Heard founder Jordan Bailey says burgers are “the perfect canvas” for West African flavours. “At their core, they’re about balancing fat, acid, heat, sweetness, and texture. West African cooking is built on those same principles but just expressed in a different way.” So burger joint Heard’s new collaboration with Aji Akokomi, the founder of Michelin-starred West African restaurant Akoko, is a neat fit. Until April 30, Heard’s Borough and Soho venues are serving a burger, fries and an ice-cream sandwich with West African twists by Akokomi.
The centrepiece is the Akoko burger: an aged beef patty seasoned with a special spice blend, then amped up with tamarind jam, a sosu kaani puree (red pepper and scotch bonnet) and caramelised onions. The final flourish is a melted hard goat’s cheese and it’s all served in Heard’s classic roast potato bun with a dibi dipping sauce inspired by the flavours found in Senegalese barbeque.
“A burger is a familiar format, but it carries flavour very well,” says Akokomi, who founded Akoko in Fitzrovia in 2020. “West African cooking is built on layers, vibrant heat, spice, umami and aromatic spices, so bringing that to a burger is a total game-changer. It’s less about adapting the structure and more about bringing depth and clarity to something people already understand.”
To pair, there are the Kelewele fries, a nod to a Ghanaian street food of seasoned, deep-fried plantains. The fries are dusted with a savoury spice mix of peppers, ginger, garlic, crispy onions and dehydrated bouillon. “It’s savoury, slightly smoky, with a gentle heat that builds,” says Akokomi. “The idea is that it complements the burger rather than competing with it, so you get a complete dish.”
Finally, there’s Bailey’s favourite element of the collab: a new take on Heard’s ice-cream sandwich. White chocolate cookies sandwich calabash nutmeg (a popular spice in West Africa) ice-cream, guava jam and caramelised white chocolate crumb. “Ehuru – or calabash nutmeg as Aji likes to call it because it sounds sexier to him – has this beautifully warm, almost nutmeg-like spice, an aromatic, slightly juniper profile, and is subtly sweet,” Bailey says. “In an ice-cream, it becomes rounded and comforting rather than dominant.”
A drinks pairing for each burger is a signature at Heard, thanks to sommelier Majken Bech-Bailey (Bailey’s wife). And the collaborative burger is no different: pair the Akoko burger with a gewurztraminer from Cave de Hunawihr from Alsace and Five Points Brewery’s XPA.
“For me, a collaboration has to feel natural,” says Bailey. “It can’t just be two names on a poster, it has to be a genuine meeting of like-minded people. Akoko and Aji was an obvious partner. What they’ve done for West African cuisine in London is powerful, precise and rooted in heritage. We approach food from different angles, but we share the same obsession with flavour, detail and integrity.”
The Akoko x Heard collaboration is available at Heard Soho and Borough until April 30.
