When Lufuno “Funi” Sinthumule pursued a career as a chef, many believed that he would not succeed. He silenced the haters and went on to start his own private chef business, wrote a cookbook and even cooked for some important global citizens at the BRICS Summit. And today he shares his secret for making mouthwatering deep-fried tripe.
“Many people did not support my career choice as they thought it was not a career that one can make a living out of,” he says.
Food had been a passion for Sinthumule as a young boy growing up in Venda in Limpopo, where his grandmother would grow fresh produce in her backyard.
“I am a believer of fresh produce and without all the freshness of the ingredients cooking will not be fun.”
Cooking in his DNA
Sinthumule is not the first one to become a chef in his family. He takes after his grandfather who was a chef at a local hotel. “My grandfather played a huge role as he was a chef and I always adored his food,” he says.
He started his own journey into the professional kitchen when he studied culinary studies at the Vaal University of Technology in Johannesburg.
“I graduated with a national diploma in food service management, BTech degree in food and beverage management, BTech degree in post-school education and MTech degree in food service management (community nutrition).”
Today he does food exhibitions, gives private cooking lessons and caters for private events through his business Cooking with Funi. He also works as a culinary lecturer at the Cape Town Hotel School.
Sinthumule is also the author of Funi Cooks.
Make Funi’s deep-fried tripe
We all love our mogodu simple with a bit of salt and pepper. But it’s okay to colour outside of the lines of tradition now and then.
South African cuisine may be globally underrated, but nothing beats our local dishes, says Sinthumule. He shares his recipe for deep-fried tripe with a twist, served with salt, pepper, and lemon wedges. Try it out!
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Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked tripe
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and black pepper
- ½ cup cake wheat flour (seasoned with salt and pepper)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- Cooking oil for deep frying
- Lemon wedges, to serve
- 1 handful basil leaves (optional)
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix together tripe, lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper and refrigerate for at least 30 min.
- Drain the tripe.
- Roll in flour, then dip in eggs and lastly roll in bread crumbs. Repeat this process twice on each tripe nugget.
- Heat cooking oil and deep-fry the tripe for about 3-5 minutes or until golden brown in colour.
- Place nuggets on a paper towel to absorb oil.
- Serve warm with lemon wedges and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- For added fun, flavour and frying… deep-fry the basil leaves, drain on paper towel and sprinkle over tripe. PLEASE NOTE that the leaves will POP and splatter oil so stand away from the stove when trying this.
