As a child Khayakazi Kepe never imagined that her playtime with friends would lead to a thriving food career. She loved cooking in little tins with her friends, and years later this love would lead her to start her business, Khaya’s Kitchen, in Gqeberha.
Kepe started Khaya’s Kitchen in 2019 and they offer ready-to-eat meals at selected retail stores and for delivery in and around the city. She is also a food ambassador for Spar.
“I have loved food and being in the kitchen for as long as I can remember. At the age of five I was playing amandlwani (playing house) outside with friends and we’d cook in little tins for pots. I didn’t know then I’d go into food as a career, but I knew I loved the feeling cooking gave me,” says Kepe, who was born in Mlamli Village in the Eastern Cape.
Sacrifices pay off
Kepe says that her mother was firm in her mission to provide nothing but the best for her and her five siblings. However, her mother’s desires came at a price, because Kepe had to move around Mzansi quite a bit.
“I went to several schools. I did primary in five different schools in three different provinces. And I did high school in two schools in two provinces. My mom wanted the best for us and that meant sending us to go and live with different relatives in order for us to be able to attend the best schools she could afford.”
In her travels she landed in Cape Town where she lived with her paternal grandmother. Here she learned a thing or two about foods she knew and new foods like pasta.
“Being from a rural village in the Eastern Cape, maize meal, flour, rice and sorghum were staple foods. It was the most amazing and delicious thing I had ever had. And I still love my pasta to this day.”
Cooking brings a certain calmness and peace, she says, but that peace is easily ruined when people don’t appreciate what she prepared.
“One of my biggest pet peeves is people who season their food without tasting. It just makes me want to scream. It’s like the least you could do is have one mouthful before possibly ruining someone’s great creation that they took so much effort to prepare.”
Make Khayekazi’s chicken liver pâté
In 2012 she decided to put her kitchen skills to the test and entered the first ever season of MasterChef South Africa. Kepe made it as far as the top six of the acclaimed series. Today her brand, Khaya’s Kitchen, offers a range of products that aims to introduce more African indigenous meals to mainstream retail, and includes meals like chicken feet, stuffed dombolo, curried tripe and samp, and chicken liver pâté.
Chicken liver pâté is perfect for spreading over crackers or toasted thin slices of baguette. Kepe’s recipe is easy to make and takes hardly any time.
ALSO READ: Tumi’s spicy garlic chicken feet taste like home
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Ingredients
- 2 cups chicken livers, trimmed, with sinew (tough tissue on liver) removed
- 5 egg yolks
- 1 cup cream
- 1 cup shiitake mushrooms, chopped
- 1 tsp minced shallots
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp chopped chives
- 1 tbsp truffle oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place chicken livers and eggs in a food processor, blend whilst adding cream slowly. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a large bowl. Sauté (fry) shallots with mushrooms in a little olive oil. Fold into chicken liver mixture. Add chives and truffle oil.
- Pour mixture into greased ramekins and place in a baking dish. Pour boiling water into baking dish till it reaches halfway up the sides of ramekins. Place in pre-heated oven at 180°C and bake for 25-30 min or until it is set.
- Allow to cool slightly and serve with warm crusty bread or toasted bread fingers.
