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#ILoveMondays: Nurtured Knotts Fine Dining Expirience Hosted by African Kaya

Isn’t it so amazing when you have family that gets your passion? When you have family that supports you, that gets the pain and joys of your work, family that sits with your for hours on end and brainstorm with you on how to make your business better? Well I am blessed with such a family and I am always so grateful for them.

My brother, Kiboi, has been telling me for 2 years now to host dinners and have people come over and enjoy my food. I have always had an excuse. I live too far, no one will want to come, I will start soon. Story after story. When Kaz started her Brunch for Dinner (It’s an amazing dinner once a month where she feeds us vegetarian breakfast dishes and her amazing pies. Do visit her website for more details) Anyway when Kaz started her Brunch for Dinner I spoke to her about her experience and she really encouraged me to start something but I still did not. Till the other month when on a Facebook group one of the members asked me to cook for them and I was like sure why not?? and that was how the Fine Dining experience was born.

Nyasuba one of the Admins of Nurtured Knotts told me to pursue the matter and make it one of their events. We set a date and like the say the rest is history. We planned, I came up with a menu that they loved, we advertised for 15 spots that were filled up very fast. On the last week I spoke to Gloria Kinya who is a sommelier and runs Do Wine Kenya and she came up with a food and wine pairing list and it was so amazing. I had help from an amazing sous chef, Louisa, who is training to be a chef and I can’t wait to see what she will whip up after she graduates.

Below is what we ate what we drunk and how much fun we had. Remember to leave a comment with your email if you are interested in the next one or email info@africankaya.com

All Photos by Paul Kinuthia.

To start Gloria Kinya of Do Wine Kenya  talked us through the wines we were going to have. She explained to us the importance of having food paired with wine. It was quite an informative session and we had lots of fun with the girls saying how the only wine they knew was snap and overmeer LOL. To start, we had a Champagne concorde Brut that we also used as a pallette cleanser. At this point Gloria taught us how to hold a glass and how to smell the flavours and how to swirl the win in our mouths to try get the different tastes.  It was so interesting. Look how we were taught to hold the glass…..so bourgeois

We then had a pumpkin soup for the starter with some bread on the table

Followed by the second course which was plantains wrapped in bacon served with Carlos Serres. This is the point at which I actually appreciated that wine does make food better. The sweet and saltiness of the dish paired with the wine was just amazing.

The Third course was a mango and avocado salad on a lettuce bed with more of the carlos serres

For the main we had Lamb chops with mushroom sauce served with creamy potato mash and stir fried veggies. This meal was paired with a beautiful red wine Conchales Rioja.  Gloria showed us how to warm up the wine so as to oxidise it more and release the aroma by holding the glass in our hands

Then desert ooooh desert. What is life without desert??? I served a Trio of desert full of decadence. A chewy and chocolately brownie, vanilla ice cream and the crowd favourite Chilled Strawberry Cheesecake. This was served with a champagne Cave Gold Rondelle. Gloria did a wonderful demo on how to pop a champagne bottle without all the drama of spillage and almost knocking out peoples eyes. We stood there expecting the pomp and gushing that normally comes with poping champagne but all we got as a “pop” as in literally that sound.

We had so much fun. Here are a few more photos from the wonderful evening

Photos by Paul Kinuthia