Johannesburg – South Africa is affectionately known as the ‘Rainbow Nation’, for its abundance of cultures, languages and people from all walks of life living together in one nation.
Another unifying factor for South Africa is its love for food and the country and its residents from all backgrounds have brought with them a range of flavours, tastes and meal memories.
In a bid to appeal to these taste buds, two brand-new locally inspired food brands, which celebrate authentic African meals as well as international flavours, have been launched in Joburg this month.
And as plans are already under way for ‘Dhaba’ and ‘Gimba’ to be made available for more South Africans, the creations from these ‘dark kitchens’ which are available exclusively on UberEats, have already been savoured by Joburg’s foodies.
The driving force behind these two new offerings, Millat Investments and CEO Hamza Farooqui told the “Saturday Star” this week that he was thrilled by the reaction of the brand new food offerings.
“The reaction has been quite interesting and whilst the number of orders per day are growing, this is still a learning curve for us and we are trying to see how we can further continue to build on customer choice requests but it has been a good start.”
Both food offerings will be focused on the Rosebank and Sandton areas initially, with plans to take the brands to the Cape Town market at a later stage.
Dhaba and Gimba have been certified halaal by the National Independent Halaal Trust (NIHT) and its fusion approach is a revolutionary take on some of South Africa’s favourite meals.
The food offerings will be focused on the Rosebank and Sandton areas initially, with plans to take the brands to the Cape Town market at a later stage.
Dhaba takes the concept of South Asian street food staples and adapts them into dishes such as pilau burritos, kebab sandwiches, butter chicken burgers and masala loaded fries, and other delicious snackable items. The menu draws from the diverse experience and palates of chefs who will develop a unique take on street food for the modern palate.
Its inspiration came from the allure and charm of traditional ‘Dhabas’ (food stalls) found in South Asia, but this ‘roadside-on–the-go’ style of food puts an innovative and modernised spin on the concept with modern Asian fusion flavours, Farooqui believes.
But the minimalism associated with traditional Dhabas is echoed in the creative menu, which is concise but not short on flavour and taste.
Meanwhile, in the African context, colloquially a ‘gimba’ is someone who loves to eat and the name is aimed to reflect traditional African food.
Farooqui explained that there are just a handful of restaurants and eateries in the northern parts of Johannesburg that serve traditional African food and this is where Gimba comes in.
The food offering makes chisanyama accessible in the Rosebank and Sandton areas, while a select menu focuses on around 10 key offerings.
This includes traditional food with robust, hearty flavours and good portion sizes, emulating the eKasi experience.
“Think pap and nyama, magwinya (vetkoek), chicken and le dombolo (dumplings), kotas and even a 7-colour Sunday box filled with spiced grilled short rib, peri-peri chicken, freshly made pap, traditional pickled beetroot salad, kasi coleslaw and chopped chilli relish,” Farooqui said.
Both food offerings are made in the same ‘Dark Kitchen,’ a place where food is prepared at separate takeaway premises rather than a restaurant.
For this reason, Farooqui said they partnered with Uber Eats, as the eat-on-demand app already has significant delivery infrastructure in Johannesburg.
Farooqui explained that the reason behind making the food offerings available only exclusively through deliveries was to offer their customers the ultimate convenience as they enjoy their meals.
“People today want to eat real food on their terms so our offerings allow them to consume it when they want, how they want and in spaces of their choosing,” he said.
He added that the dark kitchen concept makes perfect sense for them as they are using existing facilities to provide South Africans with a different, but very local food experience.
“A huge benefit of a dark kitchen approach is tapping into the resources - experienced staff are in place and existing supply chains allow us to tap into the procurement process with ease.”
He added that some of the most popular food items so far have been Dhaba’s butter chicken burger as well as Gimba’s seven-colour Sunday box.
“For both, we have tried to add a South African element to all meals and to curate real choice and real localisation.”
He added that the theme of both Dhaba and Gimba was international tastes with a local feel and relevance.
“‘Glocale’ is what we trying to do.”
The ultimate objective behind the food offerings was to think outside of the box and to offer consumers even more food diversity, in a country where food is a love language and meal time is a commemorated ordeal.
“The ultimate objective is to try and do more, to improve customer taste customer palettes and hopefully this is the beginning of many more,” Farooqui said.
“We are still in the infancy stage right now, and we know that Rome wasn’t built in a day and that we still have a lot more to do but we are going to try and take some strong steps forward and hopefully build a very curated food offering.”