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For some people, the love of cooking starts from a very early age, but this was not the story for Chef Nelson Makgakoa.
Growing up in a home with his parents and three sisters, the kitchen was often seen as a place for women. It was only when he went to college and started cooking for himself that he realised he had a passion for cooking.
While pursuing his studies in BCom Accounting, he also realised that the food industry was calling him. He then dropped out and enrolled in a culinary course.
As fate would have it, Nelson found himself working at one of the biggest international fast-food outlets, KFC, in Gauteng. But while working there, he says he started feeling bored and wanted something that would excite him.
Being someone who has always loved travelling, Nelson remembers being in college and seeing an advert for a cruise ship and thinking: “One day I’m going to work on a cruise ship.”
That dream would eventually lead him abroad.
While in college, he was selected as one of the students who could complete a learnership outside South Africa in the U.S. What started as an opportunity to gain experience would eventually become the beginning of his life abroad.
He moved to the U.S. in 2015 and has since worked in different parts of the world.
Nelson says one of the things he is most grateful for is his career as a chef, and that he is living his dreams.
But working in the U.S. also came with its own lessons. When he first arrived, he had to learn how American food was prepared and understand the preferences of the diners he was cooking for.
One of the profound lessons he carries is that chefs need to respect the ingredients they work with.
“When we respect the ingredients, they will respect you back at the end of the day, whatever you’re going to produce, is going to be out of this world,” he says.
Taking SA flavours to the world
Chef Nelson has been proudly sharing South African dishes with diners across the world.
"Almost everywhere I worked, there was no South African dish, unless if we South Africans came up with it and say, perhaps put it as a special on the menu for that week or for that day?"
Nelson says he created opportunities to introduce diners to the flavours he grew up with.
One of the dishes he loves preparing is chakalaka, which he affectionately calls his “private school chakalaka”.
"I call it private school chakalaka because mine doesn't have a baked beans. I do it with a chickpeas. It's very flavourful. Diners simply cannot get enough of it."
But chakalaka is not the only South African dish he has introduced abroad.
He has prepared pap, bobotie and other dishes for diners in places such as Florida, bringing a taste of home to people who may never have experienced South African food before.
He has even prepared butter chicken the South African way, with diners loving the dish.
For Nelson, introducing international diners to South African food has become more than simply putting a different dish on a menu. It has become a way of carrying his identity with him wherever he goes.
One of the biggest lessons he has learnt in life is the importance of "not forgetting your identity - not forgetting where you come from, because for you to know where you’re going, you gotta know where you’re coming from."
He adds "Don't forget the lessons your grandmother taught you in the kitchen, particularly when it comes to handling food and respecting traditional ways of cooking."
While he has learnt how different cultures prepare their food, he says those lessons from home have remained an important part of his cooking.
And when it comes to South African food, Nelson believes there is a certain way it should be enjoyed.
“I tell the international diners that when you eat our food, you must eat it with your hands. You don’t need to use fork and knife and all that because food tastes better when you eat with your hands,” he says.
His favourite local dishes
Chef Nelson says one of the dishes he misses when he is away from home is tripe (mogodu).
Nelson says although tripe is available in the U.S., it is not quite the same as the mogodu he grew up eating in South Africa.
For him, the way the meat is cleaned affects the flavour.
One of the differences he has noticed between South African and American food is the flavour of the meat, with Nelson proudly insisting that South African beef simply tastes better.
And whenever he returns home, there is one thing he cannot leave South Africa without having: a proper braai paired with chakalaka and maize meal (pap).
For Nelson, the perfect braai includes wors, chuck and short rib.
Community upliftment
Although Nelson is still based in the U.S, he hopes to give back to his community in the near future.
He dreams of opening a culinary school that could create opportunities for young South Africans and potentially give students the chance to gain international experience, similar to the opportunity that helped shape his own career.
" When I open that culinary school, we'll make sure that every year, perhaps we have 10 to 20 students who will do their learnership abroad."
For Nelson, the idea is rooted in the belief that it takes a community to raise a child.
He also sees culinary training as a way of helping young people create opportunities for themselves.
“The good thing about cullinary schools is that you don’t train to look for a job when you’re done with your qualification. You can create your own job,” he says.
Just as his dreams where made possible by such an opportunity, Nelson hopes to also be an inspiration to others.
Carrying his love for SA flavours wherever he goes
What started with a young man learning to cook for himself eventually became an international career - one where he gets to travel the world while carrying a little piece of South Africa with him.
From chakalaka and pap to bobotie and a proper South African braai, Nelson is making sure that wherever his career takes him, the flavours of home remain firmly on the menu.
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