Chef Confidential: Chef Christopher of Rabuko

Meet Chef Christopher Of Rabuko

Experience, skill and a passion for what he does is what makes Chef Christopher Mbundo an excellent chef. We sat down with the Executive Chef to find out more about Rabuko, menu development and eating healthy.

Photography by Lucy Munene

Rabuko is a new salad bistro that sits comfortably on the ground floor of The Mall in Westlands. The small restaurant is hard to miss with its green and golden brown colour palette that makes you feel like you have stepped into a restaurant set up in the middle of a forest. This makes sense because the very inspiration for the food, ambience and decor comes from the thriving coastal Arabuko Sokoke forest in Kenya. The menu features healthy and tasty dishes such as a breakfast Berry Bowl, a crunchy Cashew Later salad and our favourite, the Woodland Wrap. My colleague and I got to sample a variety of dishes as we spoke to Chef Christopher, the talent behind this expansive healthy menu.

Photography by Lucy Munene

Could you explain to us what a cold kitchen is?

It is an area designated for cold meals such as salads and cold soups as well but at Rabuko we do hot soups instead of cold ones.

It took you 8 months to come up with this menu, could you take us through what that process was like?

Well, menu engineering is a process where you have to figure out so many things like cost, profitability, the source of your supplies, how your concept will work with your market etc. So for this menu, we had to do a lot of research. Firstly, we had to look at all the ingredients we use and what the health benefits are. Secondly, because we are using the farm to fork concept we visited different farms and got to understand how they do their harvesting and all their other logistics. We had to talk to people because it is a new concept so we had to find out a variety of people’s opinions on it whether it was vegans, vegetarians and even the people who love meat. We ran a test kitchen before we launched in order to get the good and bad reviews then took the bad reviews and worked on them hence the 8 months.

So you could say it was a labour of love! And everything on the menu is very well put together.

Yes, every ingredient in each dish has a health benefit. Being a new concept, we really did our research because we believe in restorative nutrition.

When you first heard about the concept of the restaurant, what was your immediate vision for the menu?

What immediately came to mind was restorative nutrition because you almost want the food to be medicine. Well, it first took me straight to the hospitals. I understood that I had to do intense research.

How did you manage to find a balance between savoury (and sweet) meals that meat-loving Kenyans, vegetarians and vegans would like?

When you‘re coming up with a menu that has dietary restrictions the first thing you’re going to do is talk to different people, taking the time to understand different tastes and what people want to see in a dish. People don’t understand though that we are who we are because of what we eat, once you get that it then moves from what the chef wants to what the client wants and when you do that and the client comes in for a meal they will be blown away.

Did you have to do many tests?

Yes, the first panel that we had got very good reviews. It is a lettuce-free salad bistro so what people understand to be a salad is completely different from what we were presenting to them. Just the fact that you can have different dishes from the cold kitchen and get filled up is different. The reviews have been good, the only adjustments we made was when we opened and got more feedback from diners.

Of all the dishes on the menu, do you have a favourite?

Photography by Lucy Munene

I love everything. Each dish on the menu has its own strength but for a first-time visitor, I would recommend the entrees because they have 6-8 ingredients so there are a lot of health benefits and you get to taste so much.

Do you have a favourite ingredient you love to work with?

The first test we did, we had dishes that didn’t make it to the menu and from that point, we were left with the top ingredients and those are the ones I love.

What is the bestselling dish?

The Bahn mi sandwich which has pork sausage, coriander, cucumber, jalapenos, carrots, pickled daikon and chilli mayo spread on a baguette.

Do you eat the same way at home?

After receiving this concept, I started changing my eating habits and what I buy. You can’t give people something you’re not consuming. It is not easy though, it is a journey but with time the body will change and it will get easier.