BANIS AHIMBISIBWE NAMED UGANDA’S FIRST ‘#GHSILVERCHEF’
(Posted 21st November 2015)
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s Uganda Tourism Excellence Awards came today’s announcement of the winner of the much awaited Gorilla Highlands Silverchef Competition, which was cooked out and tasted out at the Travellers Rest Hotel in Kisoro.
A panel of five judges, comprising among others Ms. Sylvia Kalembe of the Uganda Tourism Board besides Adam Caris, Kiiza Kimbugwe, Marcus Westberg and Ruth Bahika spent most of the day to taste their way through the creations prepared from a fixed set of ingredients the competing chefs were given. While they were able to bring their own spices and wine, all basics were given to them on arrival in the kitchen, where they then set out to cook up a culinary storm.
SILVERCHEF 2015 INGREDIENTS
Meat: rabbit and bacon
Vegetables: dodo, beans, fresh peas, onions, garlic, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green peppers, avocadoes, chilli pepper, cauliflowers
Fruits: pineapples, apples, passion fruits, yellow bananas
Basics: wheat flour, maize flour, sugar, eggs, milk, oil, g-nuts, olive oil, rice, salt, pepper, chilli, butter, honey
Buhoma Community Haven Lodge, Bunyonyi Overland Resort, Cephas Inn, Chameleon Hill Lodge, Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge, Coffee Pot, Gorilla Valley Lodge, Mount Gahinga Lodge, Mahogany Springs and host venue Travellers Rest had all nominated their chefs, a sign of how highly competitive the field of contestants was, as it included some of the best ranked lodges and resorts in the south west of Uganda.
Both local and international media were invited to cover the event which had raised interest levels from across the country and even across the border in Rwanda, watching this first ever regional chef competition aimed at putting the south west of Uganda on the tourism map. Some nine journalists had been invited on a media trip ending with the #GHSilverchef competition, again made possible with the much valued support of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, the Uganda Tourism Board, UNWTO and UNDP. Among them were such major channels as IHA Africa Today, Africa 24 Media, but also the New Vision represented by Ms. Angela Ndagano.
Gorilla Highlands, now a brand in its own right of course, took the initiative earlier in the year when Miha Logar approached among others this correspondent to help set the ball rolling. When, as earlier mentioned, UNDP came on board, which channeled their material support for the competition through the Uganda Tourism Board, was the rabbit cooked so to speak, in other words, the competition was on.
(The sharing of food at the end of the #ghsilverchef cooking competition. The man in the centre, Edward Lewis, made it all happen by putting it together under the UNDP/UNWTO/UTB umbrella)
The judges ruled in favour of Banis Ahimbisibwe with a score of 4 as outright winner while one judge had Banis marked as number two, a more or less unanimous vote which handed Banis the fame for the year 2015/16 and the winner’s trophy, a silver hat which he will no doubt wear with pride, considering how he outcooked some of the fancied competitors nominated from some of the Kisoro areas most fancied hospitality names.
After the just ended Pearl of Africa Tourism Expo 2015 and the Uganda Tourism Excellence Awards last night at the Kampala Serena Hotel has this competition now set the ball rolling for other regions in Uganda, which has been divided in to several tourism clusters, to organize similar competitions for upcountry locations and eventually choose a national winner. For added information about the #GHSilverchef competition click on gorillahighlands.com/silverchef-2015
