By Roxanne Reid
During our five-week adventure in Botswana we met many interesting people, from knowledgeable guides to chefs, barmen, camp managers and others working in tourism, as well as photographers and independent businessmen with a story. I’m going to share some of these as part of a short series called Voices of Botswana. Here’s the first, about Xigera’s smiling chef.
During our five-week adventure in Botswana we met many interesting people, from knowledgeable guides to chefs, barmen, camp managers and others working in tourism, as well as photographers and independent businessmen with a story. I’m going to share some of these as part of a short series called Voices of Botswana. Here’s the first, about Xigera’s smiling chef.
You’ll find Wilderness Safaris Xigera Camp on Paradise Island in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. It’s remote and lush, a watery world of deep channels, floodplains and mokolane palm islands. It’s a place to go motor-boating or catch a ride on a silent mokoro (dug-out canoe) to see elephants, red lechwe, water birds, little frogs and an abundance of water lilies.
For head chef KD (Kereeditse) Mongomba, Xigera is a second home.
Her journey with Wilderness Safaris started 13 years ago as a waitress. Three years later she became a trainee chef at Vumbura, another Wilderness Safaris camp in the Delta. By 2010 she had qualified as a chef and moved to Xigera, where she became head chef two years later.
For head chef KD (Kereeditse) Mongomba, Xigera is a second home.
Her journey with Wilderness Safaris started 13 years ago as a waitress. Three years later she became a trainee chef at Vumbura, another Wilderness Safaris camp in the Delta. By 2010 she had qualified as a chef and moved to Xigera, where she became head chef two years later.
‘Even as a girl I wanted to be a chef,’ she says. ‘I wanted to learn to cook nice food for my children and husband.’
Guests appreciate her hard work, where she might be whipping up a bush brunch of bacon, sausage, quiche, salmon and ginger cakes, aubergine and chickpea salad, or a high tea with mini hamburgers, samoosas and apple tartlets. But her personal favourite meal is chicken curry. ‘Yes, I make it for the guests and they like it too,’ she grins.
Asked if guests ever complain about the food (and how she deals with it), she just laughs. ‘The GM is the one who complains about the recipes, that we don’t follow the recipe. But now we are 100%, we always follow the recipe.’
Guests appreciate her hard work, where she might be whipping up a bush brunch of bacon, sausage, quiche, salmon and ginger cakes, aubergine and chickpea salad, or a high tea with mini hamburgers, samoosas and apple tartlets. But her personal favourite meal is chicken curry. ‘Yes, I make it for the guests and they like it too,’ she grins.
Asked if guests ever complain about the food (and how she deals with it), she just laughs. ‘The GM is the one who complains about the recipes, that we don’t follow the recipe. But now we are 100%, we always follow the recipe.’
Guests may sometimes groan at the thought of getting up for breakfast at 6:30 so they can catch the early morning wonders of a safari, but spare a thought for the kitchen staff. For the two people on the early shift in Xigera’s kitchen, work starts at 5:30. ‘Everything is prepared fresh in the morning,’ KD insists, horrified by the thought that they might cut corners by pre-preparing anything the night before. The late shift begins at lunch time and doesn’t end until dinner is prepared and served.
Although KD is happy at Xigera – a Classic camp with luxury tented accommodation – her ambition is to go to one of Wilderness Safaris Premier camps, which are even more luxurious. ‘I’d like to go there to increase my knowledge,’ she says with a quiet smile.
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
Although KD is happy at Xigera – a Classic camp with luxury tented accommodation – her ambition is to go to one of Wilderness Safaris Premier camps, which are even more luxurious. ‘I’d like to go there to increase my knowledge,’ she says with a quiet smile.
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
