Born in Zimbabwe to an Ambassador, Batiraishe Zhou had the privilege of travelling to different parts of the world and living in Scandinavia for part of her childhood. This opportunity coupled with a mother who was an expert self-taught cook created a love for exploring in the kitchen and creating a variety of dishes.
Today, she is gearing up for a cultural and culinary initiative aimed at celebrating and showcasing indigenous African ingredients, cooking methods, and the rich history that underpins African cuisine. The cooking experience is slated for Sunday, March 10, at La Fromagerie cheese farm.
A Culinary Arts degree from NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) built confidence in Chef B, as she is also known, and gave her exposure to formal training and elevating cuisines and dining experiences. The experience of cooking on a Food Network Canada show allowed her to solidify and confirm that even under the toughest circumstances she could turn anything into a flavor filled plate of decadence.
That experience of over 25 years of working in the hospitality industry in America and Canada provided a well-rounded opportunity to work in both front and back of the house. This is why she decided to give the education she gained to her home Africa.
"I wanted to explore by working with my own ingredients and I have discovered how most African chefs don’t value our ingredients. However, our ingredients are actually superior in nutrition value and how they are mostly grown and I want to push that movement,” said the chef.
Chef B Zhou reminds African chefs to put their own ingredients in the mainstream and not leave for other people to come to Africa to find them and put them there. She encourages the chefs to be the ones telling the stories and experiences to tell about that experience.
Exploring different cooking techniques and cuisines created a desire to cook with indigenous African ingredients. The realisation that not enough African chefs embraced their own local ingredients spurred a mission to revisit the continent with a mission to encourage chefs to innovate and make African ingredients approachable and foster the knowledge of the ingredients’ nutritional value.
When she finally came to visit Rwanda she decided to move on thanks to the encouragement she received from Rwandans who had witnessed her culinary skills. She is a chef and a culinary consultant based now in Rwanda.
"The more I was exposed to the Rwandan culinary world the more I had a place for myself. Those I taught and trained were so excited and eager to learn from what I have been so privileged to have access to in Canada and America,” she said.
Her upcoming GastroTribe Culinary is in Rwanda discovering an old Rwandan saying, "the most extensive land is the human belly.”
Born out of a desire to create events and platforms where African indigenous ingredients can be celebrated and elevated, the culinary experience will be accompanied by a traditional music live performance. At a fee of Rwf75,000 including transport, a four course prefix tasting menu with wine tasting, cheese tour and tasting.