The Cooking Nurse has a YouTube Channel with focus on local and exotic culinary.
PHOTO | Guilio Molfese | Tcn Studios
The Cooking Nurse is an alias that creates curiosity. Her meals are something of optical nutrition that tease taste buds and are as rewarding to the palate as the passion Ritah Tumuhimbise sinks into them.
She is a nurse by profession and a cook by choice. You could say that she has chosen to treat hunger or those in need of skills to prepare good meals. Whereas she has practised nursing before, she describes herself as an Oreo cookie, a good but not exactly nice person with an ability to listen and grasp all the smallest details in one exchange.
She can break down complex theories with great precision which explains her love for cooking and teaching others about food. Tumuhimbise admires people who live fearlessly and hopes to make an impact on her generation worldwide one day.
She graduated as a nurse at Ishaka Adventist School of Nursing and Midwifery, in the then Bushenyi District in 2015. Her inspiration to become a nurse stemmed from her fear of injections or being injected.
She thought if she became a nurse, she would be the one to give the injection which would give her control, but as she grew older, she gravitated towards becoming creative.
Her mother needed someone to take care of her in cases when she needed medical attention as she grew older. She would have to be in a medical ward but not give prescriptions or give medicine.
Instead, Tumuhimbise wanted to teach patients about nutrition and how most of the common diseases can be managed with proper nutrition. She practised as a nurse for one and a half years; working in small clinics and pharmacies.
The switch
She later became a medical sales representative for a pharmaceutical company but quit all together after getting a job in the media industry in 2019. After giving birth to her son in 2019, she decided to take cooking as a hobby.
As a mother and wife, she drew satisfaction from routinely making meals for her family and friends. Then, the many questions of ‘how can I also make that food at home?’ followed whenever she cooked and posted food on her WhatsApp status.
“It seemed like most of my viewers then were interested in my way of cooking so I combined my home and nursing knowledge to start sharing my way of cooking which was stamped by the abundance of free time the pandemic came with,” she explains.
The interest and growing number of followers gave birth to a YouTube channel where she started posting videos of the most requested meals. Her intention has always been to help people use safe methods of cooking to avoid a sedentary lifestyle caused illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, and other deficiencies.
So, when she first thought about what name she wanted to use while cooking online, she also wanted people to remember her as a nurse. The Cooking Nurse sounded better when she said it out loud the first time.
The Cooking Nurse is such a hobby. She starts her day at 6.25 am. Tumuhimbise gets up early to prepare her two kindergarten-going children. She then prepares breakfast and packs their snack boxes, then goes to the gym.
On days when she has a video recording or photoshoot to do, she goes about that, and proceeds to do market runs or cooking classes. If nothing is scheduled for the day, she stays home, sleeps then wakes up to prepare dinner and wait for the children to return from school. The day ends when the family has had a delightful dinner at 8 pm.
The beginnings
Tumuhimbise was taught how to cook by her mother and grandmother. She grew up an only girl and alone with her grandmother in the village. By all means, she had to learn how to cook to help her and also be able to keep ‘alive’ when she was not around or no more.
On the other hand, her mother is such a good cook who would always want to teach her daughter so she could take a break. Also, her mother would give her an excuse that she had to learn to cook for her future husband.
Ritah Tumuhimbise paused her nursing career to follow her cooking passion. PHOTO | Guilio Molfese | Tcn Studios
To her recollection, Tumuhimbise’s first attempt to make a meal was at five or six years of age. It was her favourite meal of sweet potatoes and beans katogo. She did not know they put rock salt in it, which makes it brown just the way she likes it.
She cooked it so much until the food got burnt. Nobody ate it but when her grandmother learnt about it, the old woman decided to teach her granddaughter how to cook.
Interestingly, her grandmother was also keen on making sure that cultural and traditional culinary options were part of the things Tumuhimbise learnt since she had already exhibited passion as a cultural dancer in a troupe where she was a member for 13 years.
“I know my roots, and I share my traditional cooking on the internet with strangers from all over the world and some from home. I keep some recipes how I learnt them and I hope to inspire some of the newcomers (GenZ, alphas and the more to come) to keep the fire burning,” she explains.
Inspiration
As a visual communicator, her attention is online since there is a lot to find on a smartphone which provides everything, especially YouTube and Netflix. She also watches the Family Cooking Showdown.
The Cooking Nurse adds, “I used to like Chopped because of the tension and creativity the chefs showcased.”
The Cooking Nurse instructs her class. Photo | Guilio Molfese | Tcn Studios
To that end, she draws inspiration from the rich culinary traditions of Uganda and other cultures around the world.
“The idea of creating nourishing meals that promote well-being and mindfulness fuels my creativity,” she explains adding that she is also inspired by the desire to help others live healthier lives through food.
“Seeing how people can transform their health and happiness with the right approach to eating keeps me motivated to keep sharing and teaching.”
Additionally, she is inspired by the possibility of leaving a legacy by becoming the leading Ugandan chef and sharing her journey through cookbooks and travel.
Two cents on being a better cook
Her tips on succeeding in becoming a good cook is to consider food as personal, and know that what you may like, another may not. So, it is good to learn the basics of food preparation, study the ingredients, practice regularly, and eat food for a reason not just because you saw it on the internet.
“Also, it gets better so keep trying, it does not take that much time,” she shares. That is advice from a cook who has grown from a girl who burnt her first meal to a good and celebrated cook.
Her favourite meal has since changed too. She loves meat.
“If you want to hurt me, remove meat from my diet,” says the Cooking Nurse adding that she cooks on a fire stove. She has a kitchen studio in Kulambiro, a Kampala suburb, where she films most of her videos and also conducts cooking classes. When she first started watching television, she stumbled on the Food Network.
She wanted to learn more about cooking. She was drawn to Siba Mtongana from South Africa on television who cooked for her family fresh food, sharing her cultural ways of cooking with the whole world, from farm to table.
Mtongana continues to inspire The Cooking Nurse’s craft and she cannot wait to become like her. She loves home cooking so you will rarely find her eating out. If you do, she would like to enjoy chicken, perhaps to learn or compare with her cooking.
Income
The mother of two has commercialised her craft by posting her cooking videos on YouTube on which she earns AdSense revenue and has been able to build a platform with people with the same interests as her. So, she provides cooking lessons at a small fee to keep the kitchen running and retail some home goods such as organic cow ghee and meal plans.
Asked if she ever practices as a nurse, she responds, “When I become financially stable, I will go back to nursing and probably pursue a course that can allow me to interact with patients deeper than just pushing a few drugs in their intravenous lines, teach them about food and mental health and so much, I miss the ward but it is too much work right now.”
Wish list
On her wish list is the desire to continue deepening her skills in cooking and nutrition, perhaps by learning from culinary traditions or institutions around the world.
She also dreams of writing cookbooks that not only share recipes but tell the story behind each dish.
Tumuhimbise’s other big wish is to travel the world to explore different cultures and their approaches to food.
“And ultimately, I aspire to become the best female chef from Uganda, creating a legacy that inspires others to live healthier, more mindful lives through the power of food,” she said.
