Tropical mystery.
One place I always return to is the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar, a place of great beauty, wonderful food, and of secrets. For centuries people from all over the world have been living together on this tropical island off the coast of East Africa. Here different cultures and religions that in other parts of the world have been in conflict, sometimes engaging in bloody battles of hegemony and power, have found ways to live together side by side. And the diversity that seems overwhelming at first is even more impressive when studied closely: Muslims here are not just Shias or Sunnis but also Ishnashiris, Ishmailis, Ibadis and Bahoras. There are Christian Anglicans from mainland Tanzania and from India. There are Catholics, Hindus, and even Zarathustran Parsis and different sub-groups within each category. .
This is where I got the idea to my spice book, Where Flavor Was Born. It is a bustling, multicultural, sunny, ever-enchanting and ever-frustrating place.
I have visited the island for many different reasons: To go on vacation, to get away from work on the African main land, and to honeymoon. The beaches are amazing, the water azure blue, people friendly and prices – if you choose a simple life – are low. But as always when I really like something – I end up making it my work. And this is in the long run often the most rewarding. I really like being forced to interact with people, hearing their stories, exchanging ideas, haggling and perhaps even getting involved in a heated discussion, and the weeks I spent doing research for Where Flavor Was Born only strengthened my love of the place. In fact, so much that I am now involved in the start-up of a restaurant in Stone Town.
The restaurant is a part of Emerson’s Spice Hotel, run by the American-turned-Zanzibari Emerson Skeens, who has previously started some of the best and most charming hotels in Stone Town. The house used to belong to one of the lieutenants of the Sultan, and is one of the grandest buildings in town. Some of the rooms have twenty-foot ceilings. The restaurant is situated on the rooftop terrace.
My capacity is as a consultant chef, a task I am approaching with a great deal of enthusiasm, and also some degree of uncertainty: What on earth is a “consultant chef”, really? As we have worked in the kitchen I have found out more and more about this. It is, I think, about delivering a conceptual framework under which the cooks can work, and to inspire the cooks to express themselves rather than make the bland tourist food it is often thought that visitors prefer.
There are constantly new snags before the official opening and during this time we have had time to play around with old classics, and to invent new dishes – all inspired by the spices of the island. This, I think, is to a large degree, lacking on Zanzibar, where home-cooking is great but restaurant food has tended to be fairly standard fare.
Last time I checked the website for the hotel was still under construction. But nevertheless the address is: http://www.emersonspice.net/