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When Africans gather, food is always part of the equation. A woman who understands this very well is Chef Nti (Nthabiseng Ramaboa), who has taken South African cuisine to West Africa through her restaurant TASTE Abuja.
The award-winning chef and self-confessed township girl also cooked up a pasta storm for guests at Solstice in Bryanston last week, where she shared her secret to the perfect pasta.
How Mzansi flavours are received in Nigeria
It’s not Chef Nti’s first such eatery, as she also used to run TASTE Kitchen Johannesburg, which closed in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Taking Mzansi flavours to Nigeria was quite a bold step by the chef, as she’s the first to admit that people in that country are very proud of their culinary heritage.
Food is identity for Africans, and with Nigerians in particular, the attachment to their own cuisine is not always easy to navigate.
But Chef Nti has found a way to their hearts that passes through their stomachs because her curries and naan bread are a mega hit. When she noticed this, the chef introduced her Nigerian foodies to an innovation she calls naan bread tacos.
“Think of it like Durban curry and naan bread on the side, but instead I make it into a taco,” she explains.
The multicultural dish weaves Mexican, South African and Indian cuisine together, symbolising the diversity of the chef’s home country. The chef says it’s the most popular dish on her menu, but her favourite is the bao style dombolo (dumpling).
“I make the dombolo with chakalaka, but there’s a non-vegetarian option where I make it with shredded oxtail and make a chakalaka sauce.”
Whether Chef Nti finds herself in a kitchen in Nigeria, Ghana or anywhere else in the world, she has found that the culinary saying, “don’t forget to season” is a universal language because the flavour in her food is what’s drawing West African foodies to her restaurant.
“When you are making a chicken dish, you don't want heavy spices because it’s delicate. Sometimes all it takes is just a simple salt and pepper. But for things like lamb curry you’ve got more room to experiment.”
Crunchy russians and perfect pasta
The chef recently collaborated with Earlybird as they launched their premium range of chicken products at Solstice in Bryanston last week in the presence of media and other guests.
She shares with TimeOut that the Southern Fried chicken strips were among her favourites, but at her core she’s a Kasi girl, so these delicious strips could never take the russian’s place in her tastebuds.
And for the chef, a perfect russian is defined by its crunch, which she says is what she loved most about the Earlybird russian in addition to its flavour. We also had frankfurters and mini chicken pies.
“I like my chicken handled very delicately and the Southern fried strips have clean flavours, but with a bit of heat.”
We were treated to some tasty Chef Nti pasta, which wasn’t only bursting with flavour but was given an interesting texture by the combination of sauce, the spaghetti and russian. She also revealed to us that her secret to perfect pasta is preparing the other parts of the dish first, and the pasta last.
“Pasta is best served while it’s still hot. Before you start by cooking the pasta, it’s best to first prepare the other ingredients that are going to accompany it.”
For the dish she prepared, called cacio e pepe, she chose the russians because her expert observation is that traditional sausages tend to get overpowered by the sauce.
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