Modern Safaris Match African Cuisines With Outdoor Adventure

May 21, 2025 0

A top-down look at a dish of fried sardines on a crispy puck, arranged on a gold plate with gold silverware. — Makubi Safari Camp

While operators have historically served Western cuisines, a handful of modern safaris are offering local cuisines and native ingredients to immerse guests fully in their stunning surroundings

A safari in Africa is about more than wildlife encounters. It’s an immersion into the histories, cultures, and landscapes of the host nations. But, until recently, the food served on most safari lodges featured European fine dining, British high tea, French pastries, grilled meats with imported sauces, and other relics of 19th-century European colonialism on the continent. This approach persisted long after African nations won their independence in the 20th century, upheld by assumptions among safari operators that luxury travelers expected Western food and imported ingredients instead of local flavors. Africa’s rich culinary traditions were largely excluded.

Today, some safari menus tell a different story. A growing number of African lodges and camps use their food programs — typically all-inclusive with safari packages — to center the culinary heritage of local communities. Chefs work with farmers to source indigenous vegetables, spices, and herbs, and draw inspiration from age-old cooking techniques. Now you can get dishes such as smoky grilled tilapia wrapped in banana leaves in Tanzania, slow simmered matoke (plantains) in Uganda, and ugali (maize porridge) with rich beef stew or sukuma wiki (kale) in Kenya.

This shift is not just about making menus more interesting or harvesting ingredients more sustainably (though it accomplishes both). These menus offer visitors a deeper connection to the land they’ve come to experience. Across South and East Africa, where safaris are especially popular, you’ll find operators designing all sorts of inventive food programs; but a few have distinguished themselves at the forefront, serving up thoughtful meals that seamlessly merge with their stunning settings.

A jeep parked in high grasses, with Mount Kenya visible in the distance. — One of Elewana’s jeeps.

Skewers of bright orange chicken roasting on a coal grill. — Chicken on the grill.

Elewana Loisaba Tented Camp

Laikipia Plateau, Kenya

Chefs Wesley Petersen and Amie McNeice bring their South African roots to the table while embracing East African flavors at Elewana Loisaba, set on the edge of Kenya’s Laikipia Plateau. A fragrant Cape Malay curry layers warming spices, slow-cooked meats take on herbaceous depth, McNeice’s pastry expertise shines in desserts like masala-spiced panna cotta with rooibos-poached pear, and the prickly pear cocktail is a sundowner signature.

The camp sources fresh produce from nearby smallholder farms and the Chui Mamas garden, a women-led initiative supplying greens, tropical fruits, and camel milk. Private barbecues by the pool, lantern-lit dinners on the deck, and nyama choma (barbecue) nights — featuring githeri (a mix of corn and beans), sukuma wiki (kale), and chapati — keep things lively.

Three beers in front of a menu of snack items on the wall. — Snack options and drinks at Bwindi.

A woman rests against a sill with a cup of steaming coffee as she looks out on the forest. — Cozying up at Bwindi.

Women lean into tea bushes with large baskets on their backs. — Harvesting tea in the forest.

Volcanoes Safaris Bwindi Lodge

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda

On the outskirts of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, the air around Bwindi Lodge is thick with the scent of damp earth and wild herbs, as the lodge’s kitchen comes to life with the crackling of charcoal fires and the slow, steady simmer of spiced stews. During the day, the team might be busy plucking fresh guavas from the garden or herbs from the solar-powered hydroponic system, while chef Loyce Acom might be off sourcing beans, onions, and potatoes from neighboring Batwa communities where sales fund local schools.

For guests eager to get their hands dusted in flour, the lodge’s traditional cooking class offers a deep dive into Ugandan flavors. Chicken luwombo, a dish fit for Buganda kings, features chicken steamed in banana leaves, rich with smoked paprika and peanut sauce. It shares the spotlight with Uganda’s beloved street snack, the Rolex, a soft chapati rolled around a fluffy spiced omelet, best enjoyed hot off the grill.

Meals unfold around a communal wooden table under a high thatched roof, where guests chat over plates of curried tilapia from Lake Victoria and cool off with tart tree tomato sorbet. Some nights, chefs carry a sigiri charcoal stove into the dining room, where they roast steak and tilapia, and plate at the table.

An open-air tent above a seating area. — The camp at Makubi.

Makubi Safari Camp

Nyerere National Park, Tanzania

Makubi Safari Camp is set within the vast wilderness of Nyerere National Park, the largest national park in Tanzania and one of the world’s greatest wildlife sanctuaries, where the Rufiji River snakes through golden grasslands, elephants roam freely, hyraxes hide in rocky outcrops, and ancient baobab trees reach toward endless skies.

Tendekayi Guni, the camp’s owner and chef, roots his menus in Tanzanian and Swahili heritage, while his team keeps things fun with creative twists on traditional recipes. Slow-cooked stews feature local cloves and coriander seeds, historically significant in Tanzania’s spice trade, while the signature Buddha salad showcases mchicha (wild spinach), okra, and roasted pumpkin topped with dressing that blends tangy baobab fruit with honey and indigenous spices. Camp operators have formed partnerships with local farmers to source seasonal produce, including everything from sun-sweetened tropical fruits to wild-foraged greens. Guests can even help prepare meals while learning traditional cooking techniques.

Throughout the day, meal settings show off the surrounding wilderness. Guests might enjoy breakfast in the camp’s open-air restaurant, a boma dinner around the fire with the stars overhead, or a private sunset meal by the lake. During the dry season, tables might be set near watering holes that attract elephants to create a front-row dinnertime show.

A long bar with green leather stools in an open-air restaurant beneath a thatched roof. — Inside Mfuwe Lodge.

A chef tosses ingredients in a skillet over a large wood-fired outdoor hearth. — Cooking up a meal at Mfuwe.

A hippo floats in water covered with greenery, with a wooden lodge nearby. — A lagoon near Mfuwe Lodge.

The Bushcamp Mfuwe Lodge

South Luangwa National Park, Zambia

A taste of Zambian cuisine at Mfuwe Lodge starts at the property’s farm, spread across 50 acres of lush land, that supplies 80 percent of the fruits and vegetables served at the lodge, including okra, eggplant, bananas, and lemongrass.

Guests wrap their hands around mugs of hot coffee while the chatter of southern ground hornbills cuts through the quiet and breakfast takes shape over an open fire: nshima (cornmeal porridge) and sauteed chibwabwa (pumpkin leaves) with thick-cut bacon and eggs. For a hands-on experience, guests can craft bush pizzas, layering vibrant vegetables onto thin, blistered crust. Or they can just wait for dinner, when the scent of grilled meats drifts from the braai, a traditional African live-fire barbecue. Even the cocktails tell a local story; the lodge’s Luangwa Gin and Vodka, infused with regional botanicals like baobab and wild lemon, swirl into sundowners that are best enjoyed to the tune of hippos grunting in the nearby lagoon.

A table set in a thatched roof room, with a living space visible beyond. — A cozy dining space at Kuro Nomad.

People sit on camp chairs with drinks against a sunset over the savannah. — Enjoying a drink after a long day.

Nomad Kuro

Tarangire National Park, Tanzania

The first thing you’ll notice — other than the elephants who occasionally wander through the grounds — at Kuro Tarangire, a luxury hideaway in the heart of Tarangire National Park in northern Tanzania, is the craftsmanship in every detail. The eco-minded retreat features locally sourced linen drapes, woven baskets, and throws. On the handcrafted wooden dining tables, you’ll find wine glasses made from recycled bottles and fine ceramic coffee mugs.

This dedication extends to the food, which features traditional Tanzanian Swahili flavors. Seasonal fruit like mangoes, pineapples, watermelon, and passionfruit are artfully laid out on wooden breakfast platters alongside freshly baked bread and eggs. After game drives, guests enjoy signature dishes like coconut-crusted chicken filets with sauteed vegetables, spicy yogurt sauce, and potato wedges. The chef’s secret pilipili sauce (hot sauce) adds a good kick to it all.

A chef in whites picks produce from a garden. — Harvesting produce at Virunga Lodge.

A long table set beneath ornate pendant lights and wood beamed ceiling. — A dining room at Virunga Lodge.

Two women sit weaving against a stunning backdrop of water and rolling hills. — Weaving textiles at Virunga Lodge.

Volcanoes Safaris Virunga Lodge

Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda

Virunga Lodge, Rwanda’s original gorilla lodge, is set high on a ridge, where it enjoys panoramic views of the Virunga Volcanoes and the twin lakes of Burera and Ruhondo. Mornings here are slow and quiet, the mist rolling in as guests sip strong Rwandan coffee on the private terraces of their bandas (stylish suites outfitted with handwoven textiles, locally sculpted wood furnishings, and sisal rugs) before morning treks to meet the local gorillas.

Throughout the day, the property’s private butlers guide guests through meals without need for rigid menus. Breakfasts of passionfruit and warm sorghum porridge are already in motion as the first light slips across the Virunga volcanoes. Slow-cooked stews like ibihaza, made with cassava leaves, appear at lunch alongside roasted plantains and delicately spiced lake fish. And to finish on a sweet note, there’s pineapple imineke, a soft lemon-curd base layered with bruleed banana, bright pineapple, and shaved lime zest.

Animals graze near a dining table set out in nature. — Lunch set by a salt lick.

A raised platform with an open-air bedroom and other furnishings. — A tented suite at Mara Bushtops.

Mara Bushtops

Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

During the Great Migration between June and October, herds of wildebeest, zebras, eland, gazelle, and impala journey over 1,000 miles across grasslands and river crossings through Kenya and Tanzania. They cross through Kenya’s Masai Mara, where you’ll find Mara Bushtops’ 6,500 acres of private conservancy.

At the property, chef David Ngungu and his team focus on Kenya’s diverse regions; pilau (rice cooked in broth) from the coast shows off its Indian influences in fragrant cinnamon and cardamom, while hearty mukimo (mashed potatoes, pumpkin leaves, and maize) has spread from the Kikuyu community in central Kenya to become a hearty favorite all over the country. And ingredients like sukuma wiki (kale), which the team gently sautees with onions and serves alongside soft maize ugali (porridge), maintain their earthy aroma from the camp’s garden.

Under the spreading shade of an acacia tree, guests enjoy breakfast as chefs fill the crisp morning air with the smoky scents of chapatis cooked over open flames. Signature breakfast dishes include mbaazi na mahamri (pigeon peas slow-simmered in coconut milk), served with maandazi (golden-hued Swahili doughnuts). Evenings bring sundowners: happy hour drinks enjoyed at sunset as zebras graze nearby. Finally, lantern-lit dinners beneath the stars feature slow-roasted nyama choma (grilled meats) sizzled over charcoal, paired with spicy kachumbari (tomato and onion) salad.

Joyce Oladeinde is a British Nigerian travel and food writer who specializes in African culinary tourism, drawing from her experiences living in Tanzania, Kenya, and Nigeria. She uses her passion for African food and travel to reshape narratives and in her work as co-founder of Crescendo Digital, an award-winning marketing and PR agency helping tourism and hospitality brands across Africa reach global markets.