Cape Town - Well-loved cook and Bonteheuwel celebrity Aunty Koelsoem Kamalie has died.
She and her friend, Florence "Flori" Schrikker, published two recipe books and hosted Flori en Koelsoem se Kosse on VIA TV.
Kamalie, 72, died on Saturday in Somerset Hospital due to kidney failure, said a family member.
Kamalie and Schrikker shared the stage on other platforms,where they dished out their well-known recipes.
Schrikker said she met Kamalie at the Diabetics Club in Bonteheuwel after she lost her leg to the disease a few years ago.
“She lived in the road where I grew up, and became friends with my mother. One day she asked me for a pickled fish recipe and to talk about it for radio. Because she was Muslim, she couldn’t really speak much about Easter, and from there everything started. One recipe led to another.
Our first book is still a huge success.”
Kamalie’s sister, Samsoeniesa Salie said: “Aunty Koelli, as we all knew her, was my tietie, my eldest sister. She was one I could count on, could phone and have chats with and visit. There was too much to talk about. You could speak to her about anything – not only about cooking but politics and the latest things that were happening.
“She had interesting stories to tell. She wasn’t only a person that took interest in cooking but in many other things such as health and politics and daily life. She was very particular of her prayers and her religion, but she always embraced other religions.”
Salie said Kamalie was known for her humour with regard to superstitions, and would share old wives' tales and home-made remedies.
The recipe books included Kook Saam Kaaps, released in April 2016, and Soettand, released in 2017, published by LAPA Publishers.
Salie said: “She always had an interest in cooking, from a young age. She made fancies, biscuits, fridge cakes and tarts, and would sell them while a teacher’s assistant for severely handicapped children. That is the kind of work she did for all these years. In 1984, she was among the first educators at the Sherwood Park Special Day Care Centre, and it was only in 2016, when her cooking journey really began and took off, that she quit.
“Her son phoned Amore Bekker, from Radio Sonder Grense, and said, ‘You should call and ask my mother for recipes because she’s a great cook, and she loves cooking'.”
Managing director at ATKV, Japie Gouws, said that was how he was made aware of Kamalie’s skills.
“She was giving recipes over an Afrikaans radio station. I heard while I was driving in the afternoon and I thought this is such a story, it should be put in a book. As the MD at ATKV, I instructed the personnel at LAPA Publishers to find Aunty Koelsoem and Aunty Flori so we could talk to them about making a recipe book and telling their stories. This book was a huge success. Over the next three years we had many sessions. They were cooking at festivals, on radio and TV. They became celebrities after that.
“It was always a pleasure working with her and Aunty Flori because they were such nice people. They had many stories and they were entertaining. In their communities they were well known, and doing a lot, such as giving food to people once a week. All those stories came out and became public knowledge, and then we realised we had those gems.”
@TheCapeArgus