The recent visit to Rhulani by the well-known Ednah Rosen, author of the award-winning book "Taste of Botswana", gave our three chefs a new inspiration for exquisite menu creations with a local touch. In addition to what we had learned, Ednah's energy and enthusiasm also spilled over to us.

“Ednah amazed us all, even with the foods they already know how to cook she has showed them better ways to prepare the dishes”, says Rhulani’s Manager Shade-Leigh. “The minute she arrived she went into the kitchen and started cooking. She really been such a blessing for the kitchen!”

Ednah was born and grew up in Botswana. She then moved to Sweden where she stayed for 30 years sharing here Setswana traditions over there. This is also where she met her loving husband who now travels with her and photographs all her experiences making sure every moment is captured. After many years in Sweden they decided to move back to her home country where she opened up her own restaurant to share her love for food. Recently she has decided to close the restaurant as she enjoys to travel and share her love for food with other chefs in their establishments.

But where does this energy, this passion come from? Ednah tells us: “As young young girl, I was very curious about food and to my mother’s frustration, that made me very particular about what I ate. Which lead to eating too little. I was a small and skinny girl, who never ate breakfast. My mother realizing my interest for food, she was very encouraging in my experiments of cooking my own food. Which I did with both mother and father. When I got older I realized the encouragement was more about getting me to eat rather than me becoming a chef.”

According to Shade-Leigh, the visit to Rhulani was a complete success: “Some traditional dishes which we have just learnt will form part of or guest menu options, such as ‘Seswaa’ (Pulled Beef), ‘Phaleche fingers’ (traditional maize meal - baked with parmesan and herbs), and my personal favourite from Northern Africa, ‘Chermoula’ which is almost like Chimichurri but better!”

Ednah was also enthusiastic about visiting our team: “This 5 star lodge invited me to come and inspire their chefs. It’s been an amazing time to work with their very talented chefs, we made so many dishes and are having lots of fun. The spirit at this places is out of this world. You have to experience it to understand. Thank you Rhulani Safari Lodge for the magic!”

Ednah Rosen is also the author of an amazing cookbook "Taste of Botswana", which is is the winner of the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, 2018. The book is a celebration of the lifestyle and cuisine of Botswana. At Rhulani we now have the privilege to sell this book in our curio shop to our guests.

“We really enjoyed every moment with Ednah and Mikel Rosen and wish them all the luck for the future knowing a lot of chefs will cherish and appreciate all the knowledge she has to share”, says Shade. “We hope to have her back at Rhulani soon.”