Here Africa Food & Drink Festival 2026

Chef Dennis from Embark Dining on the Discovery Stage. 13 June 2026

It started with a feeling that Nairobi's food scene was missing something.

The more I said it out loud, the more people told me they felt it too. We were all checking WhatsApp to see which restaurant had opened this week, or going to TikTok to hear what someone else thought of it. Plenty of conversation. Nowhere to stand in the same place and taste it.

So on 13 June we built the room.

615+ people came to Ngong Racecourse Waterfront. 30 vendors set up. Chefs cooked live on the Discovery Stage. Food and drink brands took the Discovery Booths. There was jollof, there was jerk, there was coastal kaimati, and there was a red snapper with mango puree that turned up in more than one person's recap afterwards.

What I did not expect was how people described it. Someone compared it to the Miami Food & Wine Festival. Someone said SXSW. Someone said a family cookout. My favourite: "this is like the Insecure block party." Four completely different reference points, all meaning the same thing - it felt like something that already belonged here.

The part that mattered most was quieter. The woman growing the millet and the chef putting it on a menu, standing at the same booth. A tourism body, a food brand and a farmer finally seeing how their work connects. That is the reason to build a room instead of writing another post about it.

None of it happens without the partners who said yes before there was anything to point to — JamJar, Culture is Currency, T&Co., Aqueous Kenya, Procera Gin, Magical Kenya, Grounded, Ndoto Imara, Hello Tractor, Impact Hub Nairobi and the African Food Fellowship. You backed year one on a feeling.

Many Roots. One Table.

Year two is July 2027.

— Martha