A YEAR ago, just before the second wave of Covid-19, the V&A Waterfront opened Makers Landing with a vision of developing a thriving food hub where local chefs could develop small food businesses that could grow.
That vision culminated in a space where authentic local flavours, food and talent would be recognised, nurtured and supported.
Makers Landing celebrated its first birthday with the second cohort of small scale food entrepreneurs graduating from its five-month Food Lab Incubator mentorship programme yesterday.
The mentorship programme focuses on youngsters, flair and innovation.
In total, Makers Landing represents a R63 million investment with R48m coming from the V&A Waterfront in partnership with the National Treasury’s Jobs Fund, which invested a further R15m.
Among the eight graduates was Ayesha Juwaley, 32, from Claremont.
Juwaley is the owner, manager and the head chef of her business the, Charming Chef.
The bubbly young entrepreneur spoke of her passion for baking.
“I sing to each cake that comes out of the oven,” she said with laughter.
Juwaley, who has worked as a pastry chef at a 5 star hotel in Cape Town, said the programme helped her to grow.
“Before this programme I thought I knew a lot about baking, but this showed me otherwise. Here we got to learn from scratch. It is much like a recipe, you learn, sometimes there's a flop, but eventually you get it right.”
Lauren Baatjies, 27, who owns Honeycomb Eatery, has seen a 300% jump in her production since taking part in the programme.
Baatjies’s speciality is to cater for people with special dietary restrictions.
The young woman said she felt down when she found out that she herself was glucose intolerant. She turned her food allergy into a business venture.
“Makers landing incubation was that extra boost that I needed,” she said.
Thabisho Sechogela, of Kasi Kuisine, is one of the many entrepreneurs who plans to expand his business.
Sechogela takes flavours from his traditional food and incorporates modern elements. He said the incubator programme should be spread to countrywide.
“This is what South Africa needs, to invest in young entrepreneurs, because there are many of us who have talent and ideas but do not have the proper back-up, mentorship or financial assistance to help,” he said.
Angelique Smith, the Food Lab Incubator programme manager, said her heart was overjoyed watching the students graduate.
“What a journey its been.These students did what they had to, followed through with their dream and now they are here. I am just so proud,” she said.
Smith added that they were busy recruiting the next batch of intakes for next year’s programme.
“The programme will begin in February and the closing date is January 10 to submit applications on the website. The applicants will then go for interviews, a bootcamp and then be chosen.”
Chief executive of the V&A Waterfront David Green said they were proud of the work that has gone into the incubator programme, which has attracted 16 talented individuals to enrol this year.
Green said the graduates had “already achieved accelerated growth in sales, access to market, production efficiency and brand identity, with several performing well enough to even employ staff”.