Mzansi is buzzing about a brand-new cooking show that hit the small screen this week. Featuring chef and TV personality Lorna Maseko, Homegrown Tastes South Africa celebrates the flair of the country’s local culinary landscape.
Producers say the show is part of BBC Lifestyle’s local line-up, which showcases the best in fresh local content every Wednesday at 20:00. In each episode, Maseko is joined by a celebrity guests and, together they meet the chefs and personalities behind the best street food and haute cuisine.
“You get to see South Africa in a different light,” Maseko says.
“You get to enjoy amazing chefs and destinations. And you get to watch me enjoying amazing food. I get to cook and share some of my favourite recipes with you.”
Maseko, who grew up in the Gauteng township of Alexandra, says Homegrown Tastes South Africa celebrates “everything from the food, to the destinations, the chefs and the ingredients. It is everything I love in one package.”
In this week’s episode broadcasted on DStv channel 147, the focus was on urban street food. Famed illustrator Karabo Poppy joined Maseko at the Chilli Pepper restaurant in Soweto where they tried a kota, a quarter loaf of bread filled with a variety of ingredients. They also headed to The Filthy Moustache and Turn It Up Food to experience love at first bite.
RECIPE: Chef Siya’s kota that went to private school
In the end, it was Maseko and Poppy’s visit to downtown Johustleburg that stole the hearts of Food For Mzansi readers. There, they met chef Siya Kobo who is passionate about growing the African cuisine movement. They tried out Maseko’s signature kota recipe.
Food For Mzansi: You definitely know you’re in a chef’s kitchen when you see how neat and tidy it is…
Chef Siya Kobo: The trick is the less clutter. The more organised you get, you’ll get to do the job very nice and straightforward.
When a chef says it’s just skopo and pap, you know that it’s complex. It’s interesting and has all the goodies you want from a dish. (Skopo is a sheep’s head, for the children at the back of the classroom.)
I am all about skopo cuisine. Skopo cuisine is about progressively advocating for indigenous local dishes. I take the food that I grew up eating and turn it up, so that it can fit any fine-dining table across the globe.
We grew up eating cow’s head. As boys in rural areas, we were given the task of cleaning and cutting it and all that. When I became a chef, I tried to tap back into where I came from. I told myself, “There is definitely something that I can do here.”
When I started working on it in my head, I was clear that the food should be fully respected for what it is. It all depends on how one chooses to prepare it.
If you were asked to describe South African flavour, what would you say?
One word. Pure. We add salt to everything we use in the kitchen. The salt extracts and enhances the original flavours of whatever you’re making.
- Catch new episodes of Homegrown Tastes South Africa on Wednesdays 20:00 on BBC Lifestyle (DStv channel 174). The show is repeated on Thursdays and Fridays and also available on DStv Catch-up.
ALSO READ: Kutlwano’s kotas take Ga-Rankuwa streets by storm
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