Dieuveil Malonga: “Tomorrow's cuisine is based on cooking what grows in your own region"

Meza Malonga LAB is the project run by chef Dieuveil Malonga, who was born in Congo and grew up in Germany, and studied cookery in France, but heeded the call of Africa when he realised his cuisine needed its roots. He went back and settled in Rwanda, in Musanze, a province with four volcanoes, providing land with excellent qualities. 

“The soil in Musanze is unique, very rich, and we can grow crops with no need for fertilisers”, explained Dieuveil Malonga as he recalled that one of his first decisions concerning the restaurant was to create a farmland to supply most produce, if not all. “It took us three years to set it up, but now we can produce all the vegetables we use, and also coffee and vanilla", a plantation alongside the fish they take from their own lake, and local fish and crustaceans. 

Malonga wanted to use his talk to home in on the importance of "cooking what grows in your own region", an idea which is nothing new - "all families in my province have their own plantations, and they eat much more vegetables and fish than meat" - but which deserves to be borne in mind amid today's calls for more food sustainability. 

And to share this way of understanding cookery, which for the African chef is also a way of showcasing African cuisine, Malonga also explained his activity to help train young African chefs. At the present time some 25 students are learning African cuisine, the idea being that they will then follow their own path and teach others. 

A way of following tradition and preserving flavours, products and ingredients making up a genuine culinary heritage: “we like working with ingredients that show our identity, such as sorghum, an ancient cereal we've been using for a long time in Africa". This was borne out by the two typical recipes cooked up by Malonga on stage at Jameos del Agua, using the cereal and also other more common products such as coffee and cocoa. 

Dieuveil Malonga rounded off his talk on the importance of sharing knowledge, and of doing so by bringing people in the profession together, an example of which is the Chefs in Africa organisation which was launched by him and now features more than 4,000 African chefs, most of whom live on the continent, working to showcase their local cuisine.