Tee & Minnie’s Kitchen Rules
Serial reality TV contenstants Tee and Minnie are back on our screens in My Kitchen Rules South Africa – and determined to be there to the end
IF AT first you don’t succeed . . . well, you know the old saying. But for these two young women from Durban, it’s a strategy – one they hope will make them famous. Between them, Minenhle “Minnie” Ntuli (24) and Nomthandazo “Tee” Xaba (20) have competed in three local reality shows and done rather well in them too. Now they’ve joined forces to take to the screen once more in the second season of M-Net’s My Kitchen Rules South Africa (MKR). And they’re adamant this time they’ll make it all the way to the end. Their laughter fills the lounge at the Multichoice City office in Randburg where we meet. Their energy is infectious and their outfits pop with colour and sparkle – much like their personalities. This time around, Minnie and Tee believe viewers are really going to get to know them. “I love MKR – it gives people a picture of who I truly am. I just like laughing and meeting new people,” Minnie says. “Some will say our personalities are all over the place, so hopefully they won’t say the same about our food!” Tee adds. The pair will be familiar to local reality show fans. Tee took part in the Mzansi Magic dating show Date My Family last year and she and Minnie both made it through to the Idols SA top eight and top 16 rounds last year. Now they’re hoping to win viewers over with their striking personalities and skills in the kitchen. “MKR will probably help find me a nice man who can see that I can actually cook,” Minnie quips. “Listen, when God has made you something great, when God says it’s time, it’s time,” says Tee, who’s also looking for love – her beau from Date My
Family didn’t work out in the long run.
“If you can’t find a man, go sing and find a man, if you can’t find a man there, go cook and sing and find a man!”
THEIR reality show addiction may not have won them any prizes just yet, but they have their serial entering to thank for their newfound friendship. Despite both being students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where Minnie is studying law and Tee is a drama student, they hadn’t met before the nail-biting Theatre Week on Idols SA. “We got into the same group and we gravitated towards each other,” Minnie says.
Tee was born and raised in Southgate, Durban, and went to Effingham High School. Minnie wasn’t far away – she grew up in New Germany and attended Pinetown Girls High School.
“We were in the same area but we didn’t know each other,” Tee says. “But then we met and now we’re inseparable.”
The pair now host a show together on campus station Radio DUT. Not only do they get on like a house on fire, they look similar. “We always get that we look like sisters or like [the singer] Shekhinah,” Minnie says.
The Idols SA audition was a first for Tee, but Minnie was right at home.
She’d entered the singing competition twice while in high school, but never made it to the judges’ rounds. Her third audition saw her singing for the judges but her luck ran out after that.
“I think the fourth time was the charm for me,” says Minnie, who made it to the Top 16. “I’ve been to so many auditions in my life – more auditions than my age. You have to work for it, you know?”
Now they’ve swopped their mikes for pots and pans and have their game plan all worked out in order to wow not only the other contestants but also celebrity judges J’Something of Mi Casa and Marble restaurant co-owner David Higgs.
It’s all about focusing on local flavours, Tee explains. “A lot of the time South African food falls under the radar. We’ll rave about Indian food and Italian food but South African food is sometimes referred to as ‘peasant food’, as a fellow contestant said, so we’re really trying to modernise it in a way that doesn’t take too much away from it.”
“It’s about young people respecting and recognising authentic African cook- ing,” Minnie adds. “To be woke and give our African food the respect it deserves.”
As reality TV regulars, they have some tricks up their sleeves when it comes to beating their competition. “We’re on a mission to confuse the enemy – they can’t know too much nor too little about us. They mustn’t know what’s up our sleeve and what we have in store for them,” Tee explains.
“It’s quite interesting to be low-key because that’s not who we are. But we’re finding our way around it and hopefully in the end it will work out for us.”
IT’S not just fame the aspiring chefs are after – the R1 million prize money could go a long way in helping their families. Should they win, Minnie hopes to use her share of the cash to find a good doctor to help her older brother, Siphi Ntuli (28), who lost his sight nearly 10 years ago as a result of diabetes.
Tee says she’d use her share to pay for her university fees to help her single mother, MamNcu Khanyile, a policewoman, and the rest of it to open her own production company in Durban.
“I have the most supportive family,” Minnie says of her dad, Khanyisile, a businessman, and mom, Linda, a deputy school principal.
“Everyone from my mom’s side and from my dad’s side is rooting for us. It’s like, ‘Okay, what are you up to now? How can we help?’ And this makes me want to work even harder,” she says. Tee’s family aren’t just showing their support, they’re basking in the limelight too. “My dad thinks he’s famous,” she jokes of taxi owner and bishop Vusi Xaba. “He’s, like, ‘I can’t do my things because people will just want to take my picture as I’m walking.’ And I’m like, ‘Dad, this isn’t overseas – there are no paparazzi here!’” Her mom’s even had a makeover to look her best. “My mom’s a celeb now,” Tee jokes. “She cut her hair; she wants this young look now. Just yesterday she told me this young 25-year-old asked her out because her daughter’s on TV. They want to be celebrities – it’s so cute.” Minnie and Tee’s presence on our screens hasn’t gone unnoticed by the rest of South Africa, either. “For me, it was exciting when I saw a comment on social media that said, ‘Isn’t this Minnie girl from Idols? Aaah man, she’s unforgettable’. That’s the kind of impact I want to leave with anyone I meet and anyone who sees me.” Tee agrees, even though both have had their fair share of nasty comments for trying their hand at yet another reality show. “People actually remember I was on Date My Family and Idols. That means they must be tracking my career. I must be doing something right,” she says. “So, honestly, the negative stuff – what negative stuff ? All publicity is good publicity, that’s how I take it.” Being positive is what it’s all about, they say. And it looks as if it’s going to take them far.