‘The Roaming Chef’ Dennis Ombachi protects his sauces

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Few would have thought that a balcony in an unremarkable Nairobi apartment block could become one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks.

Yet this is now the case, thanks to the social media success of Dennis Ombachi: the former rugby sevens star turned amateur chef, father of two and winner of TikTok’s top content creator in sub-Saharan Africa award for 2022.

With more than two million followers on TikTok, one million on Instagram and tens of thousands more on Facebook and Twitter, Ombachi — also known as “The Roaming Chef”, has taken the world by storm with his short, snappy videos of him cooking up mouth-watering dishes on his balcony, repeating his signature catchphrase “Done!” after every step.

As a regular feature on the World Rugby Sevens Series, and part of the Kenyan team that went to the Rio Olympics in 2016, Ombachi was already a household name. But the journey from international sportsman to content creator was not always straightforward.

His cooking adventures began during his rugby-playing days, when he would try to replicate dishes he had eaten abroad. This, coupled with a love for baking, led friends to encourage him to start a blog.

“I called it ‘We-men should cook’,” Ombachi says, “but I soon realised that I was more of a visual person and writing blog posts was not for me.”

So he bought a camera and began posting food pictures on his Instagram account. When he noticed that videos seemed to be the more popular medium he took the plunge and began shooting videos instead. “At that point I was still playing rugby, so this was more of a side hobby.”

It was when his rugby career entered its twilight that he began to think about what a transition into normal life would look like — and how to keep paying the bills. It was also at this time that he noticed a rise in Kenya’s influencer marketing scene. Brands were investing in advertising on social media through partnering with individuals with large audiences.

Initially he began offering his services as a chef for parties. “There was a lot of demand,” Ombachi says. “I was travelling all over the country, which is where the name ‘The Roaming Chef’ comes from.”

Then the Covid pandemic hit, pressing pause on both the cooking gigs and the rugby. Next began a stint making and selling homemade sauces at the home he shares with his partner, Svetlana. 

They had a baby son, and cooking inside the house was becoming increasingly difficult, so he went out to the balcony. He tapped into his passion for woodwork and built the cooking station — itself a work of art — himself.

He resumed filming, and hasn’t really stopped since.

His videos are short, just 90 seconds long, and feature him cooking everything from kimchi-fried rice to coconut bean stew. He isn’t exactly sure what has made them so irresistible to so many people — or else he isn’t letting on. “I think it’s my personality, style of editing and that the videos are entertaining.”

Creativity is central to Ombachi’s content, and this is formed by his unique approach to cooking.

“Most people focus on following recipes. I recommend using your senses, obtaining an understanding of the principles and techniques of cooking and the five main flavours: sweet, sour, bitter, umami and salty. Then look at recipes and create your own version of dishes”.

His aim is to motivate people to get more involved in the kitchen.

As for choosing what to cook in his videos, he’ll ask his family what they want to eat on any given day, then he’ll think up a new way to make it, and get filming. “That way, my content is done — and so is dinner.”

That’s the plan, anyway. “Sometimes the flavours don’t work, or I’ll put too much chilli in or leave something on the stove for too long. That is the fun of cooking. Of course we don’t waste food, so my family ends up eating the experiments. At that point my mistake is all our mistakes,” he laughs.

The prime method of generating income from content creation in Kenya is by partnering with brands. Ombachi has worked with big names including KFC, Carrefour and Kenchic. He will produce videos relevant to them and their campaign. Recently, he posted a guacamole recipe to go with KFC’s fried chicken and tortilla chips.

Despite his fame, he still gets approached to work “for exposure”, sometimes even by big brands. “My response is always: ‘Maybe we can work together in the future — when you have a budget for this.’”

That creatives with large audiences still get asked to work for free shows there are still those out there who don’t understand the effort required to create high-quality content, and don’t acknowledge that this is a job — one that Ombachi must balance with his family life.

“There was a point where I was too preoccupied with the work and realised I was not spending enough time with my kids. For me family comes first, so if it means I spend time with them in the day and stay up late to finish editing videos, then so be it.”

He has spoken about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which he manages with medication and therapy.

“I always say mental health is not a destination, it’s a journey, a continuous process,” he says. “If I’m overwhelmed, going to therapy makes me feel like I’ve pressed the reset button.”

Many content creators will be the first to admit that they can easily become obsessed with checking numbers, likes and comments and gaining a sense of worth from this. Ombachi is no different.

“I recognised it was me wanting validation. That’s when I realised that my aim should not be to impress people, but to produce content I like and would like to consume,” he says.

“Now, even if a video has only 5 000 views, I tell myself half of those may be people who are seeing me for the first time, and so it’s a win. I also had this perfectionist within where if I thought something was not good enough, I would not post it. That’s when I would tell myself, okay, just do one shit video at a time until you get it right.”

Perhaps that explains Ombachi’s enduring appeal: his authenticity: his courage to learn and to start over as often as it takes. And maybe to remind us all that, with just a little sprinkle of self-belief, we too can yell, “Done!” 

This article first appeared in The Continent, the pan-African weekly newspaper produced in partnership with the Mail & Guardian. It’s designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy here