Zola Nene - Simply Delicious

Published in 2016 by Struik Lifestyle
(an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa Pty Ltd)
Company Reg. No. 1953/000441/07
The Estuaries, 4 Oxbow Crescent,
Century Avenue, Century City, 7441
PO Box 1144, Cape Town 8000, South Africa

www.randomstruik.co.za

Copyright in published edition: Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd 2016
Copyright in text: Zola Nene 2016
Copyright in photographs: Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd 2016

Publisher: Linda de Villiers

Managing editor and proofreader: Cecilia Barfield

Design manager and designer: Beverley Dodd

Editor and indexer: Bronwen Leak

Photographer: Dawie Verwey

Food stylist: Zola Nene

Prop stylist: Matanna Katz

Stylists assistants: Anda Qinga, Veasha Govender and Tshepo Makajane

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, digital, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and the copyright owner(s).

ISBN 978-1-43230-487-4

To my parents, for always encouraging and spurring me on no matter how crazy my ideas seemed. To my sister, for being the best travel companion and for allowing me to taste weird things even at the risk of me gagging and embarrassing her. To Reuben Boya, for your support through the years and for playing a big part in me writing this book. To Matanna Katz, for all your hard work in helping me with the shoot, thank you for sharing your talent with me and for being the most self-less friend in the world! To my other special friends, thank you for always being my loudest cheerleaders even though Im not naming you individually, you know exactly who you are. I value your continued support and advice tremendously. Thank you to the chefs who shared recipes and experiences with me and allowed me to include them in my book. To Beverley Dodd, working with you on this book was such a dream, thank you for all your guidance. A very special thank you to Linda de Villiers; this would never have been possible without your belief in my book concept and story. Writing my very first cookbook has been a dream for such a long time, I still cant believe it has actually come to fruition. Thank you for your patience throughout this process, I know that I was a pain at times with all my first-time-author questions Now that weve got the first book out of the way, I look forward to many more in the near future.
<3

Food has always been a huge part of my life; important occasions were always marked with a feast of some sort. Whether it was a birthday, a funeral or a wedding, I looked forward to finding out what was on the menu more than I looked forward to the event itself. I suppose my now fully-fledged fascination for all things food-related essentially stems from that curiosity. This book chronicles my food journey thus far how it started and what has shaped me into the chef I am today. It will take you through all the defining food stages of my life from the very beginning, when all I knew was the food that my mother cooked; to my school days, when I was exposed to other foods and began to learn basic cooking skills; to the time I realised that food could be my profession; to the tastes Ive experienced through travel; to the present day and what now defines my personal taste.

My mother taught me what it means to feed people and to derive joy from that. Youll find her influence and lessons about food in a number of the recipes in this book. I come from a very tight-knit and outspoken family. We were taught to speak our minds and to never just go with the flow, even in our attitudes towards food and what we chose to eat. We all have different food preferences and this is due to the diversity of dishes my mother prepared for us growing up. Throughout this book, youll find I refer to my family as my inspiration; the Nenes are a crazy bunch and Simply Delicious would definitely not be complete without their inclusion.

As I grew older, I was exposed to foods other than the familiar fare that my mom prepared, and the desire to learn more about what people outside my family ate fuelled my interest in cooking. When I entered high school, thats really when I started cooking and baking with purpose: to learn and not just to eat. Taking home economics at school really helped build my confidence in the kitchen and gave me those fundamental skills that enabled me to evolve my level of cooking and diversify my tastes.

After school, my food journey led me overseas, to the UK. When I told my dad that I wanted to go and work in kitchens abroad, he said, Go off and cook and see if its something youd be happy doing forever. Ill be forever grateful to my parents for their understanding and for never telling me that my dream to be a chef was ridiculous or unattainable. Had they not let me go, I would never have met David Mooney, who hired me and made me believe that I was indeed cut out to work as a chef and could stand my ground in a kitchen and survive a crazy Saturday service.

Returning from the UK two years later, I knew for certain that I was destined for a culinary career. People say that experience in the cooking field counts more than a qualification, and I agree 100 percent, but I wanted both experience and a certified qualification. My stint working abroad definitely gave me an edge when I attended culinary school; I may have been older than most of the people in my class, but I was more focused and driven to learn than anyone else there. Attending the Institute of Culinary Arts gave me many opportunities to meet and work with some of the most renowned chefs in the industry. The most influential for me was Chris Erasmus, now owner of Foliage, who I worked under at Le Quartier Franais as a trainee chef. Im proud to say that I still consider him one of my chef mentors to this day and am still in awe of his food brilliance.

After graduating, I felt as though the food world was now my oyster and I had the skills, drive and desire to confidently stand alongside any chef. I was fortunate to find a platform at the Expresso Morning Show. Through Expresso, I am able to share recipes with so many different people through the medium of television. I am blessed to have a job that I am passionate about and where I do what I love, and that allows me to share that with so many people every day. Being regularly exposed to different chefs means that I am constantly learning and finding new inspiration.

My food journey is therefore far from over and I know that I still have a lot to learn and share. I hope youll enjoy walking down food memory-lane with me and I look forward to sharing the next part of my journey with you, too.

• When I refer to salt, it is always sea salt.
• For seasoning, I use only freshly ground black pepper.
• Sriracha sauce is my preferred hot sauce; if you cannot find Sriracha, substitute with Tabasco sauce.