A new cookery school

Masai are in the spotlight, because of the safari camps in their midst.

From Maasai Cricket to Maasai being chefs,it seems outside forces want to intergarate themselves into their culture.Is this going to be a case of 'too many cooks spoiling the broth'?
I think the firm wants to create a name for themselves,and gain profits of course,at the expense of the Maasai's culture.

This is a valuable article giving place to much information unknown to many persons.
Many thanks to the contributor.

If women are the traditional cooks, why not train them?

So the Danes now have Noma Restaurant as number 1 in the world and so now want to train Kenyan Masai men to cook for foreign tourists in "safari camps".
Most of the tourists do not want bush food but some form of haute cuisine so this is a total non-runner.
Reminds me of the Norwegians putting an all female light armoured brigade into Kabul to "impress" the natives and promote women's lib (Yes it did happen)- pity the Norwegians could not have made their police force more efficient, and saved so many lives from Breivik.
Back to subject - Ethiopia has some marvellous food that could be imported and adapted to these tourist bush camps to create more authenticity.

What's wrong with Haggis, plack pudding, or milk (products)? And why not goat meat instead of beef? Lokk at the vigour an slenderness of the Masai: a change in diet may me disastrous for them. Why not learn instead of teaching?

What most of the comments have missed is that this "cookery school" is not aimed at changing the cooking/eating habits of the Masai - it is a training school to enable them to work in Restaurants and other establishments which cater for the tourist market. It also has nothing to so with Dutch cooking abilities (or lack of) and cuisine.

And for those of you who don't want to believe it - there is still a very strong "culture" under African men - even those who live and work in the cities of South Africa and other "westernised" countries - that cooking and cleaning is a woman's job. I have worked with them - they wouldn't even wash their own tea mugs!!

A cooking school such as this will do very little to change the culture and attitudes of people. One does wonder though how many men in the UK would happily change their "modern man" culture if a school had to open in London where the Masai came to teach them their culture??

This is quite egocentric. The article leaves out scores of Maasai girls, boys, men and women who have gone to study in the cities, and who are engaging in diverse social-economic development. Cultural relativism could do lots of good when viewing some cultures that are sometimes viewed as 'primitive'. Take your time, and adopt a view from the local, and hopefully you shall comprehend loads compared to a narrow-minded view that is heavily based on various stereotypes.

what kind of stupid article this is. Masai men use a knife on daily basis and they should be teaching the Danish how to hold it. They should also be teaching them how to boil an egg.They have been doing this since middle ages....AND When a white sleeps in the same bed with his dog, it is civilization, when a maasai has his cows around his manyatta, it is primitivity...what a contradiction!

If they had a class like this in my high school (or in college), maybe I actually would have learned how to do something.

Evolution or Extinction ? The Masai evolved into their “cuisine” over many eons. As human evolution appears to be changing at a “factorial” pace; maybe this is what is necessary to keep them from extinction. It is easy from a comfortable “western” existence to romanticize the “natives” maintaining some better primative existance and not evolving to survive.

One can hardly believe the Masai need to be taught hygiene, how to hold a knife, or how to boil an egg, by Danes (so much for a condescending article). Plus, the Masai seem to do quite well with their own diet - I fail to see why anyone should change that...except if you want to turn the Masai into fat people struggling with heart diseases.

if they don't eat the cows then what do they do with them?

Also, learning cuisine from the Danes? LOL! If nordic cuisine is known for anything it is known for being disgusting, hakarl or lutefisk anyone, how about some surströmming?

The Masai are being done a diservice here; where are the Italians? They can make culinary miracles out of practically nothing.

OK, he's Danish, but it's close enough for me to be flashing on the "Swedish Chef" from The Muppets. Masai Warriors and the Swedish Chef, what a combination!

The Danes teaching cooking? Next they'll have the French teaching personal hygeine, and the Australians teaching manners.

As I recall from my mispent youth, I happened to go on a few lion spear hunting expeditions with my Masaai peers (young men of my age from where I lived in a farm in the Rift Valley) and although we never got a lion (rarely seen one, even) we would often catch small dikdik antelopes and quite a few rabbits. The memory of those barbecues or the baking of a rabbit in its own skin & juices seasoned with small chilis(we just patiently plucked the fur and baked it in an oven of sand heated by a roaring fire and then covered by the charcoal) make me disagree with your statement of Masaai warriors not cooking or tending fire. Tokai!

It is quite annoying to know that by changing their cooking habits they will mess around with their metabolism and considering the belief that we are what we eat, we can expect some change in their behavior and body shape soon. Menu Big Mac Masai anyone?

Needs a spell check!

"Traditional Masai still get by on a diet of blood, blood-porridge, and milk."

The hot trend in tween and adolescent literature, television and movies is Vampires.

Perhaps Vampire Cuisine may be the fresh new taste the young seek.

Advice: Market less Masai culture and more Count Dracula and hot supermodel Vamps.