At Sofitel Cotonou Marina, Georgiana Viou Welcomes Nokx Majozi for the Next Les Rendez-vous de L’Ami
- By Ugonna-Ora Owoh
On April 1, Les Rendez-vous de L’Ami returns to L’Ami at Sofitel Cotonou Marina Hotel & Spa for its third edition, with Georgiana Viou welcoming South African chef Nokx Majozi for a four-hands dinner built around Easter. Titled Kondokpo, the evening takes its name from the Fon language, where it suggests a bond or tie, a fitting frame for a dinner shaped by exchange.
Created by Viou, the series has become a notable part of L’Ami’s identity, bringing chefs from across Africa and its diaspora to Cotonou for intimate dinners that place technique, memory, and local ingredients at the center. This edition brings Benin, South Africa, and the United Kingdom into the same menu, not as an abstract idea, but through the lived experiences of the two chefs behind it.
Viou, who was born in Cotonou, built her career in France after studying foreign languages with the aim of becoming a conference interpreter before finding her way into restaurant kitchens. In 2023, she received a Michelin star for her restaurant Rouge in Nîmes, becoming the first African woman to earn the distinction. Her cooking is marked by precision and restraint, drawing Beninese flavor into conversation with French technique without turning either into performance. At L’Ami, that sensibility has found a new setting back in the city where her story began.
Majozi arrives with a different trajectory. Originally from Durban, she trained and built her career in London, where she became the first chef in residence at Fallow Restaurant and gained recognition for food that is visually assured, technically sharp, and deeply personal. Her pies in particular have drawn attention for the way they hold British culinary structure alongside South African references. Her first book, a collection of South African recipes, is due out in June 2026. For a dinner less concerned with blending everything together than with allowing distinct culinary languages to meet, she is a precise fit.
For Kondokpo, Easter serves as a starting point. Lamb Wellington with uda pepper anchors the menu, joined by a thyme-roasted turbot and a vegetable bobotie that brings a South African register to the table. The meal opens with spicy okra seasoned in suya spices and closes with Coco Choco mignardises, passing through Le Trou Béninois, a lemon and ginger sorbet with infused sodabi.
The setting matters. At Sofitel Cotonou Marina, L’Ami has quickly established itself as a dining room with a clear point of view, shaped by Viou’s presence and by the hotel’s wider investment in culture, hospitality, and serious dining in Cotonou. The property’s ambition is not simply to offer luxury, but to give that luxury a stronger sense of place.
That sense of place extends to the menu itself, which is built using exclusively Beninese ingredients. For a one-night event inside a major hotel, that choice gives the dinner added weight. It ties the evening to local sourcing, seasonality, and a more grounded relationship to the city around it.
On April 1, Kondokpo will bring two distinct culinary practices to the same table at Sofitel Cotonou Marina — a clear expression of what L’Ami is building in Cotonou: a restaurant shaped by authorship, exchange, and a serious commitment to the possibilities of African gastronomy.