Sinoyolo Sifo changed his father’s opinion about his career choice through his success in the cooking world. Picture: sifo_the_cooking_husband/Instagram
It might have taken some time for Sinoyolo Sifo’s father to accept that his son has a passion for cooking, but Sifo’s recent success has helped make his father understand.
“That one is the proudest. The Dstv Content Creator Awards I won, and I called him first and said I wanted to send him some money. He was like ‘Hey, this cooking thing of yours comes with money’,” Sifo told The Citizen.
Popularly known as The Cooking Husband, Sifo has transformed his passion for food into a career over the last four years, after initially studying and working as a pharmacist.
His father was not initially receptive to the idea of his son making a living simply from preparing food.
Speaking about his father, Sifo said his old man didn’t understand it at first.
“Coming from the Eastern Cape, as a Xhosa man who cooks, that’s another stereotype on its own. My father said ‘I sent you to varsity to study pharmacy but you come back cooking’,” shared Sifo.
A few months ago Sifo walked away with two awards at the Dstv Content Creator Awards: Content Creator of the Year and the Foodie Award, bagging a cash prize which he shared with his dad.
“I’m also still trying to process that, it’s a real stamp of approval from the people that are watching to say I’m doing the right thing,” he said of his winnings.
“It’s nice to see a parent convert. Not that he didn’t support per se, but you know how parents are, especially from that [older] generation — they have their fixed thing [about career choices].”
Sifo saw his father’s tenderness to the idea of him being a professional cook when he published his first cookbook.
“I gave it [a copy of the book] to him and he was close to crying. You could see…he couldn’t believe it.”
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Sifo said he’s always had a passion for cooking, but things escalated during Covid after being nudged by his wife to create a social media page. But he began experimenting in the kitchen as far back as his high school days.
“I used to watch mom cook and I’d be like ‘maybe I would mix things this way’ and then at varsity, I would explore because there’s not much money. So you’d take pilchard and make it taste like a curry.”
“I grew up in a family that loved food. My father had a farm and butcheries, so we were always exposed to that. Covid was the breakthrough, my wife told me to open a cooking page and people liked it,” shared Sifo.
Sifo’s decision to go public with his passion for cooking coincided with a morning TV show’s competition which encouraged people to cook from home during the early days of lockdown.
“They said they wanted to motivate people to cook at home because everyone was on lockdown and I was part of that. That’s where my career just blew.”
His wife has been an anchor throughout his journey, even in times when his father questioned his choices.
“She saw something in me that I never saw,” shared Sifo. “She was that person who made sure that I followed my dream and my passion.”
Sifo is among the 12 celebrity cooks on Celebrity MasterChef South Africa. He said he was in disbelief when he first received an invite to partake in the cooking show.
“I’ve always watched MasterChef, especially the Australian MasterChef. That’s something I’ve always watched, so for them to contact me and say ‘Hey, come and join us’ was like a dream come true. I was more surprised and also excited,” he said.
The Celebrity MasterChef champion will share the R1 million prize pot with a charity of their choice.
The dozen well-known cooks will be divided into groups of three to put their hearts on their plates in the series’ first four episodes.
The winner of each of these “heats” will then proceed to the semi-final, where after two will face off in the finale.
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