A SLICE OF ME

EVERY DISH HAS A STORY

Our foods map our history and tell stories that often go untold.

Food is very important to the heritage and traditions across South Africa’s cultures and religions. It is used to celebrate, to mourn and even communicate with a higher power.

Take some black magic, a dash of Dutch heartiness, a pinch of Indian spice and a smidgen of Malay mystery and what you get is an amazing array of cultures, all simmering away in the rich pot of influences that is South African cuisine. This also so happens to make up my DNA. It has been my personal quest to visit all the regions that are mentioned in my DNA makeup and immerse in the food and culture.

​I want to recapture the way that food once connected me to my Dutch great-grandmother and great-aunts. I want to savour the flavours that simmered in their pots. The kitchen is a place where traditions and family connections can be passed from one generation to the next.

"I found myself trying to remember the things you cant write down."

“I found myself trying to remember the things that you can’t write down,” says my Mom after I have tried on numerous occasions to jog her memory of recipes from her paternal grandmother a descendant of the slave trade from Indonesia to Cape Town.

After all, food is never just food. It stirs so many memories: my personal favourite the smell of Koesisters (pillowy, spice syrup–infused, coconut-dusted doughnuts) a traditional staple on a Sunday morning. Or my great-grandmother baking her famous "potbrood" or pot bread in my family’s home, a unique recipe that she instinctively mixes. This meant that even at the ripe age of 90yrs she would sit up-right in bed and mix while her great-grand kids brought her all the ingredients she needed.

It doesn’t matter where you are from, our foods map our history and tell stories that often go untold. They tell the stories of migration, diasporas and of colonies and tribes. They also tell more intimate stories of our families and how they grow and change over time.

Every dish has a story.