, and you know when you don’t have good jollof! My favorite jollof is spicy, smoky. It has good meat in it. Ghana always stands out as the No. 1!”

Behind the Pass: Chefs Who Started at 5 a.m.

The six submissions came from chefs based in the D.C. metro area, representing Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and — for the first time since the competition launched in 2017 — the United States. That last entry was no accident. Jermaine Foreman-Marshall, who operates a catering company called The Maine Course, stepped into the ring as an “American cousin” of the tradition, and his pot earned second place. In a post-event Instagram message he wrote:

“They didn’t know who cooked it. They didn’t know an American was behind the pot. They just knew that GREEN CUP was hitting! I came to show my love for the culture, represent respectfully, and prove I’ve been paying attention all these years.”

On the Senegalese side of the kitchen, 27-year-old chef Mamadou Koité and his mother had been working since five in the morning, grilling lamb and chicken, chopping tomatoes and peppers for the sauce base. The family also runs the Koité Grill in Silver Spring, Maryland, but for the festival they operated out of a food truck, watching the tasting unfold through the window. Koité framed the event not as a contest but as a gathering:

“The secret is love. When you make it, you want to be happy, you want to be joyful. People are going to taste that.”

He went on to say the festival is about bringing West African communities together and letting the diaspora reconnect with its culinary roots:

“It feels like we’re really putting ourselves out there, as Africans. I feel like people are really getting in tune with … what it means to be African, and what it means to know the food and know the culture.”

Heritage on the Plate

For many in the crowd, the tasting was less a competition and more a homecoming. Carla Shelton, visiting from Phoenix, Arizona, explained that her Nigerian sister-in-law brings jollof to every holiday gathering, making every other sample a benchmark against that one pot.

Virginia Richards, 26, a D.C. resident, wore a red-and-cream-printed Liberian blouse while waiting in line with friends. She spoke with quiet pride about a cuisine she felt was chronically overlooked:

“Liberia has the best jollof, and I feel like because we’re such a small country, we don’t get the hype we deserve. We’re a very understated people. There’s meat, there’s veggies, there’s flavor and a little bit of spice. We’re not afraid to make it more than just rice with tomato sauce!”

The Trophy and What Comes Next

After six hours of tasting, organizers called the crowd back to the stage. Ghanaian chef Kafui Attakpah, co-owner of Calabash African Cuisine & Bar in Alexandria, Virginia, was crowned the D.C. winner — his third consecutive victory at the festival. Attendees cheered as he lifted a trophy topped with a miniature pot of jollof rice, a nod to the dish that had occupied the afternoon.

The festival’s itinerary does not end in the capital. This fall it travels to Atlanta, North Carolina Central University, Dallas, and Houston, continuing the tradition of blind tastings that have drawn thousands of participants since 2017. For the cooks, the diners, and the families who have passed down recipes across oceans and generations, the question of which jollof is “best” will never be settled. But for one Saturday in Washington, the answer was simply: whichever cup made you close your eyes and say, “woo.”