Go for extravagant pan-African tasting menus anchored in regional ingredients and a craft coffee movement at its crescendo.
By Sarah Khan
The menu at Meza Malonga, a chic fine-dining spot in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, doubles as a syllabus in geography, and chef Dieuveil Malonga makes an exemplary professor. “The philosophy is about promoting African ingredients,” he says as he presents a jar of Ivorian button mushrooms for me to inspect alongside my hibiscus-and-beetroot-dusted beef tartare. Now here’s a whiff of the Egyptian black lemon accompanying a Burundian tree tomato sorbet, all but obscured under cascades of dry ice; later I study the rondelles—a kind of nutmeg found in Burkina Faso and Mali, pungent with a loamy, garlicky bouquet—that play a starring role in a plate of Mombasa shrimp crowned with diaphanous ribbons of kombucha-fermented carrots and strokes of Ghanaian shito cream.
Chef Dieuveil Malonga is a champion of pan-African ingredients, having traveled through 46 African countries before opening Meza Malonga. Photo: Dieuveil Malonga, Chris Schwagga/Meza Malonga | Meza Malonga's tasting menu sweeps across the continent over nine delicately plated courses. Photo: Dieuveil Malonga, Chris Schwagga/Meza Malonga
“People have this idea of fine dining in Europe, they think it will be the same here,” says Malonga, whose gentle, soft-spoken nature belies the shelf of awards sitting a few feet away. “This is very different—we want to give an experience.” By the end of nine courses, my palate has mapped the continent.
Malonga, with his Adidas cap slung backwards, presides over the open kitchen as chefs swirl around in a seamlessly composed dance, tweezing, saucing, and wiping under his tutelage. Born in Congo and raised in Germany and France, Malonga journeyed through 46 of Africa’s 54 countries before opening Meza Malonga in Kigali 2020, calibrating his findings into a sweeping tasting menu that traverses the vast expanse of Africa. In May, he’ll open his dream campus two hours away on a farm in Musanze, with a restaurant, spice museum, food lab, and school. “There’s a food revolution happening in Rwanda,” he says. “People today are traveling everywhere from Copenhagen to Brazil just for food—Africa has something to offer.”
Right now in Kigali, an exciting food scene is growing, fueled in part by the moneyed travelers who pass through on their way to the country’s pricey lodges for gorilla trekking. It’s buoyed by local products and inventive chefs; dare I say, there’s a similar alchemy to Copenhagen in the early 2000s, when a sprightly chef named René Redzepi was to launch a thousand careers and a fine-dining revolution with Noma.
“Thirty years ago, no one was going to Copenhagen to eat, right?,” says Rohan Shah, a Singaporean expat and founder of Imizi Rum, which uses local sugarcane and forest botanicals like avocado leaf to craft the spirit. “If you create an anchor space like a Noma that attracts talent from around the world, those people then set up breweries, distilleries, cool restaurants—now Copenhagen is a really exciting place to eat.”
Rohan Shah, the Singaporean founder of Imizi rum, was lured to Rwanda by its bounty of fresh ingredients. Photo: Imizi | Imizi rum uses local sugarcane and forest botanicals like avocado leaf to craft the spirit. Photo: Imizi
That collaborative ecosystem is beginning to take shape in Kigali. Rwanda’s fertile volcanic soils burst with a staggering diversity of plants: it may account for less than one percent of Africa’s landmass, but the country is home to 15 percent of the continent’s plant species. This bounty—along with Rwanda’s safety and stability—is luring chefs and entrepreneurs from across the world.
Throughout the food scene here, Rwanda and its neighbors are the stars. At Kozo, the irreverent Thai chef Sakorn Somboon whips up an eight-course Afro-Asian chef’s counter experience with an unexpected bonus of endless laughs and fashion statements—as he serves tilapia with cassava-corn banku and Tanzanian brochettes in a Vietnamese summer roll, he models a Chinese hanfu he designed with Rwandan kitenge, Moroccan linen, and Masai art. “I’m bringing flavors of Southeast Asia mixed with flavors of Africa mixed with techniques from around the world,” he says, referencing his stints in Thailand, Holland, London, and Ghana. The next day, I have the best meatballs I’ve ever tasted, perfectly crisped and engulfed in a fiery piri-piri sauce, at Treasures of Ikoro, and I soothe my palate with a scoop of tree tomato ice-cream at Kunda Gelato.
In the tony Kimihurura neighborhood, Kevin Mbundu, who comes from a coffee-growing family, is part of an effort to reimagine Rwanda’s third-largest export: His hip café Kivu Noir, is at the forefront of Kigali’s burgeoning homegrown coffee scene, and in October, he added a new restaurant and cocktail bar, Ruä, serving steak drizzled in a coffee wine sauce and drinks made with local sage and green chillies.“When I started this I didn't want to open a restaurant. I was more into curating something that someone would come to and say, ‘I’ve experienced Rwanda,’” he says.
But with any emerging culinary market, innovative chefs are just one piece of the puzzle. When Nicole Bamukunde moved back home after studying at the French hospitality management school Vatel, she saw a way to fill a gap in the fine-dining industry by bringing an outpost of Vatel to Kigali. She followed it up in 2020 with Nyurah, a serene restaurant on the mezzanine of a nondescript office building in Kigali, a space to train students in every part of the restaurant business, from cooking to finance to marketing. As I walk to my table, staff glide through the dining room in immaculate choreography.
“Most of them are like, ‘When I graduate I will open an Italian restaurant,’” she says, rolling her eyes. “Sure, you can be good with an Italian restaurant, but if you open a Rwandan restaurant inspired by Italian techniques, using what we have regionally, there you could excel. So we push them to excel.” At Nyurah, service is attentive and polished; the design is rooted in African aesthetics, with tables from Kenya and wall hangings from Rwanda. I start with an amuse-bouche of sambaza, a petite tower of fried sardines from Rwanda’s Lake Kivu, an elevated spin on the crunchy addictive ones I’d popped the night before during a street food tour in Nyamirambo; it’s followed by a silken Madagascar pepper-crusted sirloin with pâte jaune and sukumawiki fondue, before I end my lunch with plantain ice-cream doused in espresso. It is the type of experience that would justify landing Kigali onto a list of places travelers go to specifically to eat, like San Sebastian.
“I’d say to an investor: this is the moment,” says Bamakunde. “You can take it wherever you want.”
The best food walking tours in Kigali are to be had with local guides like those offered by Jollof Appétit. Photo: Jollof'Appétit | Make stops on your food tour for local fare like sombe (cassava leaf stew) and fresh sugarcane juice—before you stroll some more. Photo: Davis Gatabazi/Jollof'Appétit
What to do in Kigali
Explore the vibrant Muslim neighborhood of Nyamirambo on a walking food tour with Joloff Appetit. Led by a local guide, you'll make stops for isombe (cassava leaf stew), freshly pressed sugarcane juice, and sambaza (crispy fried sardines) before ending with a stroll through a lively pedestrian zone brimming with cafés and alfresco pool tables.
Where to Stay
Kigali's most atmospheric hideaway is The Retreat by Heaven in the leafy Kiyovu neighborhood at the heart of the capital, with 20 rooms—including 8 sought-after pool villas, the plushest digs in the city—brimming with contemporary Rwandan art and fashion. Americans Josh and Alissa Ruxin originally opened the Heaven restaurant next door in 2007 to double as a vocational academy training young Rwandans in vital restaurant industry skills, so the food here truly shines. Make sure you order the shakshuka during poolside breakfast at Fusion, a rich, creamy spin made with cassava leaves, and sign up for a cooking lesson to learn how to make banana wine or isombe, a local stew with cassava, peppers, and leeks.
Getting Around
Bonita Mutoni is a trailblazer in Rwanda's tourism industry, and as the founder of Uber Luxe Safaris, she opens up her little black book to travelers. From private appointments with top Rwandan couturiers and exclusive access to top chefs in Kigali to unique art installations in far-flung corners of the country and—of course—the ultimate gorilla-trekking adventure in Volcanoes National Park, her singular itineraries are in demand with top travel specialists around the world.
Read the original article on Condé Nast Traveler.
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