­by Page Buono

While the word “safari” is generally associated with wild animals, big green tents and white jeeps, in Swahili, the word actually means “journey.”
And for the newest chef at The Strater Hotel, Safari Arnold, it could be none more fitting. As Arnold, or “Safari” as he’s known among friends and coworkers, tells it, before he was born his mom set off on a trek from one village to another in Eastern Kenya to visit her mother. She underestimated how far along she was in her pregnancy, and somewhere on the 27-mile walk, she gave birth to a healthy boy and named him “Safari.”

“On the way I came out and joined her,” said Safari. “She left as one, but we arrived as two.”

However, Safari’s own personal journey to a three-year contract as the banquet chef at the Strater Hotel did not begin until several years later. As a boy, Safari remembers watching his father, who was a chef at a five-star restaurant in Nairobi. Attending a private school in the city, Safari would visit his father during holidays and work as his apprentice.

“Cooking is about learning foreign food,” Safari said. He focused in his early learning on how to say different fruits and vegetables in multiple languages so that he could learn new recipes. Safari now speaks fluent Italian, English and Swahili.

Eventually, his interest in food led him to work at a five-star resort in Zanzibar, where he met Strater owner Rod Barker, who was vacationing there with his wife. On his last day in Zanzibar, Barker had the chance to speak with Safari, who expressed an interest in learning California Cuisine.
Barker, impressed with the food at the resort, told Safari, “I can’t help with California cuisine, but I can help with Colorado cuisine.”

So, in 2010, Barker flew Safari to Durango for a three-week visit. During his stay, Safari won the beverage contest at Taste of Durango with his passion fruit iced-tea; taught cooking classes; and, cooked a home-inspired meal at Mercy Medical Center.

“It was a wonderful experience, not only for Safari, but for our staff as well,” Barker said.

Chef Safari’s artistically presented stuffed chicken with ratatouille./ Photo by Steve Eginoire

Safari expressed an interest in returning. Barker thought it was a good possibility and began to put the wheels in motion to attain the necessary work visa to bring Safari on board. In the meantime, Safari worked for various cruise lines, namely Breezes and Royal Caribbean, further expanding his knowledge and experience in international cuisine.

The process of getting him a visa took nearly two years, but now Safari is here, working six days a week to bring the flare that he’s learned all over the world to the Mahogany Grill, The Office and The Strater Hotel’s banquet menu.

Emily Spencer, group event coordinator at The Strater, works with Safari on creating menus for large groups, aimed at pleasing a wide cross section of palettes. The banquet menu, which has been almost the same for the last several years, is undergoing a major renovation with chef Safari’s Italian and international input.

 “Safari sees it as serving others, as giving people love through food and making a memory,” Spencer said. “He understands that it’s about taking care of people past the plate.”

Perhaps as much as he is a chef, Safari is also an artist, using his finely tuned knife skills to carve elaborate and beautiful creations of fruits and vegetables.

“Safari is just one of those guys you can have nothing but respect for,” Barker said. Barker, who spent some4  time in a kitchen, namely Colorado Springs’ Broadmoor, said Safari has the finest knife skills of any chef he’s ever seen.

Some of Safari’s African influences so far include the tapas menu at the The Office, including vegan samosas stuffed with peas, carrots, black lentils, cumin and star anise and dipped in coconut chutney. He also recently made a vanilla cinnamon ice cream using fresh vanilla and cardamom a friend sent him from Zanzibar.  

However, he said his goal, along with the 12 other chefs at the Strater, is to use healthy food and source locally whenever possible. And since the area is still quite new and unfamiliar to him, he said he is eager to be at work as often as possible.

Aside from the uniquely inspired food Safari is composing on the plates, co-workers say he is a mentor and teacher who is interested in sharing his knowledge, and offers a calm presence in the often chaotic kitchen. “The age of not having peace in the kitchen is over,” Safari said.

 
Danica Tarkington, banquet manager, said she wandered into the kitchen the other day to find Safari teaching a few of the other guys how to make home-made eggroll wrappers. A couple weeks ago, he spent the day at an elementary school in Ignacio talking about what it was like living in Africa and his life as a chef. When he left, the kids were squeezing his legs and begging him to stay.

“That’s the effect he has on everyone,” Spencer said. “He is just such a warm, caring person.”

His mentoring runs deep, and came through as a way to empower his nephews after the loss of their father, Safari’s brother, to a car accident. The oldest two apprenticed with Safari and are now making a living and supporting their family as chefs in Kenya.

Safari arrived in Durango in the beginning of February, just in time for Snowdown and a rather bizarre return to Durango.

“It was unbelievable,” Safari said, wide-eyed and laughing. Aside from just not understanding the revelry that is so uniquely Durango, the reference to “nerds” wasn’t part of Safari’s upbringing. Safari grew up in Kenya on a plot of land next to the Robuco Forest. He recalls using trumpets to ward off elephants.

Safari has five children, one boy and four girls, ranging in age from 2-18. For now, they remain near the family home where he grew up in Malindi, working with his brothers to farm the land and raise cattle. The hope is that after one year, Safari’s wife and children will join him in Durango for his remaining two years.

And, if Safari has it his way, maybe even longer.

“That is the real plan. I don’t want to change jobs, I just want to work here throughout my life. That is what I want to do. I feel this is the place I can really invest my knowledge,” Safari said.

The father of five will visit his home in Malindi on the coast of Kenya for two weeks this summer, and stays in email contact with them in the meantime.  

“Sometimes I say, who am I to feel lonely when my 2-year-old is alone without me and she is doing well?” Safari said, speaking to how he encourages himself through.

Looking forward to activities like soccer and volleyball in the summer, Safari is eager to experience more of what Durango has to offer. Tarkington brought Safari to a soccer game in Bayfield, where he was a bit shy and started by just cheering from the bleachers. He was finally roped in and scored a goal.

“It’s so fun to hang out with him and spend time with him because he has these fresh eyes and this appreciation for everything – little things we take for granted in our day-to-day life,” Tarkington said.