The City of Kigali will this month host another international festival that is aimed at highlighting Kigali as a city that embraces global harmony and celebrates culinary unity in diversity.
The inaugural “Taste of Kigali” festival will run from March 23-24 bringing together 600 chefs and 120 local and international restaurants to showcase their richest national and international gastronomies.
The idea of the “Taste of Kigali” originally started in Ethiopia as the “Taste of Ethiopia” and the “Taste of Addis”, is organized by SACEL ltd from Ethiopia and Rwanda Chefs Alliance (RCA).
The two-day Taste of Kigali festival organized Ethiopians and Rwandans will take place at Kigali Conference and Exhibition Center (KCEV) and Onomo Hotel, will be packed with a variety of food, drinks, entertainment, and games for all.
At its hub, the festival will feature a cooking competition, providing a platform for chefs to present their culinary skills and vie for top honors. The goal is to create a platform that utilize local ingredients while adhering to international culinary standards soon.
The festival will be packed with a range of engaging activities such as live cooking demonstrations by famous chefs, interactive games, food tasting sessions, attend food pairing activities, and even explore options for their own culinary adventures. There will be something for everyone to cater to a wide audience.
Teklu Sara Yesehak, the CEO of SACEL told ISIBO TV that based on over eight years of organizing the festival they decided to introduce the idea to Rwanda as a way of exposing the culinary and gastronomy richness of the City of Kigali but also collaboration with Kigali as their second home from Addis Ababa.
What To Expect?
The festival will have dance, music and performances and games. All participating hotels and restaurants will to prepare all kinds of food so that participants can enjoy all kinds of foods and tastes.
This aims to spotlight culinary landscape of the region and cultural experience. The gastronomies will be including the ones from the Americas, Asian – Chinese and Indian, Italian and French, Arabic, West Africa, South African and North Africa (Moroccan couscous), East African- especially Nyama Choma.
Rwanda will have a special stand which will showcase Rwandan local foods such as Imvange (mixture of beans and starch foods, Isombe (Pounded cassava leaves), and Igisafuriya, a mixture of different dishes cooked together with beef among others.
Also one or a family can come and learn how to cook with lessons the live cooking events conducted by experienced chef, who will showcase hygiene and skills in preparing meals.
The first day of the festival will coincide with the Islamic Holy Fast season of Ramadhan, and according to organizers, all Muslims will have a meal to break their fast (Iftar).
Tickets are now available but for those purchase online will cost Rwf5, 000 and on the gate entrance they will cost Rwf8, 000.
