I was worth my salt, says chef who served VIPs

By Harold Ayodo

He prepared meals for Heads of States, some Britain’s royal family members and other high-ranking leaders in his 30-year career as a cook.

Nothing much from his modest rural status in Kasipul-Kabondo in South Nyanza can, however, attest to his high-table past.

Mr Amos Ndegwa Nyagol, 83, a great grandfather, interacted with the high and mighty and joked with them as he took their orders.

Nyagol shows a picture of President Kenyatta visiting Hilton Hotel in early 1970s and enjoyed a meal he prepared.

He believed he was qualified to prepare the royal couple’s meals, arguing he cooked several times for other top guests, including a US governor and other guests at five-star hotels.

"Expatriate English chefs were the ones who prepared meals during the royal visit ... I learnt a lot of kitchen etiquette from them," says Nyagol.

Nyagol, however, confesses he was not disappointed after he was included among the staff that cleaned the Royal Room at the middle floors of the Hilton Hotel. "An aide de camp of the Queen gave me a soap dish, a treasured memento, which still looks new today – it is the only proof that I got that close to the British throne-holder," he says.

Crown of Queen

He proudly shows off the navy blue soap dish inscribed with the crown of the Queen of England, which was one of the many souvenirs from the VIPs he served.

"I treasure the soap dish and keep it on my sitting room table because it reminds me of several things and the historic visit of the Queen," says Nyagol.

Nyagol knew the tastes of former governors, presidents, prime ministers and other VIPs who wined and dined in luxury in Nairobi during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s.

"There is no president, ambassador, minister, governor or millionaire businessman who visited without eating my food 30 years ago," says Nyagol.

He says The New Stanley and Hilton hotels were among the top five-star places to be for VIPs. "Several guests of the State and millionaires dined at The Stanley, Hilton or Norfolk Hotels and cooks were hired on account of their expertise," he recalls.

Nyagol dons a coat he wore during his heydays as a cook in Nairobi, as he prepares a meal at his Kasipul Kabondo home. Photo: Jonah Onyango/Standard

Former presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi, President Kibaki, the late opposition leader Jaramogi Oginga Odinga were regulars for his menus.

"The late Presidents of Uganda Idi Amin Dada, Milton Obote and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania also ate meals I prepared," boasts Nyagol.

He says Kenyatta was a regular visitor at the Hilton and would come in unannounced.

"My speed in the preparation of meals ensured that my employer was never caught with pants down – VIPs never wait long for meals," he brags.

Mr Nyagol says Nyerere was simple and – like Jaramogi, loved traditional dishes and millet porridge served in a calabash.

"Jaramogi knew fresh traditional food and would register his appreciation to the chefs in person if he enjoyed your meal," says Nyagol.

He also has a chef’s coat he left the Hilton with in 1984. Friends and relatives have since taken off the cap, sash and other attire.

Nyagol, who has retired to his ancestral home, occasionally cooks traditional meals while donning the Hilton coat to remind him of his hey-days.

He is proud that the kitchen – believed to be a woman’s place, enabled him to educate three of his seven children to Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) level.

"Mr Charles Njonjo, who was a regular guest at the Hilton donated Sh500 towards the education of my daughter to India – the amount was a fortune then," the veteran cook recalls.

He says a colleague at the hotel introduced him to the former Constitutional Affairs minister before he presented him with an invitation to the fundraiser.

"Njonjo was a known powerful, polished and principled man and his contribution motivated me," he says.

Diets and appetites

"The Stanley and Hilton hosted guests from different countries who ate different foods and I had to keep abreast with their diets and appetites," he says.

His career, he says, did not give room for mistakes arguing appetites come with eating and the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

"There was no day in my long career that I put excess salt in food after my British mentors tutored me in 1942," he says.

Nyagol, who retired in 1984, is happy that his former employer gave him lifetime invitations to Christmas parties.

"I have been to only one of the Christmas parties in the past 24 years...my age does not allow me to travel much," says Nyagol.

The cook, who earned Sh70 per month, when he cooked for the settler says cooks lived in luxury on tips from clients.

"We were tipped from Sh20 to Sh50, which was real money to people who lived in Kaloleni Estate in Nairobi then ... we bought designer shirts at Sh2 at sale knockdowns," he says.

Clients also gave them clothes, which enlightened them on designer wear preferred by people who mattered.

"All my shirts were Arrow designs, which most of our visitors donned and gave us before they left for the West and Far East," says Nyagol.