The Chef from Congo Brazzaville is one of four personalities to receive this award which “recognises and celebrates the unsung heroes of the hospitality industry who are taking meaningful action and creating plans for a better world”.
The international 50 Best organisation announced on 25 April its three Champions of Change 2022, hospitality heroes who are creating positive change for their communities through their work. The award, launched in 202 to celebrate the industry’s unsung heroes, is being presented this year to two individuals and one pair who are taking significant action and creating plans for a better hospitality sector.
The three winners, it says, will receive a substantial donation to their causes, enabling them to continue to develop their initiatives and support long-term progress in the restaurant and food sector.
Writing a new history of gastronomy
One of the 2022 winners is Chef Dieuveil Malonga, 30, founder of the Meza Malonga restaurant (“Malonga’s Table” in Kiswahili) in Kigali, Rwanda, which he opened in 2020. His mission is to “write a new history of gastronomy that has its roots in Africa and to contribute to further establish African cuisine as gastronomy”.
In addition, Chef Malonga developed and taught the world’s first MBA programme in African gastronomy. This programme, launched to showcase Africa’s rich culture and powerful gastronomic identity, has been and is being taught in Paris, Kigali and New York to students from West Africa, South Africa, Mexico, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, the United States, France, India, etc.
Born in Linzolo, Congo (Brazzaville), Dieuveil Malonga moved to Germany at the age of 13, where he trained as a chef in the country’s best restaurants before moving to Marseille. The multiple options of the German education system allowed him to take courses in music and cooking. Passionate and diligent, he soon made a name for himself and won 9 of the 16 culinary competitions he entered during his studies. These victories built his reputation as a promising young chef. After graduation, he joined the teams of prestigious starred restaurants in Germany, including Schote, La Vie and Aqua.
After the German experience, Dieuveil Malonga’s career continued in France, mainly in Marseille, where he contributed, as Demi-chef de partie, to the launch of the gastronomic restaurant of the Intercontinental Hotel in that city. Recruited during a casting by M6, he participated in the 2014 edition of the show “Top Chef”, broadcast on the French channel. But this competition regular did not make it past the first few rounds and the challenges imposed by the show’s jury. His early elimination is far from having dented the morale and ambition of “Chef Malonga”.
Afro-fusion
Dieuveil Malonga’s cuisine integrates African, German and French culinary traditions to create what he describes as “afro-fusion” cuisine. Returning to his native Congo at the age of 20, he was immediately inspired by the young people he met. The budding chef travelled across the continent to research and refine his concept of Afro-fusion cuisine. His quest to create a culinary bridge between African flavours and Western cuisine took him to 38 of the 54 African states. But what he witnessed on his journey changed the course of his life.
“As I travelled across Africa from east to west to promote Afro-fusion and share my passion for Africa and its rich cuisine, I was fascinated by the immense desire of hundreds of young chefs to reinvent African cuisine. Enthusiastic, creative and determined, these talented chefs aspire to one thing only: to universalise African gastronomy. But their path is strewn with pitfalls. Between the lack of efficient tools, difficulties in accessing products, the search for new skills and social prejudices, chefs in Africa are struggling to make a name for themselves,” explains Dieuveil Malonga.
“Chefs in Africa “
To give visibility to young chefs in Africa, Dieuveil Malonga has launched the “Chefs in Africa” platform, which already has more than 4,000 members. The aim is to highlight the makers of African gastronomy. “Thanks to this space for sharing, the new players in the culinary professions come and tell their stories, express their culinary philosophies and seize opportunities to boost their careers,” explains Chef Malonga. In addition, the online platform helps chefs overcome barriers such as discrimination and lack of training, employment and equipment.
Chefs in Africa connects government institutions, training centres and companies with professional chefs and young culinary students or apprentices from all over the continent looking for work experience.
Meza Malonga
Passionate about promoting his personal interpretation of the diversity of African cuisines, Dieuveil Malonga moved to Kigali, Rwanda in 2020 to open his first restaurant, Meza Malonga. At the heart of the restaurant is a culinary training programme that annually provides 10 aspiring chefs with scholarships, essential culinary skills and English language training, to help them spread their message to the world. Dieuveil Malonga plans to move his restaurant to a larger site in Musanze, also in Rwanda, in 2023, where he is working with local farmers to already grow sustainable ingredients and where he plans to expand the training programme to 15 young chefs a year.
The donation he will receive from the Champions of Change Award will help fund this project. The new restaurant also aims to promote the development of culinary tourism in rural areas through cooking classes and gastronomic events.
For Dieuveil Malonga, transmission is the key to a better future. “I am honoured to be named Champion of Change and will continue to nurture the passion and talent of African chefs,” he said.
