African cooking classes in Hong Kong – think fufu, fried plantain and a lot of fun
- A restaurant manager from the Republic of the Congo shows Hong Kong cooks how to make a peanut stew with dried fish, flavourful rice and fried plantain
- Upcoming workshops at the Africa Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui cover the cuisines of Zimbabwe, Senegal, Rwanda, Chad, Nigeria and Ghana
Cooking to music is nothing unusual, but mixing ingredients while footage of a funeral is projected onto a big screen might sound macabre. Not at the Africa Centre, in Tsim Sha Tsui. On screen, women in traditional Congolese liputa dresses dance to drum beats that fill the room along with the smell of frying onions.
Elsie Zepho is conducting a Congolese cooking workshop. It’s been a while since she danced to the beats of her Republic of the Congo home, but it’s clear she has forgotten none of her moves. “On the screen is a funeral and dance is part of the ceremony,” she says. “At my father’s funeral – he was a musician – there was a lot of dancing and music. It’s a celebration of life.”
Zepho lost her job as a restaurant manager when the Covid-19 pandemic forced the venue to close. A chance meeting with Innocent Mutanga, who lives in her building, led her to the Africa Centre, of which Mutanga is a co-founder.
Each of the centre’s regular cooking workshops focuses on a different country. Having recently hosted a class on Burundian cuisine, a course on Zimbabwean food is scheduled for June 20, while upcoming events cover much of the rest of the continent: Senegal (July 5), Rwanda (July 18), Chad (August 2), Nigeria (August 8) and Ghana (August 22).
The Congolese class is a mixed bunch, with guests from Hong Kong, America, Japan, Australia and Somalia. The only common thread is that they live in Hong Kong and want to taste Congolese cuisine.
