‘The Ritual’: Chef Wandile Mabaso explores food, art and life in new YouTube series 

After thrilling guests both at his restaurant and in a series of events, chef Wandile Mabaso will be taking his talents and interests to YouTube where he will be combining them to create a new series titled The Ritual. 

The new show will be a three-part series hosted by the award-winning chef and it will launch on YouTube this week. 

The series, in association with Stella Artois, meditates on African art, food and life, all of which are some of chef Wandile’s favourite topics of discussion after kitchen service.

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“A ritual for many chefs, ‘after service’, is when we take time to sit down, enjoy a cold beer and discuss the day, right after service. So, in The Ritual I wanted to take a journey into the various aspects of all the things I’m curious about,” said Mabaso.

Breaking bread with other chefs

Chef Wandile won’t appear on the show alone as he will appear In episode one of The Ritual alongside chefs Mmabatho Molefe and Besele Moloi. 

The trio will create some magic in the kitchen before going through their after-service ritual with Stella Artois. 

In their conversation, they will explore how culture plays a significant role in their shared love for food and passion for cooking.

In episode two, titled Africasso, Wandile journeys to Cape Town to explore the ritual of creating meaningful art with world-class ceramic artists Zizipho Poswa and Andile Dyalvane, whose Imiso Ceramics creates the beautiful, hand-crafted ceramic plates his meals at Les Creatifs are served on.

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In the final episode, chef Wandile shares time with artist/fashion designer, Gladys Semenye and sculptor, Dora Prevost, to discover the meaning of inspiration, the importance of sustainability, representation for women and young Africans, and telling an authentic African story through their craft.

Who is Chef Wandile Mabaso? 

In a past interview with The Citizen, the Soweto-born chef shared how he spent most of his early 20s abroad, living the life of a young culinary talent, jokingly adding that he even had a 23-year-old Russian girlfriend at the time.

“When I first moved to Paris I did not see the sun for three months. People don’t believe me because I started work at 5.30 in the morning and would finish work in the dark at midnight, and I would sleep for about three to four hours and then get back at it.”

In 2018, he opened Les Créatifs restaurant in Bryanston, Johannesburg. The chef said that his type of food isn’t necessarily French cuisine, it is mostly local foods prepared using his background in French cooking and their techniques.

“Instead, we incorporate our very own culture from South Africa. We use samp for example as we have a risotto [dish] made from prawns, but we use samp as supposed to rice. The Italians have created the risotto but samp which indigenous to us.” 

These are just some of the dishes that the chef prepared for guests at his restaurant back in February at a private dinner hosted by Spotify. 

The six-course meal was paired with a playlist curated by the chef accompanied by dishes conceptualised using his love of food, art, culture, history and music. 

WATCH: We sit down with ‘Chef of the Year’ Wandile Mabaso