- Cyprian Machangoh was born and raised in Migori County and served in the Kenya Air Force for 9 years.
- He later relocated to Dubai where he is the head chef at a restaurant with nine kitchens serving different African dishes.
- During the 2020 Expo in Dubai, Machangoh was the head chef of nine restaurants and leading over 85 African chefs serving guest from across the world.
Background
Chef Cyprian Juma Machangoh was born and raised in Migori County. He joined the Kenya Air force in 2003.
“At the military I was working at the admin and supporting the system as a chef. I worked in different ranks until the time I retired from the military. I’ll forever appreciate the military because that’s where I received my cooking training,” he said in a past interview.
Cyprian attended the military School of Ordinance at Kahawa Garisson and graduated as a Cook Grade one – a Diploma in Cooking and Culinary. He later moved to Utalii College where he graduated with a Diploma in Culinary arts. He worked as a chef with the disciplined force for 9 years before he called it quits.
Moving to Dubai
In 2013, Cyprian got an opportunity to work with Emirates Airline in Dubai as a chef and that’s how he ushered his career abroad. He left behind his wife and two children before they joined him in 2015 after he had settled down. He worked with the airline for three years before he joined Alkebulan, an African dining hall with nine kitchens in Dubai serving different types of African dishes.
“All nine restaurants are a representation of Africa. We have one restaurant that has African street food like mutura, samosa, Tamiya from Egypt, manisha from South Africa and Kampala’s rolex, which is eggs wrapped in chapatti,” Cyprian told the Business Daily.
Cyprian has worked with Celebrity Cruises under Royal Caribbean Group, the popular TV Cooking series –Master Chef and an Asian French fusion restaurant in Downtown Dubai.
The Dubai Expo
During the Dubai 2020 Expo, Cyprian was in charge of nine restaurants exhibiting its delicacies and serving clients from across the world. During an exclusive interview with Alex Chamwada, Cyprian revealed that the Alkebulan Food Hall has employed 15 Kenyans out of the 85 African chefs.
“It is the first biggest group of African restaurants to be set up abroad. We have 100 percent chefs from Africa in the whole entire restaurant. I have around 15 Kenyan chefs working under me in a total of around 85 African chefs who are running this restaurant,” he said.
“This is a brainchild of one Chef Alexander Small who comes from the West. He is American and he is the one who came with the idea of putting Africa together by bring the different cuisines from the continent under one roof,” he added.
At the Expo, Cyprian was in charge of staffing, supervising the chefs to maintain standards, taking orders, budgeting, sourcing for foodstuffs and taking special orders.
