I started Red Thorn because I saw a lack of quality in this country — true, undying quality. The kind you find in the spek of the Austrian Alps, the charcuterie of France, the biltong of the Karoo.
I want to bring that quality to Kenya — generational quality, not a trend. Something that earns its place on a table because it was made with real skill, from real ingredients, with no shortcuts hidden in the middle.
We started with a hand-built smoker, a butcher's block, and a piece of land where the acacia breaks up the bush. Everything we make is rooted here. Our classics honour where the craft came from. Our new products show what Kenya can become. We will not compromise on either.
i.
Whole cuts from farms in the Rift Valley. Pork from pasture, beef on grass, lamb on bush. No trim, no fillers, never a mystery bag.
ii.
Hung over an acacia-wood fire we light by hand. The wood is local, the smoke is honest, the colour is the meat's own.
iii.
Cased in natural skins, tied off by hand, hung overnight, vacuum-sealed the following day. Every link is a little different, the way it should be.
Where it started De Vuur Plaats, NL
Philipp trained at de Vuur Plaats, an open-fire, Asado-style kitchen on a Brabant farm where everything, without exception, is cooked over open coals. Whole animals. Bunches of fresh herbs slapped directly onto the meat. A philosophy that has exactly one rule: wait a little longer.
He brought that discipline to Kenya. Source whole animals. Season simply. Let the smoke do the work. Never dress up what is already good.
Looking south · The farm, Kimuka
The farm sits where the cultivated land gives up and the acacia takes over — far enough from the road that the only neighbours are red-thorn trees, dik-dik, and the occasional zebra drifting through at dusk.
The acacia we smoke with is the same tree we named ourselves after. The meat comes from farms in the Rift Valley we know by name. Nothing here is anonymous.
These are the first sausages we've had in Nairobi that taste like someone actually cared about what was in them.
Order Mon–Sat and get same-day lunchtime delivery if it's in stock. Handmade in small batches — we'll always tell you if something's run out.
