About Us
Transforming kitchens. Transforming lives.
Shamba Chef is an edutainment reality TV show produced by The Mediae Company and grounded on improving the cooking methods of Kenyans, as well as their family’s nutrition.
Hosted by Janet Kirina and Melvin Alusa, the Shamba Chef crew travel across Kenya, meeting families and discussing the challenges and problems that are common to kitchens throughout the country.
With the help of a team of experts, we delve into real households and offer practical solutions to improving the cooking experience - making it cleaner, quicker, safer and at half the cost.
The Shamba Chef recipe
Each episode boils down to the makeover of a kitchen and the introduction of a cleaner, improved cooking solution that is best suited to the family’s access to fuel and their typical cooking practice.
Add a dash of popular Kenyan chefs, who showcase cultural food preferences from different regions, and share creative tips on how to cook tasty and nutritious meals from locally available food.
Sprinkle in some nutritional experts to explain the benefits of a well-balanced diet and how to maximise the health benefits from food grown in your own kitchen garden.
Tie it all together with a set of charismatic hosts, and tuck into a wholesome cooking experience.
Our Story
Picture this. Scenes of poorly ventilated smoky kitchens, with mothers and their young ones huddled around a traditional three-stone jiko, as clouds of smoke irritate their eyes and lungs. Sadly, this is characteristic of households across Kenya.
Millions of households across East Africa still cook over open fires or using inefficient charcoal stoves on a daily basis.The cost to families is huge, with the average Kenyan family spending almost one third of their income on fuel. In rural areas, several hours per day are spent collecting firewood and smoke inhalation causes serious health risks - acute respiratory illnesses (ARIs) are the second leading cause of death in Kenya.
With such alarming figures, the idea for a show to tackle these issues was born and the potential to improve these conditions was seized.
With funding from the Global Alliance of Clean Cookstoves (GACC), research was undertaken and partnerships forged with key players in the cookstove industry offering cleaner and more efficient cooking solutions.
We also saw the opportunity to explore the culture of food, and to encourage healthier and more nutritious ways of eating. Ultimately, our aim is to improve nutrition and promote the adoption of cleaner and more efficient cooking, one episode at a time.
