On the Menu: Mkhize to prepare enticing meals
Humble and talented Ivan Mkhize joins the dynamic culinary team at Carnival City.
Ivan Mkhize fell in love with cooking as a young farm boy while still at high school.
“We were expected to fetch cattle from the veld after school then wash our school uniforms, go to the garden, get cabbage and start cooking dinner,” he said about his humble beginnings.
“Cabbage was our top meal back then and meat was reserved for Sunday lunch.”
Mkhize now finds himself at an exciting place in his career as part of the dynamic culinary team at Carnival City.
He remembers how his mom would cook samp, beans and beef bones on icy winter nights. He and his siblings would sit around the fire in their hut and enjoy every mouthful.
The smell of oxtail cooking still reminds him of these times. Now he aspires to arouse the same excitement and anticipation for food in others in the same way his mother’s cooking did for him.
“I want people to enjoy every single bit of food I prepare.”
Mkhize attributes his great cooking to keeping it simple.
“You don’t need a lot to create flavour; you just need to know where to get your flavour from.
“Keep it simple because less is more,” he said.
Mkhize said the highlight of his career as a chef has been, without a doubt, cooking for former president Nelson Mandela in 2006.
Being given the opportunity to take the wheel and make his mark in Carnival City’s kitchens is another highlight for him.
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This patient chef who believes you should be smiling when preparing food in order to produce the very best results, likes to take his time. He takes care to pay close attention to detail when preparing meals.
“I love cooking seafood as it’s challenging – one cannot cheat whilst cooking fish because it’s delicate,” he said.
There is, however, nothing Mkhize will not taste or avoid cooking. He believes it is important for a chef to experiment, eat or at least taste everything.
Growing up, he never thought he would have to eat crab. At hotel school, crab was the least of his worries.
“We had to cook and eat frog’s legs. Luckily they were actually quite nice,” he recalled.
Mkhize admires chef Charmaine Dixon who owns the 1 000 Hills Hotel School, Sun International group executive chef Ronald Ramsamy and Petrus Madutlela who is now based in the UK.
“There are a whole lot of local chefs who are very good and amazingly gifted,” he said.
Like Charmaine, Mkhize’s dream is to own his own hotel school some day.
Until then, he plans on serving one enticing, mouthwatering dish after the other to all who happen to be on the receiving end of his outstanding cooking at Carnival City.
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