Sarah Graham’s Food Safari producers, Okuhle Media, with a growing catalogue of non-scripted lifestyle series under its belt, has produced two cooking formats since 2013, including Graham’s first series, Bitten – Sarah Graham Cooks Cape Town, which aired on SABC3 in May 2013 and culminated in a South African Film and Television (SAFTA) Award in 2014. The show has since been distributed internationally to 32 countries, including France, Spain, Portugal, Germany and the Middle East via the Discovery Channel.

In her latest TV Show, Graham takes her kitchen on the road and proves that anything’s possible with the right ingredients. Sponsored by Food Lover’s Market and supported by Defy, Suzuki, Drostdy Hof, Nespresso, Valpre, Chocolat Frey and Lancewood, the new 10-part series sees Graham unlock an entirely new repertoire of adventurous recipes that she cooks in the great outdoors for friends and family, which include some unexpected wildlife encounters along the way.  

Graham, who launched her third cookbook, Home. Food From My Kitchen, earlier this year believes that the series is her most personal and fun-filled yet. “Cooking in such unique, unspoilt corners of Africa was a magical experience for myself, my family, and the crew. The nature of the production demanded we operate as a tight and united team, which made it extremely special. We cooked delicious, simple food outdoors in the bush in almost every episode, which included breathtakingly beautiful backdrops that were often dotted with elephants and giraffe, and even lions on occasion. I hope that viewers will love being part of our food safari journey,” says Graham.

Directed by SAFTA winning director, Chris Lotz, the 14-strong crew (which included two cameramen and a sound technician) were on the road just short of eight weeks, and succeeding in traversing 31 separate locations across Zimbabwe, Zambia, Johannesburg, the Karoo and Garden Route before finally ending the gourmet road trip in Cape Town.

Okuhle Media executive producer, Louise McClelland, says “Together with Sarah, we’re thrilled with the opportunity to collaborate with M-Net and our brand partners to bring this epic new series to local audiences. This project, which has been two years in the making, couldn’t have succeeded without the immense talent and generous nature of Sarah Graham, and the hard work and dedication of a production team that delivered despite the long hours, great distances, remote locations and sometimes over-friendly advances of the local wildlife. There were many times that I wished we’d had the budget to film a behind-the-scenes ‘Making of’, which would have represented our first entry into a comedic genre.”

Catch Sarah Graham’s Food Safari weekly on M-Net, channel 101 on DStv from Sunday, 29 November between 18:00 and 19:00. If you miss the premiere broadcast, you can catch up on Mondays at 16:30 and Saturdays at 11:00. 

For more information, visit m-net.dstv.com. Alternatively connect with Sarah Graham on Facebook or on Twitter.