Page 22 - Through the eyes of an African chef

THROUGH THE EYES OF AN AFRICAN CHEF
My book
THIS BOOK AIMS TO introduce authentic South African cuisine for both simple home and professional restaurant cooking. It reintroduces traditional practices and recipes that are cooked with ingredients straight from an organic garden, with modern adaptions and fusion with other cultures who have touched this soil. This is food that is evocative of a nation blessed with generous resources, arable land, and inhomogeneous cultures. It is time to prove that South African cuisine can rub shoulders with the plethora of international food currently served in our restaurants.
I hope to encourage some of our agriculturally apathetic nation to farm the vastly bare plots of land; to respect the organic farmers who work it; and to acknowledge the producers who are a vital part of our growth and economy. I endeavour to showcase unity in food in a country that was historically deprived by not appreciating certain groups of our society. A revival and evolution of our food culture pays respect to our history and teaches us how we can best bring back life as it should be in southern Africa.
I appreciate and acknowledge those who passed on food recipes, styles, preferences, tastes, culture, and life through generations, which we should continue to honour. It is time to look back to where we have gone wrong as we face food security and scarcity issues, and start to make a change in the land so that the generations who follow have a food inheritance; a wealth of traditional ingredients; restored knowledge of our culture and a heritage to be proud of.
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