Growing up in a small town east of Nairobi, Kenya, chef David Ndungi was never allowed into the kitchen.

Women were the only ones allowed to cook in his culture and men were in charge of hunting for food. As a result Mr Ndungi grew curious about the culinary arts.

He decided to make a career out it while in his teens.

This week The Reefs’ chef de partie was named the Bermuda Rising Chef of the Year 2014, in a competition hosted by the Bermuda Hospitality Institute.

He spoke with The Royal Gazette about how he became interested in cooking, what it’s like to have a fellow chef for a wife and what the recent win could mean for his career.

Q: What was your earliest experience cooking?

A: I came from an African background in a town called Kitui, where whenever we do festivities you call your relatives and friends and they come there and you have to slaughter a whole goat or cow. So as children we would wake up really early in the morning and the children would chase the chickens and give them to the ladies to cook. The biggest thing was when the older men would go out and slaughter a bull. It’s something that always sticks out in my mind. That was when I was around ten or 12 years old.

Q: So how did your passion for cooking develop?

A: I started off watching what the women were doing and was always curious about what was happening back there. Growing up, being in a kitchen wasn’t a man’s duty so it wasn’t a question for me to become a chef. I was going to be a lawyer and that is what I was fascinated with because I was quite argumentative. But I changed course after hearing a young man who was invited to my high school to speak. We had these guest speakers who would come to talk to us about our future and how we can progress and there was this young guy, probably around 28, who had his own catering firm. He told us you could do culinary arts and make it into a business. He ended up getting big contracts with big companies and he made it, so he was telling us we could make a career out of cooking. That really impacted me and right away I decided, even though I was progressing in my studies with law, I would become a chef. That’s what I really wanted to do, so I started to work on it when I was 15 or 16. My teachers told me being a lawyer was very prestigious, but I never looked back and don’t regret becoming a chef. It’s who I am.

Q: What kinds of meals do you typically cook at home?

A: My wife [Sophy Ogutu] is also a chef and works at Fairmont Southampton, so when we are not busy we sometimes have small competitions to see who can cook the best Ugali (a dish made from maize flour). We use white cornmeal and try to make it in a modern way. Back home we cook it very plain, without salt or anything, but when my wife and I cook we try and make it in a French or modern way. We usually add things like margarine or seasonings like salt, pepper or a paprika rub. Once it’s ready we make it into a cup-like shape and grill it so it has nice grill marks on it. It tastes the same, but more improved. If I were to make something like that for my grandmother or grandfather they would throw it out because they are used to the plain style that’s made with just water. They feel the only flavour from it should come from the stew or whatever you serve it with.

Q: What’s it like living with another cook?

A: It’s fun. We met in culinary school at Kenya Utalii College and she was among the best students in the class. But that’s not what really attracted me to her. It was the way she used to just get on with a task; she reminded me of my mother. Usually men in my culture try to look for a lady who has the qualities of their mom because that’s the lady they spend the most time with. And Sophy and I just hit it off.

Q: What does it mean to win the Rising Chef of the Year Competition?

A: This is going to open doors for me. It’s never been won before by a chef from The Reefs, so it shows that it can be done. I have two team members who took part in it in past years and every time they went and came back devastated that they couldn’t win against the Fairmont chefs. Now that I’ve won it opens the doors for chefs at Grotto Bay and Cambridge Beaches and other places like that.

Q: Where else did you live/work before coming to Bermuda?

A: After graduating from culinary school in 2005, I was employed by Hilton Nairobi. I worked there for a year before being transferred to Hilton Seychelles. After that I went to Hilton Dubai Jumeirah Resort in the UAE, where I worked for two years before returning to Seychelles. All this time Sophy and I had been moving around together, but then she decided she had been working with Hilton for such a long time and wanted to break out and try a new hotel. She applied for her position at the Fairmont in Bermuda and got it and after six months of a long-distance relationship we wanted to be close to one another. I looked to find what were the best hotels according to TripAdvisor.com and The Reefs was one of the top five, so I was happy when they decided to hire me.