Lazy Makoti, the busy chef
Mogau Seshoene, the chef entrepreneur known as the Lazy Makoti, is anything but . . .
IT’S enough to make your hair stand on end – a knock on your front door heralding the arrival of unexpected guests weeks after the end of the festive season, in the month of “Januworry”. What’s a good host to do? It’s possible to entertain last-minute guests with what’s left in your nearly empty kitchen cupboards, as chef and entrepreneur Mogau Seshoene (29), better known as The Lazy Makoti (The Lazy Bride), proves when we turn up at her front door.
Wearing a warm smile and a red apron, Mogau effortlessly whips up a meal of tuna and sweet potato fishcakes with a crunchy fresh salad and broccoli on the side.
“The trick is to find really easy go-to recipes and master them. Switch them up every time for variety,” Mogau says in the kitchen of her flat in Centurion, Pretoria.
“I’m also the queen of recycling leftovers,” she adds, laughing. “In our home, my mom raised us never to waste food.”
And apparently never to waste time either. Mogau quickly gets down to her culinary business, switching on the stove and getting out her chopping board.
“I’m always cooking,” she says. “For me, it’s like therapy – it’s my comfort and solace.”
Although she’s been driving The Lazy Makoti business digitally since 2014, she’s now expanded to a traditional medium too.
Her cookbook, The Lazy Makoti’s Guide to the Kitchen, will be in bookshops early this year. Her hope? “That this will be the last recipe book you’ll ever need to buy. It will have everything you need to know, from how to soft-boil an egg to how to cook chicken and how to tell when it’s ready.
“The book caters to everyone – whether you’re someone who only has time to whip up something quick during the week, or if you’re living in the rural areas and are cooking over an open fire. It’s cooking for dummies, basically.”
MOGAU grew up in Polokwane, Limpopo, and fondly remembers the first meal she learnt to cook. “I was 14 and I was learning how to make pap and bake muffins. “I learnt to cook from my mom, Mamose, and I’ve always had a passion for it. Cooking together is our way of bonding.
“My mom is super proud, especially with me being the only woman in our family to own their own business. She always says how lucky I am to be of this era where women, particularly black women, can make their own rules and own their destiny.”
Mogau’s passion was no secret in her community, so friends would often turn to her for help in the kitchen – which led to the creation of her business.
It began when one of her close friends was getting married in 2014. As part of African tradition, a woman is expected to cook for her husband. Because her friend had no experience in the kitchen, she turned to Mogau for help.
“She needed to learn how to cook traditional food, so we started off with the basics. I taught her how to make chakalaka, dumplings and tripe, and how to brew ginger beer,” she recalls, smiling.
“After about three or four cooking lessons together, she recommended me to a friend, who recommended me to another friend. And that was the start of The Lazy Makoti.”
The demand for her teaching skills grew so quickly that later in 2014 Mogau, who has a BCom degree in consumer science and retail management from the University of Pretoria, left her job as an intern auditor at a Joburgbased corporate to pursue her passion full time.
In 2015 she graduated from the SA Chef ’s Training and Innovation Academy in Centurion and in 2016 she completed her apprenticeship at the Saxon Hotel in Sandton.
Her endeavours have seen her rack up impressive accolades. She won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year title at the Tshwane Business Awards in 2015, she was a recipient of the Mandela Washington Fellowship and she spent eight weeks studying business and entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin, where she got to meet then US president Barack Obama. In 2016 she cracked the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
“It was a really amazing and eye-opening experience,” Mogau says of her US trip. “But it also made me realise the potential we have on our continent.
THE road hasn’t been without bumps, though. Not too long after quitting her intern job and starting her own business, she found herself applying for work in admin and reception. This wasn’t because her passion for cooking was waning – she was looking for a day job to pay the bills.
She says the toughest part of being a one-woman start-up is that everything falls on your shoulders.
“My biggest challenges have probably been what I consider teething problems of any start-up. In the beginning you need a team but you simply can’t afford it, so you try to be everything – the bookkeeper, chef, secretary – and the work-life balance is nonexistent.” Mogau started the business using some of her savings, but was fortunate to get extra start-up capital when she won R150 000 through The Lean Jump Business Incubation competition powered by SABKickstart, Edge Growth and The Hook Up Dinner.
Her advice to would-be entrepreneurs is to go for it, but to learn as much as you can about your business. “Learn about money, how it works and how your business can make more of it. Seek help from professionals but also read up on it.
“Don’t just concentrate on the core of the business and ignore the finances because they’re so daunting, especially when you aren’t doing well.”
Meanwhile, the kitchen fills with the aroma of her cooking. “There you go, I hope you enjoy it,” she says proudly. “It was an easy dish – that’s what my cooking is about.”
And her expertise will be shared far and wide in the coming months, she says. “I’m excited about what’s to come – but for now I can confirm that in the immediate future I’ll be opening my own cooking studio, later expanding into Cape Town and then to the greater continent.”
‘I’m always cooking. For me, it’s like therapy – it’s my comfort and solace’