Durban - Bongiwe Zama Shange learnt to cook at her grandmother’s knee. She was in Grade 4 when she started cooking for her family of 17.
This week the trained chef steamed into top spot in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial Mzansi Tavern Chef competition after serving up a lovingly prepared dish of mutton curry with Zulu steamed bread and a vibrant salsa salad.
Shange would get home from school in the afternoons, and then her stint in the kitchen would begin, all under her grandmother’s instruction. After school it was natural she enrolled at catering school and went on to cook in a restaurant before joining Leon’s Tavern in Inanda last year.
She cooked her way to top honours in a fiercely competitive field representing taverns from as far afield as Ladysmith, Colenso and Osizweni at the Chefs Training and Innovation Academy on the Berea. The 15 tavern chefs sliced, stirred and spiced in a masterclass in preparing authentic township cuisine under pressure.
“I’m so excited. I just didn’t expect it. I really didn’t expect it,” she said modestly. ”I’m happy to cook what people like to eat.”
Shange wins prizes of R30 000 towards catering equipment at the tavern and will represent the province in the national competition in Cape Town in June. The overall prize is a tavern make-over valued at R100 000. “I’m terrified,” she admitted, but then she laughed and added: “I’ll think of something.”
The Mzansi Tavern Chef Cook-off is a partnership between Distell, Nederburg and National Liquor Traders. It is part of a campaign to promote food serving in taverns as one of the measures to address binge drinking. Food offerings in taverns not only moderate consumption and promote a more sociable atmosphere, they also create an additional revenue stream for the outlet.
“It’s quite simple, don’t drink on an empty stomach,” said chef Benny Masekwameng, one of the judges, along with chef Pete Goffe-Wood and Jackie Olivier, marketing manager at Premium Wines. “And taverns providing good food are increasingly popular. It improves incomes,” he said.
“We came prepared for Durban and its spices,” said Masekwameng. “We know people in KZN know how to cook with bold flavours, heat and good spice blends.”
Of Shange’s dish he said he liked the indigenous ingredients that celebrated local cultures and food flavours. “I liked the spice. That salsa really kicked me, but I enjoyed it. I liked the simplicity of the dish.”
“We’ve been simply blown away by the standard of cooking and picking a winner has been tough,” said Goffe-Wood. “We are discovering just how much cooking talent we have, which just needs the right encouragement and support to shine, and I hope this competition becomes a catalyst for township food culture to grow.”
For Olivier this was the first time she had been presented with a Durban bunny chow. “While I knew what it was, I’d never had one before. I didn’t know how to eat it,” she said. Her fellow judges showed her by tucking in with their hands.
She said this was just the start of the competition, now in its second year. “I’d like it to grow and go out to more regions. It’s the best project I’ve been involved in.”
The Independent on Saturday