Dining in the wild

The game-viewing fare for many tourists may still be the traditional braai, but the luxury end of the market is more demanding. Visitors who can afford it expect not only rare animal sightings but also memorable meals.

Luxury safari lodges are tapping into big-name chefs to enhance the eating experience. This requires smart planning and logistics at venues far removed from fresh produce.

For a start, there’s the wine. Robert More, CEO of the More Family Collection, which manages lodges across Southern Africa, says it’s essential to have a selection of high-quality wine and staff with knowledge of it.

The group’s executive chef, Amori Burger, manages the company’s safaris and training at Lion Sands and Marataba game lodges. Its staff move between city restaurants and hotels and the lodges. “This supports the chefs’ creative appetite and helps raise the standard [of them all],” says More. A three-night stay with only seasonal menu changes can lead to monotonous lodge food, he says. Connecting chefs with the group’s Upper Union restaurant in Cape Town and the city’s food scene gives menus more variety and allows chef creativity.

More says guests’ tastes have changed. They want simple, fresh, light, healthy food, he says. As many ingredients as possible are sourced from local suppliers. Meal venues have also become more varied. One offers breakfast with a view of the Sabie River; another is under a huge fig tree on the same river.

But don’t expect fine dining. More says this will always be done better in Joburg or Cape Town. “Having too complicated a food offering at our lodges may overwhelm the guests’ palette”, he says. Fine dining as a daily offering in the bush is “misaligned” for guests “in nature”, he says.

Chef Luke Dale Roberts runs meals at Mhondoro Safari Lodge in the Waterberg. He does boma nights with a version of pap and wors by lodge CEO Fritz Breytenbach. Dale Roberts says the food needs to be grounded, real and delicious.

“I don’t think it should be ‘over-chichi’, with foams and snows and airs and that kind of thing,” he says. “At Mhondoro we are focused on organic local food, from livestock to farm produce. It’s very natural, very high-end bistro cooking.”

Dale Roberts aims to present the best possible food, whether it is at a lodge in the country or on the continent. He and his team are revamping dining at the Waterberg lodge to raise the bar with multicourse menus, wine pairings and curated cocktails. It will apply to the boma dinners and include a harvest table lunch along with game drive snacks.

Liam Tomlin has been working with Singita lodges and game reserves for about nine years, and once a month for a week he visits the 13 lodges and several villas to oversee them. “It’s bringing high-end restaurant standards to a faraway game lodge.”

Tomlin says Singita founder Luke Bailes was ahead of the pack. “Before, we all knew safari food wasn’t great; he was something of a pioneer. He approached  a good restaurateur and invested heavily in the cuisine offering.”

Singita allowed him to do what he wanted, which is important to Tomlin, who says sometimes clients will take on half or three-quarters of an idea presented to them but will be afraid to sign off on it in case it doesn’t work. Tomlin says the company has improved the service element. “I think our food excels. We have a cooking school within each game lodge”. 

Sheila Steenkamp is a food consultant and former executive chef at Londolozi, a lodge in the Sabi Sand game reserve. She says many diners have specific dietary requirements and want to know what they will eat and in which of the lodge’s venues it will be served.

“Food is as important as game viewing,” says Steenkamp. “There are a lot of top-level lodges but not enough chefs from the communities to lead their kitchens. Bringing in award-winning chefs inspires the local staff and provides them with training.”

Pap and wors can still be a part of the boma meal in the bush, but there appears to be a need for greater variety of choices and the ability to accommodate people who want to keep to a healthy diet.   

This article originally appeared in Financial Mail.