Cooking safaris have gained popularity in recent years, with many lodges offering a special-interest cooking or food experience while on safari. They are often interactive, with guests getting to join the chef in the kitchen or around the campfire.

African Bush Camps recently hosted Carl Joshua Ncube, one of Zimbabwe’s top comedians and chefs, to be the ‘gastronomic comic’ at Kanga Camp in Mana Pools, Zimbabwe.

Photo credits: African Bush Camps. Carl Ncube, comedian and chef.

Ncube was at the camp during June, offering an in-residence authentic safari experience, where guests could learn the art of bush cooking, while he cooked and entertained guests around the campfire.

Babylonstoren’s Greenhouse restaurant.

Giltedge offers a Cape and Winelands Gourmet Safari, exploring culinary highlights over 11 days, starting in Cape Town and exploring its surrounds. The tour then takes guests to the West Coast, and then on to Babylonstoren wine estate.

Babylonstoren and its ‘farm to table’ concept are on the menu for five days. The restaurant’s gourmet restaurant is situated in the property’s sprawling garden.

Franschhoek is next on the cards, to explore the winelands further. The tour ends at the Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge in the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve, allowing guests to enjoy a taste of the bush.

Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge.

Kwandwe Private game Reserve in the Eastern Cape provides guests with the opportunity to learn about preparing and cooking authentic South African ‘braais’ (barbecues) and favourite dishes with local ingredients.

The cooking experience takes place at Melton Manor in the reserve, with a culinary team ready to help guide guests every step of the way.

Photo credits: Kwandwe Private Game Reserve.

Guests will become ‘braai masters’, learning to cook outdoors over an open fire. Apart from learning to barbecue venison, such as impala, kudu, ostrich, warthog and gemsbok, guests can also help prepare traditional accompaniments, such as mielie bread, farm butter, krummel pap and chakalaka.

South African desserts, such as Cape brandy pudding, malva, milk tart, hertzoggies and koeksisters will be explored. Edible plants found on the reserve such as spekboom, prickly pear and aloe will also be used to make a sorbet.

Thomson Safaris offers a cooking safari in Tanzania with Chef Jody Adams. It travels between Arusha, the eastern Serengeti Nature Refuge, Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Highlands and Crater, then back to Arusha.

During the tour, guests get the chance to learn how to cook in the rough, safari style, as well as roast a goat with a Maasai warrior, experience Swahili cuisine, taste banana beer, Tanzanian doughnuts, and fresh cinnamon.

Guests are encouraged to interact with the Maasai community, who will welcome them into their homes. The Maasai Moran will bring a goat to the camp for dinner, where guests assist in the preparation of the goat.

Demonstrations by the camps’ chefs will be conducted, teaching guests how to make traditional Tanzanian meals with a few simple tools.

The ‘farm to table’ concept is utilised during this tour at Gibb’s Farm, an eco-lodge, organic farm and coffee plantation, in the Ngorongoro Highlands. Here guests will finally get the chance to join Chef Adams in the kitchen, and the option of helping to harvest the components of the meal.

In Arusha, guests enjoy a farewell lunch at River House, a community-based non-profit organisation.

Guests can extend their stay and fly to Zanzibar, where they get to explore the spice farms on the island.