Out of an African Kitchen. Nicky Fitzgerald
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Published in 2020 by Struik Lifestyle
an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Company Reg. No. 1953/000441/07
The Estuaries, 4 Oxbow Crescent, Century Avenue,
Century City 7441, Cape Town, South Africa
PO Box 1144, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa
Copyright © in published edition:
Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd 2020
Copyright © in text: Angama (Pty) Ltd 2020
Copyright © in photographs: Angama (Pty) Ltd 2020
ISBN 978-1-43231-037-0
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and the copyright holders.
PUBLISHER: Beverley Dodd
MANAGING EDITOR: Cecilia Barfield
CONCEPT & COVER DESIGNER: Marina Grieves
TYPESETTER: Randall Watson
PROOFREADER: Gill Gordon
Out of an AFRICAN KITCHEN
A quirky anthology of recipes, reminiscences, anecdotes and stories from a bush kitchen set high up on the edge of the Great Rift Valley, overlooking Kenya’s lovely Maasai Mara Game Reserve.
Dedication
This book is written in honour of the chefs at Angama Mara and our guests who, over the past five years, have made this dream possible.
CONTENTS
Our Story
Our Good Neighbours
At the Lodge
Proudly Kenyan
In the Shamba
A Touch of the Mediterranean
On the Out of Africa kopje
Picnics on Safari
From Somewhere in the Middle East
In the Maasai Boma
More than a Touch of India
At the Forest Barbecue
Meet the Chefs
Say it in Swahili
What to Cook
Our food is good. Our food is not fancy.
How can you possibly feed guests who, when not on safari, eat in the best restaurants on the planet?
We nervously asked ourselves this question as we prepared to open Angama Mara in 2015. It is a daunting challenge to prepare food in the middle of nowhere for guests who come from all four corners of the world, from different culinary cultures and who (quite rightly) expect the best of the best when it comes to choosing where to stay for their next holiday.
Having fed guests on safari on two continents and across seven countries for the past 25 years, I had an inkling that, for our guests, less is preferable to more. Certainly not less food, as we love feeding them as many times a day as they will allow us. Less fiddle, more authenticity. Less fancy imported ingredients, more locally grown. Less drizzles, gels and foams, more wholesome and generous. Less drama on the plate, more drama where we serve our food. Less ego in the kitchen, more a love of seeing our guests happy at what we have prepared for them.
It didn’t take long to find our North Star: our food would be good; our food would never be fancy.
And from there it was easy. Well, sort of. We gathered a team of Kenyan chefs, all of whom shared a great attitude and love of service. To their collective terror, they were told not one buffet. Ever. Only à la carte and we would serve our guests when and where they would like to eat and, if possible, whatever they would like to eat. We planned menus and designed kitchens and readied ourselves for our first guests. What we hadn’t anticipated was having our kitchens commissioned only two days before opening. That, needless to add, caused tears, blood, drama, sweat and more tears.
We drew inspiration from the finest ingredients Kenya has to offer: beautiful vegetables from the highlands, tropical fruits a-plenty from the coast, cheese from a renowned supplier just outside Nairobi, prawns from Malindi, freshwater fish from Lake Victoria and beef from the north. And you will discover, as you read this book, that Kenyan cuisine is deeply influenced by Arab-inspired Swahili dishes from the coast and Indian food from the significant community that has called this country home for many generations.
We debated what we could offer our guests that they couldn’t find elsewhere and what they would remember most about Angama’s food. We knew that not one Michelin-starred chef in the world could prepare picnics served under a lone tree in the middle of the short grass plains of the Maasai Mara with only giraffe, elephant and buffalo as dining companions. We planted a beautiful one-acre kitchen garden, our Shamba, where guests could pick their own vegetables and toss their own salads for lunch. In the evenings, they would dine in a lantern-lit forest off a barbecue à la carte menu with the calls of hyena serenading them as they shared stories of their day’s adventures on safari.
Five years on and we are still learning, still making mistakes and still improving in the kitchen. I am so proud of the team. Nothing is ever too much trouble. Gluten free? Easy. Vegan? No problem. Low sodium, kosher, no garlic, Chinese, food allergies, Halaal and food preferences are all in a day’s work. The children only like fish fingers. Done. Soy milk, almond milk? In the pantry. Do we get it right all of the time? No, but the vast majority of our guests tuck into our Best Burger in the Mara with relish. They appreciate that our food is honest, fresh and, most of all, prepared and cooked with love. And also served with love. Our merry band of gracious butlers have had to learn that paneer is not penne and tagliatelle is not tagliata and what are harissa, sumac and za’atar?
Often our guests ask the chefs for a recipe and of course we print or email whatever they want. The next logical step was why not write a cookbook for our guests? And so this book was born. Each of the recipes is drawn from our daily menus and many of these dishes are inspired by some of the world’s best-loved chefs: Yotam, Heston, Danny and more. They lead, we follow.
A heartfelt ‘thank you’ to our guests for coming to stay with us and a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to the chefs of the Angama kitchens for all they do every day to ensure that our guests are never hungry, never disappointed and always delighted.
Nicky Fitzgerald
Founder and owner