Tilapia lunch for Heston Chef

You can read all Ashley’s updates as they are posted via his Africa Diary.

Ashley and team have arrived safely in Kenya. They spent the night in Nairobi before catching a dawn flight to Kisumu.

There they met up with Farm Africa’s Susan Otieno, who has already taken Ashley and Big Hospitality journalist Peter Ruddick to a local fish market where Ashley got his first look at the kind of foods available to people of the region.

Ashley has tweeted: “Our driver said heavy mist this morning means heavy rain later!” 

Over the team’s lunch of tilapia, tomato, kale and onion near Lake Victoria,  the Mandarin Oriental chef showed Susan pictures of food from his restaurant, ‘Dinner by Heston Blumenthal’. He commented that his trademark dish ‘meat fruit’ proved hard to explain. The dish, inspired by mediaeval British food, involves creating a citrus-savoury surprise, with chicken liver parfait disguised as a mandarin.

Before leaving the UK, Ashley told Big Hospitality about the lasting effect of Farm Africa’s work for local people: “It is not just giving them something to eat but giving them something to sustain them for the future, generation after generation after generation.”

Read Ashley’s as-it-happens Africa Diary as he reports his experience and reactions with words, pictures and video.

Get Involved like Ashley, says Farm Africa’s director of fundraising Pam Williams-Jones:

“Crops, livestock, fish…there’s a strong affinity between Farm Africa and the UK food and farming sector.  We’re delighted that such a respected figure as Ashley Palmer-Watts wanted to see the charity’s work for himself  and help drum up support for us among his many friends and colleagues in the hospitality business. 

Because Farm Africa relies on goodwill donations to push ahead with its objective to help Africa to feed itself, there’s a constant need to attract new friends and supporters.  We have high hopes that Ashley’s trip to Kenya will introduce our work to new people and spark all kinds of partnerships across every aspect of the hotel, restaurant and catering business.

Large, small, regular or one-off, gifts and sponsorship from companies and individuals enable us to help thousands African families find often very simple but effective long-term answers to hunger. They are creating new ways to feed themselves through the year and still have enough left over to sell for essentials like medicines, school books and clothing.

Farm Africa is about lasting solutions, not stopgap remedies. We don’t  ‘do’ food aid or handouts. We employ agricultural specialists on the ground who help farmers to double or triple their harvests by adopting smarter and greener techniques – like drought-busting seeds, disease-resistant plants, better-balanced animal feeds, more intelligent water-management and fresh ideas about transforming basic produce to push up its value at market. 

Donations to Farm Africa are investments with lasting impact.  Whether your company is sponsoring an event, encouraging payroll giving, choosing us as your Charity of the Year, holding a Work for Farm Africa  Day, urging your staff to step up in one of our challenges, or sharing your expertise  or resources with pro bono support, your generosity and fundraising efforts can change the lives of thousands.  Farm Africa really is hugely grateful on their behalf for any help you give.

Farm Africa does what it says on the tin – it helps African farmers to farm Africa.  If like Ashley, you or your company would like to explore ways of working with this charity, please get in touch. We’d be delighted to discuss ideas or answer any questions you may have.”

Please contact us on [email protected] or call Cathy Whiteman on  020 7430 0440.