Mduduzi Ngwenya’s culinary journey from Ekurhuleni to Doha
A heightened interest in food for Mduduzi Ngwenya began when he was at school.
His sisters would return for the holidays from their tertiary education institutions and cook meals other than the traditional basic, staple ones their mother always made for them.
“Suddenly, I was no longer eating sorghum with beans, samp and stews or maize meal and instead devouring and relishing pasta with different types of sauces, cottage pies and even souffles.
“Meals that I always thought were only for special occasions were now dished up almost every day by my sisters,” explains Ngwenya.
“I also realised then that if meals are that good and tasty, they bring the whole family together, and that has been my inspiration ever since.”
After leaving school, Ngwenya, who hails from Brakpan, enrolled at Capsicum Culinary Studio’s Boksburg campus to study for a three-year year Advanced Culinary Chef Programme.
Two years later, after completing the practical component of the course, he started a full-time job in the kitchen of a Bedfordview-based insurance company canteen.
But then along came the Covid pandemic and lockdown and Ngwenya found himself retrenched and back home with time on his hands to think about his future.
“I decided that once the restrictions were lifted, I would go back to my studies. When it was all over I returned to Capsicum and completed my diploma,” he says.
After his graduation in 2022, Ngwenya received a position with Food by Andrew Draper, a catering company based in Muldersdrift that he had always longed to work for.
It was while he worked there that Capsicum contacted him earlier this year, and offered the opportunity for an interview with Qatar Airways for a position with their subsidiary company, Qatar Duty Free.
He got the job and now finds himself based in Doha, working as a commis chef in five outlet restaurants operating in the city’s Hamad International Airport.
“I work with à la carte preparation areas for five eateries – Usta Doner, Wok to Walk, Jwala, Remman Café and Baldna Express – sending out orders on the à la carte menu, ensuring stock levels meet daily production requirements, maintaining the rigorous food safety protocols and overseeing the quality of all the dishes sent out.
“My days are long, and I work full 12-hour shifts five days a week. But I am enjoying it; working hard and learning a lot.”
On his days off, Ngwenya goes sightseeing and almost always finds a new restaurant to try out, savouring the mix of Arabic and Asian cuisines, many of them with strong Indian influences and flavours.
There are also many foreign nationals connected with and enjoy meeting up with them, sharing experiences about their time in Qatar, and finding out about the culture and culinary delights of their home countries.
Apart from his Qatar Airways role, Ngwenya also owns a catering company called Grills Catering, which he says will be fully operational, at its peak and staffed by at least eight full-time employees within the next five years.
“Grills was born from an idea I had while studying at Capsicum when we had to set up a market day for an open day on campus. The success of the event brought Grills to life and after my lectures, I would take it to the night markets in and around the East Rand.
“Currently, Grills is on hold until I return, which will hopefully be sometime in 2028.”
Is there anything else the “guy from Brakpan” misses apart from Grills?
“I miss my family,” he says.
“My mother and father still live in the same house. My sisters inspired me to get into cooking, the eldest, Zandile, has started her own beauty boutique while my other sister, Nomaswasi, is working as an HR manager at a bank in Pretoria.
“I cannot wait to see them again and have the whole family sit down over a shared meal that I have created and prepared for them,” he says.
