Orphan finds his home in the kitchen
Khonani worked his way up from mopping the floors to pizza chef through persistence and passion.
AT just 21 years old, Sandile Khonani has proven himself skilful in the kitchen, where he spends his time perfecting the art of making pizza from scratch at a pizza shop aptly named, A Pizza My Heart, in Glenwood.
But Khonani hasn’t always felt in control of his life and told the Berea Mail that he was orphaned at the age of five and placed at a place of safety by social workers who had concluded that his home situation at the time was not favourable.
“I grew up in St Martin’s Diocesan Home for Children – that is all the life I know, and it was home for 13 years of my life. I met and made new brothers and sisters there that I’d never had before,” said Khonani. St Martin’s Diocesan Home for Children is just a stone’s throw away from Khonani’s current place of employment and is a home for children who have been exposed to varying forms of abuse.
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It’s situated on Clark Road in Glenwood, and it is registered with the Department of Social Development which assists them with incentives to run the home. It was at St Martin’s that Khonani was first integrated into the workplace environment to prepare for life outside the home.
This preparation started when he was nearing the age of 18 as that was when he was considered an adult at the home and would leave the home to find his own way.
Khonani first started working at the popular pizza restaurant as a cleaner at the age of 17. While mopping the floors, he kept an eye on what the chefs were doing with the pizza dough and soon found his way into the kitchen. “I would always watch when they made pizza dough, and I would sometimes practise by myself whenever I could and play with various ingredients just so I could make something that was unique and tasteful,” added Khonani.
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It wasn’t until the previous owners sold the restaurant and Kevin Fry took over, and Khonani showed him what he had learned, that Fry decided to hire him as a pizza chef in 2021. Khonani has been working there ever since.
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