A plateful of passion
He started working in investment finance after getting a BCom, but Lentswe Bhengu changed his suit and tie for a chef’s jacket
Career transitions aren’t easy. But Lentswe Bhengu’s decision to follow his passion is one he doesn’t regret. “It’s funny because I’d been cooking on the sly since I was about nine or 10,” says Bhengu (29), who was born and raised in KwaZulu Natal. “And even while I was doing my BCom and working at investment finance companies [like Old Mutual and Allan Gray] for five years, I’d been going to open days at culinary schools.”
Despite his desire, Bhengu didn’t apply until he was 24. The idea of making such a big switch was scary, especially considering his mother also worked in finance and his father was a successful businessman. But he found reassurance after a discussion with his dad about the pursuit of happiness.
“He told me that if you ever need to sort out your life, just sit down and have a meeting with yourself,” Bhengu recalls. “And if ever you find yourself doing something you’re not happy with, stop it right there and then. Otherwise it will carry on being that way until you’re 40 or 50 or 60, saying: ‘I should have been an artist.’ Meanwhile you’re stuck behind a desk.”
Bhengu took this sage advice and, in 2010, quit his corporate job. He then enrolled at The Culinary Academy, a prestigious school in the Cape Winelands between Stellenbosch and Paarl. After graduating as a professional chef, he went on to work at restaurants (including Savoy Cabbage, The Roundhouse Restaurant, and Saucisse Deli) as well as catering companies around Durban and Cape Town.
“Of course there were challenges,” he says with a laugh. “I was 25 and my mind-set was very much: ‘I’m an adult, I’m an adult, I’m an adult.’ But I was sitting in class with 18-year-olds who’d just finished school.”
Besides the change in attitude, Bhengu had to change his work ethic too. In finance, he was used to clocking in every day and working set hours behind a desk. In the kitchen? Not so much.
“You arrive before everyone else and you work until the last guest leaves,” says Bhengu, who keeps fit by running and going to gym when he finds the time. “You’re a server behind the servers in the restaurant because no-one ever gets to see you.”
Despite draining 16-hour days on his feet, and perhaps because he was used to intensity at the job from his office days, Bhengu persevered. Indeed, it was his finance background and business acumen that led him to co-create Green Zebra Productions, a film and media production house.
He and his business partner produced Africa on a Plate, the country’s first food Web series. Bhengu provided online food content including weekly recipes, videos and blogs. In 2014, the company was commissioned to produce a 14-part television version for The Africa Channel, a US network. The show has now been on air in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean for just over a year. It’s also broadcast on certain SAA flights.
“I still use my finance background and experience in running a company every day, so I never lost it and it was never in vain,” he says. “But things are different now. I love the freedom to express myself on the plate and I