1. WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME A CHEF?
My love for cooking started while I was a young boy. I remember how both my friends and fam- ily would come to my house to eat, and how I would enjoy cooking them various types of food. Unknowingly my passion for cooking grew and that’s how I decided to turn it into a career.
2. WAS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DO BEFORE YOU STARTED COOKING?
Yes! Fly a plane. That’s still in my bucket list to date, so I still want to learn piloting as a hobby. .
3. WHAT PERSONAL QUIRKS DOES YOUR TEAM TEASE YOU ABOUT?
Am always teased of how organized I am, my colleagues believe I suffer from OCD. I want to be neat and my things in order all the time, clean and ready to use. From my point of view, it’s actually not an obsessive compulsive disorder, rather being essentially organized.
4. IS THERE A FOOD YOU ARE SECRETLY OBSESSED WITH AT HOME?
Not really, whatever is made at home I gladly have it. It gives me the privilege of enjoying someone else food.
5. ONE MEAL THAT YOU OFTEN COOK AT HOME AND NEVER COOKED IN A RESTAURANT?
That would be parantha. [Stuffed Indian chapatti] I have never made that in any of the restaurants I have worked in, but at home have done it several times.
6. WHAT IS YOUR MOST ESSENTIAL TOOL IN THE KITCHEN?
Well, the knife for sure.
7. DO YOU HAVE ANY PARTICULAR SPICE YOU CANT MISS IN THE KITCHEN?
Salt-this seems obvious, but it is the medium for cooking. Our vegetables, dough baked in a salt and basically everything else I can remember. Salt enhances flavor in sweet items and helps preserve some of the great produce we have in the kitchen.
8. WHAT IS THE LARGEST TABLE YOU HAVE EVER SERVED AND HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO GET EVERYTHING READY ON TIME?
A table of 35 pax, all I did was to have the miss and place before the service starts and assign each brigade the duty to execute during service time. Everything fell right in place!
9. WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE YOUR BEST CREATION, CLASSICS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO PUT IN YOUR MENU?
Sous vide of Harvey beef with sea salt served with caramelized on- ion and mushroom tar tine, Cabernet red wine sauce.
10. IN YOUR COURSE OF WORK, HAVE YOU LEARNED ANY NEW RECIPES FROM YOUR FELLOW CHEFS?
Of course! You learn something new almost every day from fellow chefs .Every- one has a different take on dishes.
11. DO YOU HAVE ANY KITCHEN DISASTER STORY YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE?
Yes. I once worked in a kitchen whose roof was leaking. At some point whenever it rained we would stop the entire cooking first, to sweep out the water. That was disastrous!
12. HAVE YOU EVER PARTICIPATED IN A COOK-ING COMPETITION AND HOW DID IT GO?
Yes, the most recent one being The Cookoff competition that was done in Kenya mid last year, where I was honoured to be a judge. In addition, I also took part in another competition where “East African Culinary Team” was facing “West African Culinary Team in Ghana. The East African team won and i was part of them. That felt really good.
13. IF YOU WERE TO OPEN A NEW RESTAURANT WHAT CUISINE WOULD YOU PICK AND WHY?
A traditional French cuisine restaurant any day; with a focus on local and seasonal ingredients. Because, we are the heart of good produce.
14. WHAT WAS THE WORST MEAL YOU EVER PREPARED?
I only remember one time last year when I made a pork dish. I actually didn’t know it was bad until I got negative feedback from the guests!
15. YOU ARE SCHEDULED FOR AN ELECTRIC CHAIR WHAT WOULD BE YOUR LAST MEAL?
My last meal would definitely be ugali and nyama choma; it’s my favorite. Typically the Kenyan delicacy
16. WHO IS YOUR GREATEST CULINARY INSPIRATION/INFLUENCE?
Chef Eamon Mullan – He is my Chef ,my mentor, taught me the attention to detail, the importance of quality ingredients and careful cooking with an emphasis on the history and heritage, which is of such importance to the guest and the building. How the cooking of a single ingredient correctly and respectfully is infinitely more import- ant than how many ‘chef techniques’ are used – it doesn’t matter how good it looks if it doesn’t taste good and it means nothing. Those are his words. his words.
17. PARTING SHOT!
Have started my You Tube channel which I intend to work on and grow it in the very near future; mostly because I feel enough has not been done to showcase the African culture through food and cooking. On my channel I will focus more on African recipes and foods, to showcase to the world our great Afrocuisines.