Get expert cookery skills

We recently spent a couple of days at the idyllic Africa Village Hotel that is situated in the middle of the lush green vegetation of Bugerere in Kayunga Mukono District.

The hotel is about an hour’s drive from Kampala sitting on 160 acres of land and as soon one arrives there, the whole spectrum is that of another world. This is especially noticeable in the absolute serenity that prevails, not to mention the decent and exclusive atmosphere the area offers.

The accommodation is a labyrinth of rendezvous interspersed with comfortable and well-manicured lawns. They are quaint and wholly practical with traditional thatched roof and mikekka mats for carpets. Fully self contained with hot and running water and a comfortable double bed, it is place I would gladly recommend for a weekend sojourn out of town.

Attached to the hotel is the unique Hotel and Management School that is the first wholly private kind of its type in Uganda.

It has come not a moment too soon considering one of the biggest challenges of the local cooking schools is that they lack practical training facilities. For that matter, it is not uncommon to be introduced to actual cilantro, celery and the like at exam time.

Classy interior
It was so encouraging and heartening to be shown a new purposely built demonstration kitchen for at least 14 students that is fully equipped with a gas range cooker complete with an oven. This ensures that at the very least, each student will have the opportunity to do hands-on practice in the hot kitchen section at least twice a week.

In similar fashion, there is a fully equipped bakery and pastry kitchen where they can also do cold kitchen preps. When it comes to say the hotel kitchen is completely separated and as and when the need arises, students can help out.

As for Industrial training, Munyonyo Speke Resort and Africana Hotel are a couple of establishments that come to mind.

The intake is deliberately restricted to not more than 50 students evenly divided between diploma and certificate aspirants. The small numbers allow for excellent tutor/pupil ratio while at the same time giving students no excuse for failing.

The institute is affiliated to PUM Holland, a quasi government NGO that arranges for specialists in the industry who spend three weeks working at the institute bringing and sharing vital experience and know-how otherwise lacking at the school.

what you ought to know
The tuition fees is incredibly cheap; (for a diploma in hotel management) Shs 1,325,000 is less expensive than what an Aga Khan Primary school pupil pays taking into account meals and transport. True, that the industrial training fee is extra, but no matter how you look at it, getting quality vocational training for that kind of money is unheard of in Uganda.