Deep in the Heart of Africa

October 2005

Deep in the heart of Africa exists the friendly, peaceful country of Zambia. And located deep in the heart of Northeastern Zambia is the South Luangwa National Park, straight out of the pages of a National Geographic magazine.

This vast, wild life protected area is home to some of the highest concentration of birds, reptiles and mammals found anywhere in the world.  I was fortunate to work as the caterer for one of the most renown safari camps in the Luangwa Valley.

Caterer is the British term for female hostesses working in safari camps.  Supposedly, I was to oversee all meal preparations, order food, help serve food, do quality control, greet and take care of the guests, handle housekeeping issues and basically do what ever else was necessary for the camp to run smoothly.  Much to my dismay, our chefs were often away from camp, therefore I actually cooked far more than expected.   We had 3 chefs, all natives of the area, and all men.

I had anticipated not having to do much cooking, based on my title and job expectations, but, having the healthy ego of most chefs, I accepted the challenge….to cook fine food for our guests, way out in the middle of nowhere, the African bush!

We had two camps about 20 minutes apart.  Our main camp had an inside kitchen with outside storage and cooking area.  The bush camp kitchen was entirely outside.

Here were some of the challenges encountered that most of you other “Mercenaries” can relate to…

We had no electricity.  Well, let me rephrase that, the little bit of electricity we had was generated from solar battery power.  Often the lights went out in the kitchen, after dark, if the sun didn’t shine enough that day.  In my own hut, I had to hook up a power line to one of the game drive vehicles in order to have light (one small lamp) and my bathroom was strictly candlelight.

We had no refrigeration.  Okay, let me rephrase that as well.  At our main camp, we had a chest freezer, two small, home-style, old fashioned refrigerators and one other chest refrigerator.  The catch…these appliances were run off CO2 cannisters!!!  And once the temperatures started to soar, the chill was lost and the freezer no longer froze anything.

Our bush camp was even worse, only one chest refrigerator which didn’t hold the temperatures very well.

Let’s just say, the health department would have shut us down, immediately.  And yet, my boss (Bwana) couldn’t understand why so many guests were coming down with severe diarreah!!!!

We had no appropriate dishwashing set-up.  One small sink and a non-english speaking native just couldn’t keep up with the amount of dishes and pots and pans.   Which brings me to the next point…

How we got our hot water.  The hot water tanks were mud inclosed fire pits with pipes and drums to hold the water.  Located throughout the camp, we had one native responsible for stoking these fires all day long.  It should be noted that we did have running water and flushing toilets in both camps.

We lacked oven and stove space.  Inside the main camp kitchen, we had the tiniest stove/oven I had ever used, and it was raised up on blocks so that I couldn’t see what was going on inside the pots.  Our oven could hold two loaves of bread, that was it.  The bush camp had an oven but we rarely used it.  These ovens also worked off of CO2 cannisters, same as the refrigeration.

My favorite part.  On the upside of things, we did have a great fire pit area, and along side the fire pit was a wood burning stove and oven.  The fires were kept going all day and night, so you could pretty much cook anything over an open flame, which is what we did most of the time.  I truly loved this part and really miss it whenever I am cooped up inside a stuffy kitchen.  Our bush camp used a fire pit and wood burning oven as well.

Supplies were delivered once per week.   Our supplies came from several sources, but the main delivery was out of Lusaka (14 hours away) so I had to place my orders a full week in advance.  We did have our own garden but it was almost 2 hours from the camp.  Occaisionally the Bwana would go stock up at the local grocery store – 4 hours away!  Needless to say, if we didn’t have it, we wouldn’t have it for a long time.

African Bush Wedding.   Half way through our very busy season, the Bwana got married to a beautiful woman from Australia (our booking agent).  Imagine the challenges of preparing a wedding feast in the middle of nowhere!  I can’t even begin to explain this one, except to say this…after preparing a wedding reception for 70 guests in the absolute middle of nowhere, I can do anything! 

The feast was presented Vegas style with action, buffet stations.  A technique none of our guests had ever seen before.  We had a grill station, curry station, pasta station, and salad bar.  I even made my first and only wedding cake, for this auspicious occaision.  Oh, did I mention the 600 canapes that I made, single handed, without addequatre refrigeration??

Meal Service.  We served 3 full meals per day, plus tea in the early morning prior to game drives and tea at tea time, of course!  Oddly enough, during the early morning tea we provided cookies (biscuits as they were called by the Brits).  Cookies, first thing in the wee hours of the morning!  I thought that was a bit strange, but hey, after all, I was a stranger in a strange land.

Breakfast was full on, with eggs to order, baked beans and grilled tomatoes, very British, once again.  Lunch was always vegetarian, as the Bwana was just too cheap to serve any meat!  Tea time was always cakes made fresh daily.  Then came dinner…3 courses with a starter, entrée and dessert.  All fresh made, everyday.  In fact, we baked all our own breads as well.

Needless to say, I was always busy.  The food was fantastic and the guests were happy!  That’s all that really matters in the end.  In fact, there is a saying…”you are only as good as your last meal!”  So very true.