Amara Osei

Amara Osei is a Ghanaian-Canadian food writer based in Toronto who covers West African, Caribbean, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and soul food traditions in North American cities — cuisines that have often been underrepresented in mainstream food media relative to the quality and significance of the cooking. Born in Accra and raised in Toronto's Ghanaian community, she brings a background of genuine culinary knowledge to restaurants most critics approach as outsiders, and her readers trust her to distinguish the authentic from the approximated. She covers jollof rice, egusi soup, injera-based Ethiopian cooking, Trinidadian roti and doubles, Jamaican jerk, and the soul food traditions that have defined African American culinary culture in the Southern United States. Her long-form work on West African restaurant culture in Toronto is widely cited, and her guides to Ethiopian and Eritrean dining in both Toronto and Washington D.C. have brought significant attention to those communities. Before TastyPals, she wrote a monthly column on African and Caribbean food for a Toronto arts and culture magazine and contributed food criticism to a pan-African digital publication.

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