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Tendai Rupapa-Senior Reporter
There has been an increasing appetite for traditional African cuisine following First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa’s programmes promoting indigenous dishes, which have high nutritional and medicinal properties.
Local hotels and restaurants are embracing the call by the First Lady to include more traditional dishes on their menus.
One such hotel is Villa Gianni Boutique Hotel that specialises mainly in dishes that strongly reflect the Zimbabwean flavour and appeal.
It has become popular with diners including international guests.
Nestled in Avondale, Harare, Villa Gianni Boutique Hotel, has a well-known chef, Dulsie Mudekwa as part of the team and they prepare some of the traditional dishes to ensure clients get well-prepared food and a unique Zimbabwean experience, and consequently value for their money.
So innovatively packaged are most of the mouth-watering dishes on offer that even people who were less inclined to take traditional meals are flocking the joint to have a taste.
Most young people countrywide viewed traditional dishes as inferior, preferring exotic dishes which, unfortunately exposed them to obesity, hypertension and cardiovascular challenges.
Villa Gianni Boutique Hotel has many dishes on offer.
Yesterday, they were serving an outstanding and uniquely prepared sorghum-coated fresh bream, fish in peanut butter, banana leaf wrapped fish, madora, dried vegetables in peanut butter, okra, mazondo, zvinyenze, road runner and beef bones.
Starches featured rice in peanut butter, sorghum sadza, white sadza and traditional rice.
Their beverages included maheu and baobab cocktail.
Mrs Mudekwa said they had many things to offer clients at the hotel.
“People are now looking for food that builds and protects their bodies. Most people according to our observation are now religiously following the traditional cuisine.
“At Villa Gianni Boutique hotel, we enjoy promoting traditional dishes because they have all the nutrients and value. They are not stripped of any nutrients,” she said.
“You can enjoy your sorghum, millet and rapoko sadza which promote good health. Health and food are quite related in the sense that whatever we take in, is what we produce as our health.
“When people are talking about nutrition it means whatever you have eaten and the result that it produces. We are discouraging people from having fast foods because nowadays there are a lot of cardio metabolic diseases or lifestyle diseases like cancer, hypertension, diabetes.
“Those are lifestyle diseases and they are being caused by the food we eat.
“Our mother, the First Lady has been trying to promote traditional food a lot. We have seen her going around the country saying let’s consume our traditional dishes. She also introduced a national traditional cook-out competition which made people appreciate and fall in love with our indigenous dishes hence an increasing appetite for traditional African cuisines in our country.
“Secondly, after the nutritional value, we are saying that our traditional food is locally available meaning that you can access it even at the rural home or in town.
“This means it’s cheaper and there is no need for us to have a population of people wallowing in poverty because you can grow these things in the rural areas and at your home.
“That is your source of food, income and so forth.”
Mrs Mudekwa said Zimbabwe was blessed with agricultural expertise, rains and land which could be used to sustain its citizens.
“By just promoting these foods which are locally grown here in Zimbabwe we are promoting good health; we are ending poverty.
“We are ending diseases, we are ending a lot of these things so these are the healthiest meals you can ever have and you can see right across the globe, they are actually trying to go healthy.
“There is now the health vibe that has just been going on but we already have those healthy things. They are not expensive and are locally available,” she said.
Head chef at Villa Gianni Boutique Hotel, Mr Morris Mushungwa, said their food was prepared using locally available ingredients.
“We prepare our food using local ingredients which is being encouraged by our mother, the First Lady. She encourages us to consume indigenous dishes which are nutritious.
“We grew up eating these traditional foods and most of them were readily available in the wild. This food is healthy and it was rare to see our elders complaining of some ailments which are affecting our youths today. We encourage Zimbabweans to go back to tradition and consume our locally available dishes,” he said.
The First Lady has been holding traditional meal cookout competitions countrywide to promote the uptake of indigenous dishes.
She has repeatedly reminded the nation that apart from the health benefits, there was great tourism potential in traditional dishes as some people visit the country to sample traditional dishes.
As part of her efforts to promote traditional dishes, Amai Mnangagwa has been donating traditional grains to chiefs’ wives.
Online Reporter