She’s not your ordinary pastry chef

What you need to know:

Savana’s creations are not only one-of-its-kind but she is one personality that is making a restaurant kitchen less sexist.

One would think that Savana has a sweet tooth for getting into pastry/dessert making but the truth is she stopped eating meat a few years back. As we are still trying to figure out whether she is a vegetarian, vegan or a pescatarian – we will stick to the fact that ‘she has an art of creating never-seen-before desserts’. Her creations, to mention a few, range from Sao Tome banana caramelised and cocoa glaze tarts, Bonbonniere, German bee sting dessert to Mille feuille. Savana considers herself a freelance pastry and cuisine chef. But the good news is that she soon plans to open a-one-of-its-kind pastry shop in Dar es Salaam in a year or two. “When you show people something different, they are willing to go for it and try. And that’s the same thing with desserts. If you are good at something, being in Dar es Salaam, it definitely pays off,” the pastry chef says.

Professional women chefs in Tanzania still walk a fine line in the kitchens of top hotels and restaurants. But Savana is one personality that is making a restaurant kitchen less sexist. She says that you got to believe in yourself. “I’ve not had a bad, terrible experience but I know that women chefs here are still undermined. A stereotype still exists. It takes time for male chefs to warm up to you – for instance when they see your work, they realise ‘oh she works as hard as me’ – so it is a slow process,” Savana says, adding, “there are pros and cons to every place. For instance, in Australia, there is a high regard for a ‘chef’ because people spend a lot of time and money to study becoming a professional chef – you have to go through years of apprenticeship and courses to get certified. Here in Tanzania we still have a long way to go,” she says.

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She’s not your ordinary pastry chef

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