“The secret ingredient to any meal is love,” Soweto-born chef Mandisa Mfenyana (27) says passionately.
To spread her love of food, Mfenyana created an Instagram account last year which she calls “Fraiche Scoop by Rae” and where she shares her creative recipes with her followers.
As a food writer and content creator, she turned to social media to share useful kitchen tricks and recipes when Covid-19 lockdowns brought along havoc and boredom.
“2020 was the year everything changed for the world,” she says. “Being stuck in your apartment with nothing but four walls staring at you can be frustrating. Instead, I used my love for food to keep me sane; as a form of therapy.”
Mfenyana decided to cook every day in order to develop content. “What I found amazing was how this experience cemented my love for food creation, recipe development, and food styling.”
Recipe: Mandisa Mfenyana’s chicken ballotine
Cooking is a labour of love
Mfenyana was just seven when her food journey began in her childhood home in Soweto. “My mother would instruct me to cook rice for her while she was at work.”
As time progressed, she was gradually assigned tougher tasks and given more responsibility in the kitchen.
‘The secret ingredient to any meal, is love.’
She credits her mother and late grandmother as the inspiration behind her culinary journey.
“My inspiration for food comes from the women in my family; my grandmother, my mother and aunt who were always in the kitchen,” she remembers about her time growing up.
“In the informal setting of a home kitchen, they were always a chain of command. You could even refer to them as head chefs. Because of how creative and assertive these women were, my identity as a chef is inextricably linked to them.”
Mfenyana’s mother, Julie Mfenyana, believed in trying new things. “I believe my desire to experiment in the kitchen can be attributed to her.
“My grandmother, on the other hand, was very secretive. She died without disclosing most of the ingredients to her special recipes. My goal is to figure out how she came up with her recipes.”
Recipe: Mandisa Mfenyana’s chicken ballotine
‘Food is my purpose’
Mfenyana never imagined she would make a career in the food industry. “I was certain I would be a doctor or an architect.
“I believe my parents’ disapproval – in the name of pursuing something worthwhile – sort of fuelled what I can only describe as a form of defiance,” she says.
After matriculating, she enrolled to the Institute of Culinary Arts in Stellenbosch.
“I studied towards becoming a chef, but it’s not my day job. This is a passion I want to explore further for my future plans,” says Mfenyana.
During her time at the Institute of Culinary Arts she had the pleasure of working under award-winning chef Laurent Deslandes at the Bizerca Bistro in Cape Town. She also worked as a trainee chef at the Longridge Wine Estate in the Cape Winelands.
She found her true passion in food media, however. “I went to work for Fresh Living magazine, a Pick n Pay subsidiary, where I was fortunate to work with a food stylist which gave me a thorough understanding of how food media works.”
A South African food icon she looks up to is chef Luke Dale Roberts. “I love his ability to experiment and transform in the kitchen.”
Despite learning from some of the best chefs in Mzansi, her mother and grandmother, Tshegoane Mbuthuma are still Mfenyana’s food heroes. A kitchen memory she will always treasure is her mother teaching her to cook.
“I was too short [to reach] the stove top. She pulled out a bucket and said, ‘Stand on the bucket so you can see what I’m doing.’ That was the first time my mother and I bonded,” she says.
She also recalls her grandmother’s pitch-black cast-iron pan. “I would jokingly tell my grandmother that when I’m older, I will get her a new pan, to which she would always respond, ‘This is the holy grail of pans’.”
It was in this pan that Mfenyana learned to perfect the tricky sunny-side-up egg.
She has come a long way since, and she firmly believes that food is the sixth love language. “Treat cooking as a process where you pour your love into a meal. Do it with love and care,” is her advice.
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