(OLIVE BURROWS) I wasn’t expecting much from the potatoes, I mean, really, how much can you expect from a potato?

I expected them to taste how they looked, like all the other potatoes sautéd with bell peppers I’d had before. Except they weren’t. How did they taste? How to explain it? Nothing like any potatoes I’d had before. They were Chef Sunil Soni’s potatoes.

Let me introduce you to Chef Soni. In a nutshell, he’s a model/singer turned chef with 26 years experience in the Kitchen.

Kitchen’s of renowned hotels and restaurants from India to Singapore, Kuwait, Turkmenistan, the United States and now for the second time, Kenya, having worked at the White Sands between 1996 and 1997.

He’s worked at the Sheraton, Holiday Inn and now the Temple Point Resort in Watamu; Chef Soni being the man you call when you need to reinvent. He set up kitchens for the Sheraton in Kuwait and Turkmenistan, the first Mahek in Seychelles and a live cooking Spice Bar in Needham Massachusetts.

And spicing up is just what Watamu needs given the slump witnessed along the coastal tourism circuit. They do say that necessity is the mother of invention, in this case reinvention.

Back to the potatoes: It’s all in the marination Chef Soni says. And if you’d like to know more, well you’re just going to have to give the new taste of Watamu Mahek, a sampling.

Mahek opened its doors at the Temple Point Resort last month at a gala dinner that appealed to vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike with a menu that included King Fish delicately marinated with mint and yoghurt, boneless cubes of lamb cooked with onion, mint and bell pepper, shrimp cooked with cashew nuts in garlic sauce and cubes of chicken marinated with yoghurt, cream, egg whites and cardamom powder. Just as succulent as it sounds.

 

Pictures by JERI MUCHURA