This week I’m taking you back in time. A long time ago, before I was a lodge owner in Ghana. Team Moon&Star offers you as our guest the most delicious dishes and we adapt easily to all kinds of dietary needs. In this blog you can find out where the basis for this came from.

Moon&Star guesthouse, a lodge in Ghana

The Hague, 23 years ago, long before I became the owner of a lodge in Ghana….

“Is that a pine forest or is it supposed to be garnish?”

the snappy cooking technique tutor asked the frightened students

The Hague 1996. I was a shy girl, I studied Nutrition and Dietetics in The Hague. Twice a week the cooking techniques class was on our schedule and twice a week we went into the classroom feeling terrified.

I have no idea what the teacher’s name was, but I remember exactly what she looked like. She was old, a bit sturdy and she had a flowerpot haircut that she had painted aubergine with a lot of outgrowth.

In groups of 2 we were allowed to cook in the beautiful utilized kitchens of the Hague University of Applied Sciences, while the snappy teacher walked around and made one prickly remark after another. Her eyes never seemed to laugh, but she always laughed empty at her own remarks. Sad really, now that I reflect on it.

Some dishes were doomed to fail

Different groups made the same dish using different techniques and ingredients. Sometimes you knew beforehand that your dish was doomed to fail, but it was about the process and the description. The goal of this course was to understand the techniques of cooking, so that we learned to develop alternative recipes ourselves.

Filled with fear, we assembled at the tasting session/evaluation. The pungent madam always had something to complain about and usually showed this in a very annoyingly offensive way. She never heard of constructive criticism, perhaps she didn’t believe in it.

Nowadays, I run a nice lodge in Ghana

accommodation in Ghana

Meanwhile it is 2019 and I run an accommodation in Ghana; Moon&Star guesthouse. One of the things we excel at is our food. Most reviews say something about the delicious, varied food in Moon&Star guesthouse.

And it’s true, I’m an excellent cook, know how to adapt recipes to the ingredients that are available, love variety and easily adapt to different dietary requirements. Despite or thanks to the snappy lady who taught me in 1996.

But one of my biggest wishes is to write a cookbook on how to make Ghanaian recipes at home and especially with the original Moon&Star recipes. And I keep postponing this book, because of perfectionism I learned recently, but also because of the pungent remarks of a teacher almost 25 years ago…

Which recipe would you like to see in the Moon&Star guesthouse cookbook? Let me know in the comment section below!

African blender
The African blender

PS: I hope and think that the teacher, whom I have described above, was only so strict with us because she wanted her lessons to stick with us. And that she was just a nice lady outside the classroom…

PS2: Would you like to read more about the cooking skills of team Moon&Star? Then continue reading about the 10 favorite dishes according to our guests