In the path-breaking book The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating, chef Fergus Henderson revolutionised the modern culinary world by championing ‘nose-to-tail’ dining-the idea that if you are going to kill an animal to eat it, it is only respectful to use the entire thing.
‘If you are going to kill an animal, it seems only polite to use the whole thing. There are delectable bits beyond the loin,’ he said.
Michael Bageine, a premier Ugandan chef who mixes sizzle with substance, has written a book comparable in wit and a lightness of touch to chef Henderson’s. His book, The Meat Whisperer, is part-extended ode to the marvels of meat and part-autobiography. It is such an epic story that he has had to break it up into parts of a whole book.
‘This series is borne out of a need to tell my stories in a way that may not conform to the expected but to share a lifetime of experience, shenanigans, hard lessons and the joy that cooking has brought into my life. Please, do not expect recipes. This is not that kind of storytelling,’ he warns.
‘My career as a chef was more or less one that I stumbled into. A defined trajectory had been set via Urban Planning and a comfortable job within the real estate business.’
For those who do not know, I walked away from this course in my third year. All I had to do was complete my thesis. I did not. And I have no regrets. Am I grateful for the effort that was made to get me to a point of success?
Of course, I am. It simply was not my calling. It gets more interesting. My first career choice was in the military. This too is a story for another day. Over the years, I have developed and grown into what fate presented to me. A career as a chef. Most of you think my area of expertise is BBQ and it is because of this; I have named this series TheMeat Whisperer.’
His culinary skills extend beyond meat and are certainly not limited to using the noun ‘meat’ as a homophone, as most ‘muchomo’ establishments are wont to do when urging you to seize the verb ‘meat’ and thereby gather at their establishments.
The road less taken
His story is not that bland, probably because he insists on his cooking being anything but bland. Chef Bageine has a more playful take on his skills, however.
He has seen tragedy, losing many close friends and watched his life take on the vicissitudes reserved for those who take the road less taken.
As he tells it, he could have been anything he chose to be. Not because he hails from an affluent family but because his mind is a sponge.
No, we are not referring to Maria Montessori’s theory of the ‘absorbent mind’, which describes the unique, effortless capacity of young children (from birth to age six) to soak up language, culture, habits, and details from their environment just like a sponge absorbs water.
Chef Bageine is no infant, but he does use his inner child to tell his story. Thus, he lends his prose a childlike instead of childish quality.
Allow dream to blossom
This book is for those who allow their dreams to blossom into what psychologists such as John Bradshaw, channelling Carl Jung’s ‘divine child’ archetype, would call the power of the subconscious.
Many of us go through life allowing convention to trump invention and thereby stifle our innate ability to create. Chef Bageine uses his own story not only to appeal to your palate but to also to remind us that our chosen professions in life are what we make them.