Cooking Singita Style!

Located between Singita Lebombo Lodge’s kitchen and dining room, Singita Kruger National Park have recently opened a brand new ‘state-of-the-art’ facility for a demonstration styled studio for cookery classes. They have been meticulously planning this tremendous set up for a few years now and it has all finally paid off which is very exciting! The gleaming, shiny kitchen will be used by the students of a rigorous ‘Singita-crafted professional culinary course which produces ten internationally qualified commis chefs every single year.

The Singita Community Culinary School offers an extremely unique programmed and opportunity to fulfil a real need in the nearby community along with the South African hospitality industry as a whole, this set up at Lebombo is fantastic for future generations to come. Graduates will emerge and graduate from the school with highly sought-after skills and an even stronger chance of becoming employed by the top employers within South Africa as well as potentially further afield.

The students will spend the majority of their time learning the basic knowledge of cooking and preparing food within this newly developed demonstration studio which operates as a fully functional practical as well as a fully functional theory classroom. Following this, they will be learning within the five Singita lodge kitchens across South Africa with hands-on experience.

Following on from the resident students, guests at Singita Lebombo and Singita Sweni Lodges are now able to enjoy their own cooking class led by one of the expertly trained chefs and teachers from the program. Partaking in one of these classes, guests will be supporting this important community development project at the same time as partaking. If you were tempted by one of these excellent classes when planning on staying at any of the above Singita Lodges, classes should be booked at least 24 hours in advance to give the chefs a chance to pre-arrange what they will be cooking within the class, as well as sourcing some of the food that may be quite hard to come by. The classes may be scheduled seven days a week and are subject to availability. There will be a range of popular and traditional South African dishes on offer to turn your hand at cooking or a trademark dish from chef Liam Tomlins tapas menu.

Singita Sweni lies on the banks of the Sweni River within the Kruger National Park. This is an incredibly small and very intimate camp that is set within some of the most game rich areas not only in the Kruger but in Southern Africa, you really will be spoilt for choice on so many levels if you would like to stay here. The lodge as a whole gives the illusion of a suspended tree immersed hideaway cleverly designed and constructed on stilts. Guests can literally nestle within the branches of the surrounding trees with virtually unobstructed views of animals visiting the water on a daily, if not hourly basis to drink from the banks of the river.

Singita Lebombo is also located within the Kruger National Park and is slightly larger in size than Singita Sweni, but still offers the intimate feel to guests. Like the Lebombo Euphorbia tree which the camp is named after, the design of Lebombo Lodge is very unique. Sweeping wooden decking allow guests to meander through the bush with the expectation of fantastic wildlife viewing opportunities that could meet them every corner they go around. The fifteen suites, feature contemporary finishes with beds dressed in Egyptian cotton adorned with silky-soft throws. Guests can enjoy dinner in the cosy boma and then spend the evening sleeping under the stars on a bed on one of the private terraces.