The Kenyan chef training Rwanda's next generation of cooks

Bilal Auma Washikumba, the executive chef at the Hemingways Retreat, Kigali, during the interview in Kigali on July 23, 2026. A native of Kitale in Kakamega County, he has risen through the ranks from a cook to much sought-after chef. 

Photo credit: Elvis Ondieki | Nation Media Group

Bilal Auma Washikumba, a Kenyan chef, has made his way from the coastal kitchens of Mombasa to the fine-dining rooms of Nairobi and now to Kigali, where he is shaping menus, mentoring young cooks and proving that the life of a chef sometimes calls for a delicate balancing act.

At The Hemingways Retreat Kigali, where he is the executive chef, Bilal says his role is about more than putting plates before guests. It is about consistency, profit, guest satisfaction and, increasingly, training the next crop of chefs in a market he says is still growing.

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