Cookbook about Ugandan cuisine by Jonathan Kabugo

Goethe-Zentrum Kampala is really happy to announce the winner of the first “Small Project Grant” 2019: Jonathan Kabugo. He will be using the 2.000.000 UGX to create a cookbook showcasing various foods, dishes and traditional cuisines from East, West, North and Central Uganda. This book preserves the time old traditions of preparing, cooking and dining as in the old times through pictures and light story telling. Jonathan’s motivation comes from the fact, that the majority of people, who live in Uganda are youth, but they are very much out of touch with their roots, their ways and take up foreign cultures faster than they eat Rolexes. This cookbook will be a way to not lose the Ugandan values and way of life in this chaotic unhinged social media lifestyle young people are adopting to and to encourage young people to innovate with basis of roots and unique approach to dining as it was.

Food is an important part of art & culture, traditional cuisine is passed down from one generation to the next. Uganda’s unique cuisine reflects its story, European and Arabian colonisation yielded the introduction various ingredients and cooking styles. The book aims to preserve the culture, art of dining, customs for family dining, occasions for and when the different meals were served, the customs or manners when dining in the different tribes and the delicacies from the past.

Jonathan Kabugo is a Ugandan graphic designer, he will be using his art expertise and over 6 years professional experience to expressively bring the old Ugandan cuisine brilliantly into the 21 st century in a modern and culturally appropriate way for audiences from all walks of life. The cookbook will have crisp clear and bright images on every page, of the food/meal in its ready to consume state and how to prepare instructions. The concept will look to showcase images of complete meals (i.e. food & sauce) and not a single food/group. A complete meal in Uganda has a starchy solid base, a soluble, light based sauce to make eating the former easier and delightful. Jonathan grew up in an extended farming family: “Our meals came from our family garden 10km away and every morning we fetched it on foot, carrying it on our heads all the way home. Then grandmother would tell us folk tales in the kitchen while she prepared the meals and taught us the dos and don’ts in the kitchen, dining area and eating. I learnt more around the smoky tiny fire place we called kitchen to be forever grateful.”