Mother’s curry raises Chef Uisso’s profile

The sound of azaan echoed through one of the near-empty streets of Mwananyamala, calling the faithful for prayers on a Friday afternoon. Two men dressed in brown tunics walked the dusty stretch of the Ikoma Street where master chef, Fred Uisso’s restaurant is located.

A neatly kept garden and a decorated metal fence borders the tables set on the right upon entering the restaurant. Seated opposite was the first Tanzanian chef who will be representing the country at the prestigious World Food Championship (WFC) next month battling to be the world’s most notable master chef.

The restaurant dubbed ‘Club Afrikando’ is the reflection in reality of the 56-year-old chef’s dream, as he describes to Sound Living. What began as a function hall 13 years ago is now a popular dining spot for corporates, celebrities, professionals and tourists.

“My vision 13 years back was to open a restaurant in a remote place, serve iconic cuisines and have diners from star hotels. Today, I have won that. The reason is tasty food,” says chef Uisso.

A lot of people instigated the chef to shift his restaurant to a known place such as Masaki and discouraged his vision, but chef Uisso had bigger plans. He stood still with his decision and vision to pull people for food and not the place.

Chef Uisso was raised in Moshi where the family shared staple meals such as ugali, spinach, bananas and red beans. But there was something that the then 7-year-old boy used to look forward to every month – the special meal. “Once or twice a month, my mother made special meals, that was either chicken rice or green split lentils,” the chef recalls.

The chef further adds that there was one special meal that he can never forget the taste of - his mother’s chicken masala curry and chapati.

“My mother was a master in chicken curry. Her method of making chapati was unique, nothing that I’ve ever seen. She used to make layers of chapatis, which formed an artistic structure like that of the vintage music record. It was an art.”

That time, chef Uisso had not thought of making a career in cooking but only enjoyed fine foods and tasty meals.

“I was a stubborn child and my parents had a hard time because I refused to eat plain meals, to be honest I was bored. I would rather sleep hungry than have a tasteless meal. It was an unknown aptitude for food that I later developed,” says the chef.

Blessing in disguise

In 1979, chef Uisso quit his teaching job to join the Mikumi Wildlife Lodge as Administrative Assistance, now known as human resource. It is here, where his journey from the books to the stove began. He recalls, “Mikumi was a central point not only for safari tourists but also for travellers commuting to Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Iringa and so forth. The lodge was always overwhelmed with more than 200 guests a day, but we lacked personnel in the kitchen to prepare the food.”

Uisso sent a recommendation to the managers to start an internal programme for the culinary department to train the non-culinary department like the drivers, housekeeping, assistants and receptionists. He was one of the volunteers to join the programme to be in the kitchen, what he calls a blessing in disguise.

“Back in those days, the menu was limited and it was standard. Whether it was a stew or a thermidor sauce, the formula was the same, unlike today. So I got acquainted to the basic knowledge of ingredients and cooking them,” he says.

After a year, he joined a Brazilian couple at the Dumila camp as a camp manager. He fine tuned his cooking skills and learnt to cook other cuisines such as Portuguese, Italian and Brazilian.

“The couple had the tendency to order take away from another restaurant, so I discouraged them and instead I volunteered to cook meals and it is here where I learnt about other cuisines. But when the camp got busy, we hired other chefs and I quit cooking,” Chef Uisso says.

When washing dishes paid off

In 1987, Uisso completed a correspondence course on business management, of which he either had to opt for Nairobi or London to sit for examination. He opted for London and was issued a three-month visa which he made the most of.

“For three months, I worked in different restaurants and hotels as a dish-washer. One day, I got the chance to go to the Marriott hotel as a dish washer – and by just being there in the kitchen, observing, I learnt a lot,” says the chef.

Chef Uisso built a good rapport with one of the sous chefs at the hotel where he was taught few kitchen secrets. Upon returning to Tanzania, chef Uisso came back with a desire he could not let go. Despite the fact that he continued with petty jobs in sales management and as a music promoter, he was not satisfied. In 1999, he got this plot in Mwananyamala and decided he would drive his dream to reality.

“Many have asked me about my passion of cooking, but let me tell you something, I wanted to have my own restaurant to give people what I want to eat. I was confident about my fine choice for food and taste,” says the chef.

For about four years, he dined in different places in Dar es Salaam to understand what made a particular food priced expensive, moderate or cheap. That time, he could not afford an expensive meal – so he waited a week to collect money – and spent his savings on experimenting with different dishes.

“Chefs were active, food was well presented, environment was great but there was one thing missing in most of the continental dishes that I used to savour, and that was taste,” chef Uisso believes that it is a combination of all this that made him win hearts of customers in culinary.

The sandwich that made it possible

The self-empowered chef is of the belief that it is the chef’s plate that describes a fine chef, and not qualification. Fred Uisso was scouted by the WFC through social media and it was the 20-minute call that has gained him not only our attention, but also the worlds’.

The chef who doesn’t believe in signboards or advertisement says that joining social media such as instagram was a wise step.

“Last year I received an international call while I was driving. They asked me for 20 minutes of my time. I parked the car to hear them out. At that time, I wasn’t aware of world food championship, I only used to follow television-cooking shows, and not reality shows as such. The organisers said that they were impressed with my work and a week later they sent a videographer out of the blues to judge me live but online,” chef Uisso explains. The judges asked chef Uisso to cook three dishes; the Mexican pepper steak, Italian pasta and French cream soup.

In two weeks time, the chef received qualification news and he accepted the challenge. Out of the 9 categories, he was qualified to compete for world steak championship and world sandwich championship.

“I was in the top 5 of world’s best sandwich in the qualifying round,” Chef Uisso says. He further reveals the sandwich that made him popular, “World of culinary is all about art. Generally, you sandwich the meat, mine I do the other way round. I call it ‘Italian other way round’, where I sandwich the bread,” he laughs out loud.

World food championship is considered as the Olympics of food and is the largest competition in the food sport. Out of the 3,700 chefs, only 900 chefs from all over the world were selected to compete in the different 9 categories, which are barbecue, open chilli, burger, dessert, sandwich, bacon, breakfast recipe, seafood and steak. Each category will have its own champion.

Between steak and sandwich, chef Uisso chose to compete in the ‘world steak championship’ category in Alabama, United States, next month.

But the good news for chef Uisso did not end there. He was selected to compete in an exclusive competition of WFC, which is ‘world chef challenge’, where he will be competing with 20 master chefs from all over the world battling to impress celebrity chef and high-ranked culinary professionals.

“I am not scared at all, I will be carrying my wizard kit with all my necessary ingredients and that’s all,” chef Uisso says on preparations.

Chef Uisso further adds that whether he wins the title of world champion or not, he will make sure he grooms another Tanzanian to make it to that level and win the prestige.

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