Guest article by Cornelia Wallner Frisee, director of Africa Amini Alama.
A memory you can taste
Think of your grandmother’s kitchen. Most of us can still smell it. A soup on a Sunday, a cake that only she knew how to make, the bread that never tasted the same anywhere else. Recipes like these stay with us for a lifetime. They are memory you can taste.
Food is one of the deepest ways to connect with a place and its people. You can watch a culture from the outside, or you can sit down at its table. With the new Africa Amini cookbook, you can now take that table home with you.
A blend of tribes, a blend of tastes
The book is a blend of recipes and a blend of tastes, mainly from the Meru and Maasai, the two tribes who live around Dolly Estate and the projects of Africa Amini Alama at the foot of Mount Meru. It was created by Africa Amini Tourism school students together with the kitchens of all Africa Amini projects.
There is the Hillside Retreat team, who cook full-board meals on the terraces of six bungalows bordering Arusha National Park. There is the Original Maasai Lodge kitchen, serving dishes from Maasai land after an evening of stories by the fire. At the Maasai Sacred Site in Mukuru, simple, nourishing meals are tied to old healing traditions. At the KinderVilla, more than 50 Maasai and Meru children sit down together every evening and share the stories of their day over a plate of freshly cooked food. And of course there are the students of the tourism school, who serve lunch to guests under the Africa Amini tree. Every one of these kitchens has given something to this book.
From the farm to your plate
Much of what is cooked at Dolly Escape comes from the farm on Dolly Estate. The vegetables, herbs and fruit on your plate were often picked the same morning. During your stay you can visit the farm and see where your lunch or dinner grows, and taste it fresh a few hours later.
Until now, that experience ended when you left Tanzania. Now you can take it home, cook it in your own kitchen, and bring a little bit of Africa to your own table.
Every copy helps a child stay in school
This book is more than a collection of recipes. The full margin on every copy, everything above the printing cost, goes to the Africa Amini Secondary School in Sustainable Tourism, the school whose students helped create it.
The students come from very poor families. For them, this school is the gate to a better life: a secondary education and real vocational training in tourism, cooking, food service, housekeeping and permaculture. Every copy you buy helps a young person continue that education and step into a career, maybe one day hosting you at a lodge in the Serengeti.
So take the memory home through the taste. Cook it for your family and friends, and tell them where it comes from. And know that every meal you make from this book helps a child from Africa Amini keep learning.
Good to know
- Available now at Dolly Escape for USD 25
- The full margin (everything above the printing cost) goes to the Africa Amini Secondary School in Sustainable Tourism
- Recipes from the Meru and Maasai traditions, created by the tourism school students and the project kitchens
- More about the school: aminitourism.education
- Follow the Africa Amini kitchens: @africaaminilife on Instagram
