Taking Namibian cuisines international

Tunohole Mungoba Martin Shipanga, a 21-year- old student chef from Silver Spoon Hospitality Academy managed to scoop the 16th position out of 43 countries, beating nations like the United States, Greece and South Africa at the 2018 Young Chef Olympiad. “In the top 20, there were only two African countries and Namibia was one of them. The second country was Mauritius,” Shipanga says. The competition took place on 28 January until 2 February in India. “I competed in three cities which were New Delhi, Pune and Kolkata. It consisted of different stages and we basically had to follow recipes and we were required to prepare meals for different diets,” he said. Although the competition was challenging, he enjoyed working with different chefs and learning how to cater for the international market. “I found it difficult to use their cooking equipment and materials. The stoves and ovens were different and the ingredients were also difficult to execute, due to the weather. The baking in particular was most problematic, because the dough would not rise properly due to the heat in India,” he says. What stood out the most for him during the competition was the food and the different varieties of culture. “Coming from Africa, especially from a small country like Namibia, I truly enjoyed all that was presented to me. The other chefs have taught me the importance of having fun with your food and using it to create in genious,” he says. Looking back on his journey, Shipanga has learned a lot of important details that he feels culinary schools can also implement in Namibia. “Namibian culinary schools can learn a lot from the outside world. Teamwork is very important. I have noticed that people in the outside world work together and they are not as competitive here. To the student chefs, they need to learn to listen, work fast and be able to think on their feet.” He also appreciated the fact that young people in India respect their culture, which is slowly dying out in Namibia, according to him. “They are desperate to eat and enjoy meals prepared by their mothers. Whereas here, we want to run away from our roots and prepare modern meals while forgetting our past.”The journey to IndiaSilver Spoon Hospitality Academy was the only invited culinary school from Namibia and they hosted an internal competition and Shipanga came out on top. “The school took the best five chef students and we competed against each other for a few rounds. I won based on technique and skill as those are the important parts of the competition.”Growing up, Shipanga has always been interested in cooking and he says his passion came from seeing his grandmother do magic in the kitchen. “She used to cook different flavoured jams and this was a sight I always enjoyed. I used to watch food channels more than cartoons and then my love for food grew more and more,” he remembers. While currently doing his internship at Maerua Spur, Shipanga is juggling his work and his schooling. “I am still in the process of the writing my examinations in culinary arts. The theory part is very challenging and one has to work very hard.”In 2015, he decided to take cooking seriously and enrolled for different courses at the Namibian Institute of Culinary Education (NICE). After he completed his studies, he started attending Silver Spoon Hospitality Academy in 2016. “I feel like I owe my success to Silver Spoon as they have granted me the opportunity to be exposed to so many opportunities including this chef olympics.”Shipanga wants to gain international experience by travelling and working in different cities like Dubai, Doha, New York, London, Paris and Milan. “I want to be appreciated as a chef and you can only be appreciated if you have international exposure. I aim to be an executive chef one day.”

Taking Namibian cuisines international

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-08-05

Please login to leave a comment

Taking Namibian cuisines international

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-08-05

Please login to leave a comment

Login