ONE TOUGH COOKIE

Idon’t have to ask chef Katia Sherf, now 23 years old, where her career started — I was there. It is 2014 and Sherf is calling pastry orders and holding her ground as service swirls around her. She’s calm, but her cheeks are flushed, one of the only physical “tells” that she’s under pressure. She’s head of the pastry kitchen in the most prestigious restaurant in South Africa, The Test Kitchen. She is 19.

I was beside her on the line, far her junior and 10 years her senior. She was, and remains, a girl on fire.

Since then, she’s been around the world and back. After Test Kitchen she travelled to France to study further and qualified with a certificate in fine French pastry arts from Ecole Nationale Superieure de Patisserie. She returned to Cape Town with a mission to start her own pastry shop. In 2016, at the age of 21, she opened Smak, a delicatessen, restaurant and patisserie that is still going strong.

Her chef pedigree is undoubtable, but being a business owner was a whole new ball game. “A lot of what I’ve learnt has been through failure. And honestly, I learn something new every day. Some failure is inevitable; it’s your comeback that determines your success,” says Sherf.

Being at the top of her own kitchen hierarchy also comes with a certain degree of loneliness. “The biggest challenge I’ve faced since opening Smak is self-motivation and optimism. There’s no one next to me telling me to stay positive and to motivate me.”

Asked how she feels about her future as a young businesswoman, she says: “South Africa has a lot to offer young entrepreneurs. The country is growing — there’s opportunity for our youth to grow with it.” She didn’t feel like the opportunities abroad were significantly better. “It’s a common mentality for millennials to believe the grass is greener on the other side — but I think it’s up to each individual to make the most of their situation and make every moment count.”