Passionate chefs and twins Lebo and Tebo Ndala cooked their best dishes for the audiences and spoke about their upcoming book on the last day of this year’s Book Fair at Constitution Hill.
The twin sisters spoke about their book titled Food Stories expected to be released sometime this month in a session moderated by Rosie Motene.
They shared their food journey which started in their Mamelodi home in the east of Pretoria with their mother who is a passionate cook.
Lebo said they started cooking at home with their mother who is a very good cook. They then took their love for cooking to high school and registered it as an extra subject.
After schooling, they pursued it as a career, moved to Stellenbosch to study culinary arts at The Hurst Campus and graduated at the end of 2014.
They then moved to the United States for a few months and studied through the University of California Los Angeles Extension for extra credit.
“We did a lot of travelling to develop our pallets. We started writing, developing recipes and looking into the food and media industry,” said Lebo.
It was when NB Publishers saw their blog titled ‘With Love from The Twins’ that they asked them to write a book. “That’s how the book came about,” she said.
With their company With love from the twins, the two host pop-up restaurants and cater for private functions.
Lebo indicated that the hospitality industry is very difficult for women as it is a male-dominated industry. She said they were trying to change the narrative and show people that there are options in the industry. “You can do food and media like we do, it’s more creative, and you learn more and you grow. So we try to expose that part of the industry to everybody.”
The book Food Stories consists of 10 amazing chapters in which the twins narrate stories for every dish they cook. “We share our food journey, where we’ve been, what we’ve learnt and what we’ve cooked. It has beautiful recipes, all different chapters with interesting, amazing and all easy recipes that people can try.
“We explore so much. It is just a beautiful book and you learn some much about it, we explore West African culture, Thailand, American, South African cultures.”
Details: South African Book Fair 021 914 8626.
Related article:
Barbecue: Social gathering, cooking method, spice and sauce – what’s the story?
