By François Ferreira
These days celebrity chefs are the order of the day. We have TV channels devoted to food and the chefs have a following worldwide. Before the advent of TV in 1976, South Africans had the printed media and the radio to get information about life in the rest of the world. During these years – 70s, 80s and early 90s – there were cooks who changed the perception of food in South Africa and introduced South Africans to a whole new world of tastes in their own country.
Renata Coetzee, nutritionist, researcher, lecturer, opened a whole new world of tastes in her book Funa – food from Africa and South African culinary tradition. Renata recorded the food habits and practices of the indigenous cultures of Southern Africa. Through her arduous research and sensitive understanding of a food culture so unlike her own, she succeeded in offering readers and students of culinary art a personal glimpse into the indigenous home and hearth. The recipes were adapted to modern cooking methods, inspiring chefs to include dishes such as Umngqusho, Umfino and Isjingi on their menus, with their own twist, of course. Renata is not with us any more but she leaves a great legacy.
Cass Abrahams is well known for her informative presentations on Cape Malay cuisine and culture. Her book, Cass Abrahams cooks Cape Malay (first published in 1995) gave all hobby cooks and chefs an insight into the history of Cape Malay cuisine. Quite deservedly described as “a cook with a velvet touch for good food”, she has a never-ending urge to share her knowledge with all who care to partake of the sensuous tastes of Cape Malay cuisine, which she calls “food for Africa”.
Lannice Snyman got all and sundry excited about South African cuisine in her book, Rainbow Cuisine, first published in 1998, with Andrzej Sawa taking breath-taking photographs of every province in South Africa. She first impressed all with her pragmatic approach to food as the Food Editor of the Sunday Times. She got her readers to use everyday ingredients in an exciting new way. In Rainbow Cuisine she took this attitude to ingredients further and taught all to turn everyday food into restaurant style cuisine. Lannice left us too soon.
Peter Veldsman’s book, Kos van die Eeu, gave a retrospective look at the development of South African cuisine over the last century. This book showed the cross pollination of cultures in South Africa: Nguni, Sotho, British, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, township, Malay and Indian. By showing the reader that South Africa has a cuisine heritage to be proud of, Veldsman makes sure that the foundation of our cuisine is strong and can only grow from here.
There are many other cooks and chefs who have contributed and still contribute to our cuisine. These four cooks, don’t you dare calling them chefs, have changed the thinking of more than one generation. By doing this, they have ensured that we stay excited about our colourful culinary heritage as well as innovative in creating new tastes derived from our rich past.