My gastronomical experiences began before I can remember. Standing beside my grandmother, watching as she made fresh pastries, cakes and other delectable morsels. The hours spent playing outside with my big brother, and the somewhat superfluous appetite that had us picking greedily on fresh snap peas, crisp green beans, wild strawberries, sweetly scented naatjies and sun-blushed plums, all of which grew in abundance in our garden in sleepy Bulawayo. I remember those dusky evenings, sitting in our housekeeper Nelly’s khaya (an outdoor room) eating sadza (cooked ground maize meal) and chomolier (a sautéed green leafy African vegetable) with our hands, and smelling of smoky wood fires when we eventually emerged, giggling hysterically from sheer gratification. It is these innate pleasures that come to mind when I think about how it all began, and where it has brought me today.
I once worked in a busy fine-dining kitchen with an Irish chef named Gerard, who taught me during a chaotic Friday night dinner service that if you have no respect for the ingredients you work with, then what goes out to the customer is never more than mediocre. Ask any person running a successful business, and they will tell you that mediocrity is completely unacceptable. As we stood motionless amidst the kitchen turmoil, Gerard cradled some beautiful oyster mushrooms in his big hands and gently tore them apart, not dispassionately cutting them to pieces as I had just done. I learnt a great deal there about the importance of quality ingredients, maintaining focus in high pressure situations, as well as conserving your energy to only give your very best. These principals apply to all spheres of my life now.
Being a professional chef is not glamorous. Working in a hot, confined space is no easy task, but it’s the only place where I feel truly alive. Whether it’s manning the pans at a busy fine-dining establishment or being a personal chef aboard a luxury yacht, a feeling of delight and familiarity overcomes me, as if this was what I was always meant to do.
I now work in Product Development, creating delicious ready meals for a leading South African retailer. I am a keen food stylist, yet don’t get to do it nearly as often as I’d like. I’m also an aspiring shower singer & a hopeless romantic… but that’s a story for another day.
– Chef Privé
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