Rwanda’s celebrated chef Innocent Rutayisire, who has been in the business for a while now, spoke to The New Times’ James Peter Nkurunziza about his life as a chef, experience, success and focused on the different types of menus that are offered at the Soko Restaurant at Marriott Hotel.

The interview was held on May 10, at the restaurant, and later in the kitchen, where he explained what his favourite dish is, and the recipe for preparing it.

Briefly introduce yourself.

My name is Innocent Rutayisire, a chef by profession and I started this job in 1998 and I hold a diploma in this field from a Kenyan College. I came to Rwanda in 2000 and I have worked with many hotels here such as Senior Officers Mess as Head Chef, then Intercontinental.

From there, I joined the United Nations in Khartoum as catering manager sent by the government from where I retuned and joined Serena Hotel and was acting as the sous chef for almost a year then King Faisal Hospital among others. I joined different hospitality facilities before I joined Kigali Marriott Hotel in 2016.

Having worked with various hospitality bodies, in and out of Rwanda, how different is Kigali Marriott Hotel from all the rest?

The difference is there and really big. First of all, we are an international and a five star hotel. You don’t usually find those easily. We are international as far as professionalism is concerned as we have different chefs from all over the world and this helps the different customers to be served satisfactorily as all their favourite dishes can be accessed here.

The hotel also provides a chance to its employees to grow as they are always given trainings some of which are outside the country and this helps them to grow in terms of exposure, experience and skills.

What is your favourite dish and why?

It is chicken prepared with peanut butter and roasted bananas. The chicken is boiled half way, the water is removed and kept somewhere. Then olive oil is heated and onions are placed in it after sometime. Garlic is then added, followed by tomatoes and tomato paste shortly after. The chicken pieces are added and let to be heated for close to 10 minutes.

Peanut butter is scooped out of its container and the water from the chicken pieces that was kept is used to make the peanut butter a bit liquid and then poured into the chicken pieces on fire. A pinch of salt is added to the chicken and later served hot with roasted banana. Having the banana roasted helps it maintain its nutrients.

Peanut butter chicken sauce with bananas. / Sam Ngendahimana

Tell us about the theme nights held here…

We have a number of themes here according to different days of the week. This is because we have different customers from all over the world and we always try to make sure that we satisfy all their dietary needs. We have an Indian night every Wednesday, Asian night on Thursday and African night every Friday. All the theme nights have an amazing buffet from the different cultures that goes for only Rwf28,000 and one is free to eat whatever they want until they get fed up.

What is the difference between an a la carte and set menu?

An a la carte menu is one that has individual prices for each item with a variety of dishes where a client can come and make a selection  depending on what they want. A set menu also has fixed dishes with different courses which include starter (either hot or cold) main course and dessert  and it has one fixed price. The set menu will be launched on May 23, and everyone is called upon to come to come expecting a finger licking meal they will live to remember.

Marriott Hotel’s Rutayisire prepares chicken sauce with peanuts butter. / Sam Ngendahimana

Soko Restaurant stands out among the others at the Marriott Hotel. Tell us why?

Soko Restaurant is one of the restaurants here and the fact it stands out is the fact that clients have the opportunity to look at the chefs as they prepare their meals. This gives them the assuarence that the meals are prepared from an extremely hygienic environment and therefore gives them peace of mind as they consume them. This is because the restaurant has an open kitchen.

Rutayisire (C) and his assistants Felician Uwiringiyamana and Hassan Muhawenimana (right) present a dish. / Sam Ngendahimana

Any other message to the food lovers out there?

I would love to assure all our clients that our meals are as amazing as they have always been and a lot more is in store for them. All they have to come always to the hotel for exquisite meals that are prepared by some of the best chefs in Rwanda. They should also watch out for the launch of the set menus that is slated for May 23, 2019.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com