"The philosophy is about promoting African ingredients," he says as he presents a jar of Ivorian button mushrooms for me to inspect alongside my hibiscus-and-beetroot-dusted beef tartare. Now here's a whiff of the Egyptian black lemon accompanying a Burundian tree tomato sorbet, all but obscured under cascades of dry ice; later I study the rondelles-a kind of nutmeg found in Burkina Faso and Mali, pungent with a loamy, garlicky bouquet-that play a starring role in a plate of Mombasa shrimp crowned with diaphanous ribbons of kombucha-fermented carrots and strokes of Ghanaian shito cream.
"People have this idea of fine dining in Europe, they think it will be the same here," says Malonga, whose gentle, soft-spoken nature belies the shelf of awards sitting a few feet away. "This is very different-we want to give an experience." By the end of nine courses, my palate has mapped the continent.
Malonga, with his Adidas cap slung backwards, presides over the open kitchen as chefs swirl around in a seamlessly composed dance, tweezing, saucing, and wiping under his tutelage.
Born in Congo and raised in Germany and France, Malonga journeyed through 46 of Africa's 54 countries before opening Meza Malonga in Kigali 2020, calibrating his findings into a sweeping tasting menu that traverses the vast expanse of Africa.
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