Cooking with love a recipe for success

Sibahle Mtongana is doing what she loves best  making food

TEN years ago a young girl told her parents that she wanted to make food her career. Back then Sibahle Mtongana could never imagine that one day people would recognise her on the street, that she would inspire other young people to follow in her footsteps, and that she would share her passion for food with an international audience.

Food Network announced this week that Mtongana is the new talent commissioned to do a cooking show and Siba, as everybody calls her, is expected to start filming in Cape Town early next year.

The commission will make her the first black South African to have her cooking show broadcast across Africa, Europe and the Middle East – in a total of 90 countries.

The network’s vice-president of content and marketing, Nick Thorogood, describes Mtongana as “dynamic and passionate about food”. He says the finer details of the show – like the name – will be planned over the next few months and it is expected to attract foodies and non-foodies alike.

Mtongana, who grew up in East London and now lives in Cape Town, dips her head back and laughs as she recalls her parents’ reaction when she said she wanted to study something food-related. “My father always told me, ‘do something you enjoy, and you’ll never be miserable’. I don’t think he meant a career in food.”

At the time, venturing into the food industry was a risk, recalls Mtongana. No one in their circles had really done well at it, or gone beyond working in a kitchen. The options were not glamorous at all.

In fact, she remembers that when she started her degree in food and consumer science at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, all she wanted was to be a food buyer for Woolworths. She thought it the best job in the world, because she would get to travel and keep abreast of food trends.

But, it seems, fate had other plans for her. Mtongana’s degree hadn’t even had time to gather dust when she was appointed assistant food editor at Drum magazine, then two years later promoted to food editor. That’s when her career in food media took off.

This is the second TV series she will film. Cooking with Siba aired on the Africa channel in 2010.

Mtongana will focus on her speciality for the new show: traditional African recipes. But, because it will be screened worldwide, her dishes will be adapted to be accessible to an international audience. While pap is a staple of many local dishes, polenta would be its UK substitute. She also says that while the focus will be on food, there’ll be a lot of fun too.

Other than developing recipes for the show, Siba is waiting for the arrival of her first child – a boy.

The 27-year-old is due to give birth in the next few weeks and says her life’s big events always run parallel to each other.

During Cooking with Siba, she was planning her wedding to Brian Mtongana. This time around, she’ll be cooking and playing mom. She knows it will be hard work, but that’s not something she shies away from.

“I always put in more than 100 percent, otherwise I will end up being mediocre.”

Mtongana says the new show is breaking down barriers. She is one of very few black South Africans who have their own cooking shows and believes this is a huge, untapped market. After the airing of her first show, she received several e-mails from young black people who said she had inspired them to take up a career in food media.

Mtongana remains humble and firmly rooted in family values and faith.

The youngest of six children, family – and by extension, food – has always played a big role in her life. “Since I was young, there was never a lack of being inspired, particularly when it came to traditional food,” she says. The down side of her success, she jokes, is that she always finds herself in the kitchen for big family get-togethers.

When she visits her parents, all she wants is “home” food like samp and beans. But her father is quick to remind her that they have that all the time and want to taste the dishes she makes on TV.

She is always more than happy to oblige. Beyond just cooking, she loves recipe development. And that means lots of experimenting.

“At home is my space where I experiment. And my husband is my guinea pig. And he’s very honest,” she says.