Top Chefs Spice Up Kenyan Delicacies

Ugali is one dish that Kenya is known. It is most commonly served with a side of kale, roast goat and salsa commonly also known as kachumbari.

A few years ago, it would have been hard to find it on a high end table at a five-star restaurant, however, demand for the traditional dish has been prompting chefs with local and international backgrounds to find ways of incorporating it into the menu.

“The foods we have here are in some way found in other countries. Like ugali, in Greece we have something similar or chapati which is also found in India,” says Chef Aris Athanasiou, executive chef at Fairmont The Norfolk.

“But Kenya has amazing ingredients. The fruits in Kenya are some of the best I have ever tasted in my life,” he says.

The hotel is one of the five-star facilities that have found new ways of making dishes that are a norm in Kenyan homes with a look straight out of a food magazine.

The first time I had mushenye, a traditional Western Kenyan dish made with mashed sweet potatoes and beans was on the buffet at Ole Sereni Hotel.

The dish along with ‘kienyeji’—mashed potatoes with pumpkin leaves and maize, wali wa nazi (coconut rice from the coast), Swahili pilau among other dishes are part of the line-up of dishes particularly on the buffet line up.

Five-star appeal

Java House has added several dishes to its menu including millet (wimbi) porridge, ugali and beef as well as kachumbari, chicken served with ugali (an earlier addition to the menu), all to lure consumers who prefer the comforts of home cooking in a restaurant.

Chefs have also come up with new ways of making traditional entrées have a haute couture appeal.

During the Nairobi Restaurant Week this year, Chef Lucca from the Tribe Hotel showcased an array of local delicacies with a twist on preparation and presentation.

Nyama Mama, a new restaurant in Nairobi has been redefining how we eat Kenyan food with an American twist. Tea and mandazi, for instance, is a popular snack, but here, Chef Lesiamon ole Sempele serves this up as an ice cream sandwich. The ice-cream is tea flavoured in between the two halves of a mandazi.

Chef Phornthiwa ‘Thiwa’ Ketkham, executive Chef at OhCha says that Kenyans have very particular tastes when it comes to food and preparation.

They tend to lean towards flavours that are familiar to them and are less keen on experimenting, especially when it comes to sea food.

Chefs are then required to incorporate local ingredients while imparting international flavours to capture the local and international clientele.

“We need to advertise the food more and add it to the to do list for tourists alongside safaris because the food is part of the local culture and tradition,” says Chef Aris.

The love for the traditional foods across the classes in Kenya is evidenced by the presence of ‘locals’ all over from leafy suburbs to sprawling estates.

The eateries, usually a basic table with plastic sits all around offer ‘tumbukiza’—an offering boiled chicken, goat or beef with potatoes , onions, tomatoes and dhania among other all in one pot, nyama choma and mutura—a tripe sausage filled with chopped meat and in some instances chilli.

The meat comes with a side of kachumbari, ugali (white or brown), kienyeji, boiled potatoes or even fries.

During regular and extended weekends, you will find vehicles ranging from budget to luxury parked outside these joints.

‘Locals’ have held the appeal despite minimal décor, melamine, plastic and enamel crockery and cutlery. Revellers travel for kilometres on end to get to these hideaways such as Olepolos, Oletipis, Stony Creek, Yukos, Sidai Oleng and even as far as Kikopey along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway.

This trend of serving nyama choma has pushed high end hotels to add dedicated days to whet the appetite of their clientele.