Modderfontein’s Tshepo Moutloatse (28) spoke about his journey from the soccer field to the kitchen after he became a street food chef.
Currently, Tshepo is a co-founder of a street food outlet called Junk Park in Wynberg.
He has eight years’ experience in the culinary industry and has worked for fine-dining restaurants and catering companies before his entrepreneurial journey.
“I worked for the street food kings of Johannesburg known as Sumting-Fresh. I also started at the bottom and worked my way up as menu specialist for TM Foods Creative.”
Tshepo said that he held a lead role in being a creative chef.
Different to the critical nature of fine dining and catering Tshepo said being on the streets, selling food has boosted his confidence greatly.
“Being a chef isn’t hard, but it never gets easier. It is not hard to run a mile but it’s hard to run a mile every day, consistently. It’s all in the passion and self-belief.”
Tshepo also has appreciation for his community.
“I like the fact that my neighbours can come from anywhere in the world yet we have one thing in common, Modderfontein. It’s just a beautiful place all around, with constant visibility of security.”
Tshepo’s passion outside of cooking is soccer.
“Soccer has always been one of my strong abilities as I played at a semi-professional level. I’m always at the gym trying to keep fit and I have a few indoor soccer sessions with friends.”
He comes from a humble home in the heart of Alexandra and was raised by a single parent.
Growing up, Tshepo was always interested in food and he realised that he got the passion from his dad.
“Over breakfast, my dad would ask what we were having for dinner. We rarely had good food because of lack of money and a lack of creativity.”
Tshepo added light-heartedly that his dad’s way of cooking was to just fry everything.
On a daily basis aside from work Tshepo is a father too.
“My daily life is just as normal as anyone else’s. I have my normal daily routine of taking care of my family as well.”
He spends time learning new food trends and trying out new things in the kitchen with his children by his side.
He enjoys making Jambalaya, a popular dish with a West African, French and Spanish influence, consisting mainly of meat and vegetables mixed with rice.
According to Tshepo, the simplest things are the most difficult dishes to cook.
“If you think frying an egg is easy, get someone to taste test your egg. Most of the time, a chef or professional cook can tell you the difference between an egg and a good egg.”
The chef also spoke more about the effects of lockdown on the food industry.
“The pandemic has halted our industry, and it has locked down our pockets too. Most chefs don’t have outlets where they can tap into serving delivery food.”.
In light of the developments regarding Covid-19, he said his message to the community is to be positive.
“Let’s trust that all this will pass, practice social distancing and use the delivery service made available to us and help those in need during these hard times.”
