Roxanne Reid
  • Home
  • Book author
    • Travels in the Kalahari >
      • Photo gallery: Travels in the Kalahari
      • Book reviews: Travels in the Kalahari
    • A Walk in the Park >
      • Photo gallery: A Walk in the Park
      • Book reviews: A Walk in the Park
    • The Essential Guide to Self-Editing >
      • Book reviews: Essential Guide to Self-Editing
    • Betrayed
    • Book reviews online
  • Editing & proofreading
  • In the media
    • Travel features
    • Health features
    • Online media
    • Media kit
  • Blog
  • Testimonials
  • Links
  • Contact

Voices of Botswana: Xigera’s smiling chef

23/6/2016

4 Comments

 
Bush breakfast, Xigera Camp, Okavango
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.

​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. 
KD Mongomba, head chef, Xigera
​‘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.’
Bush breakfast, Xigera Camp, Okavango
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
4 Comments
Wendy
2/7/2016 10:11:28 pm

Inspiring.

Reply
Roxanne
3/7/2016 02:02:37 pm

Thanks, Wendy. The idea for some of these personal pieces came from a business contact and the 'Voices of Botswana' title was an inspired insight from a friend.

Reply
Ted
13/7/2016 12:15:09 am

We loved everything about Xigera! We had the best guide there ever, Luke. He taught us the joy of birding and to be very fearful of the mighty hippopotamus! We named one Stonewall Jackson, as it forced us out of the water onto a small island. Great memories. All the best to you Luke. We hope you and your family are doing well!!

Reply
Roxanne
13/7/2016 11:54:02 am

Ah birding is a joy in Okavango, Ted. What a naughty hippo, but luckily the guides know them well and can anticipate when they're going to be a problem. In the Linyanti, we had one try to torpedo us underwater, but our guide saw what it was doing and got out of its way..

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Get email links to the latest posts

    Buy my books
    The Essential Guide to Self-Editing, amazon.com e-book
    E-book 2017
    A Walk in the Park, amazon.com e-book
    2nd ed e-book 2015
    Travels in the Kalahari, amazon.com e-book
    E-book 2012​

    About 

    I'm an independent travel writer and book editor with a passion for Africa - anything from African travel, people, safari and wildlife to adventure, heritage, road-tripping and slow travel.
    My travel buddy and husband Keith is the primary photographer for this blog.
    We're happiest in the middle of nowhere, meeting the locals, trying something new, or simply watching the grass grow.
    Use this website to discover new places to go, revisit places you've loved, or take a virtual tour of destinations you only dream about.

    Categories

    All
    Baviaanskloof
    Books
    Botswana
    Camping
    Cape Town
    Chobe
    Conservation
    Drc
    Eastern Cape
    Etosha Namibia
    Food
    Free State
    Garden Route
    Gauteng
    Issues
    Kalahari
    Karoo
    Kenya
    Kruger National Park
    Kwazulu Natal
    Lesotho
    Limpopo
    Linyanti
    Malawi
    Mozambique
    Mpumalanga
    Namaqualand
    Namibia
    Nature Parks
    Northern Cape
    Okavango
    Overberg
    People
    Photography
    Richtersveld
    Tanzania
    West Coast
    Western Cape
    Wild Creatures
    Zambia
    Zimbabwe

    Archives

    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009


Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without written permission from roxannereid.co.za

Privacy Policy and GDPR compliance
​* We promise that we take data safety seriously and use your private data only to offer a personalised experience
* If you subscribed to our newsletter, you will receive our newsletters. You can always unsubscribe by following the link in email or by emailing us
* If you gave us your name, it will only be used to personalise the newsletters
* We have never sold, we are not selling, and we will not sell any of your personal data provided to us
* The blog uses cookies to track activity. It is anonymous except for telling us your location and what you did on our blog
​
Photos used under Creative Commons from berniedup, Lucy_Hill