How young man found niche in hotel industry

Dar es Salaam. Mr Bonitus Barungi (30) had dreams of becoming a teacher throughout his days as a primary and secondary school student in his Bukoba home town.

Having been brought up in a rural setting, teaching was the most decent job he had ever seen.

Nonetheless, facing financial constraints back home, he decided to travel to Dar es Salaam where he hoped to achieve his dream. He was lucky indeed after being enrolled for a two-year diploma course at the National College of Tourism (NCT), thanks to an apprenticeship programme supported by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Launched in 2014, the programme – an initiative of the Tourism Confederation of Tanzania (TCT), the Hotels Association of Tanzania (HAT) in collaboration with NCT - sought to enhance skills and entrepreneurship for improved labour productivity and employment creation. During the course of training, he was deployed for a field attachment at the Southern Sun Hotel in Dar es Salaam where his star started to shine.

“While undertaking practical training at the Southern Sun Hotel, the requirement was that during the first year, we were to go through all the departments from reception to kitchen and food servicing to housekeeping,” he explained, noting that it was how his dream of becoming a teacher started dying.

By the second year of his diploma studies, he had developed an interest in cooking. “I did that because I came to realise that food is about healthy living and that every person requires good food. Thereafter, I decided to turn my career into preparing healthy and delicious food for everyone,” he said in an interview.

His courteousness and empathy to learn new ideas once introduced by the kitchen brigade, finally paid off when the hotel offered him a one-year contract. That was not the end of his story. A few months later, the hotel’s management found an opportunity to take some off-shore staff for practical training in Cape Town, South Africa and he was among those picked.

Whilst in South Africa, he met chefs from other countries and cultures, which helped him learn more of other cuisines. “The beginning was odious. I was the only Tanzanian in the group of eight people picked from South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, Seychelles and Zambia. I was also the least experienced, but with time, we were on the same level…I managed to complete my diploma with flying colours after spending 11 months of practical training,” he explained.

Back home, he is now thinking of establishing his own chefs academy where he will help other up-and-coming youngsters with passion for cooking.

“This will give me more room to use what I learnt in my long learning journey,” he said.