An early start in the recipe to success
While nine-year-old Gary Sparrow may not yet have the recipe for success, his own homemade mayonnaise is proving successful in helping him fund his brother's diabetes treatments.
Sparrow developed a love for being in the kitchen with his grandmother, Grace, at the age of four. His passion for all things culinary has grown since then, and nurtured even more by a recent visit with Pietermaritzburg's celebrity chef, Jackie Cameron at her culinary school in Hilton.
The Merchiston Preparatory School learner started baking biscuits and scones with his grandmother, but one of his signature dishes he has mastered, is a blue cheese pasta dish, his uncle, Graeme Sparrow taught him. From a family of food fundies, Graeme is also a MasterChef SA 2022 top 40 finalist.
He has used his passion for cooking to raise a substantial amount of funds for his elder brother's diabetes mellitus type one treatment by selling his gourmet homemade mayonnaise.
Gary's Gourmet Mayonnaise has helped his parents raise around R17 000 to cover the shortfall of his brother's medical treatment that the medical aid wouldn't cover.
Try it for yourself; you can find his products on the young chef-entrepreneur's Facebook page: Gary's Gourmet Mayonnaise.
His mother, Tracy Sparrow, said he enjoys creating something delicious, but also experimenting in the kitchen and trying out new things. “He loves to experience new things and enjoys new tastes and aromas. He will try anything sour, sweet, salty or spicy. He wants to try it all. The way Gary is able to taste and smell flavours is inspiring. He really smells everything,” said Sparrow.
Gary wants to take his love for cooking far, starting with his goal of competing in Junior MasterChef. He also dreams of one day being a judge on MasterChef. He loves using his pasta maker, the hand-held blender or food processor and the ice cream maker, which he got for his ninth birthday, and recently used to create a Halva and Macadamia nut ice cream for his father. He is currently saving his pocket money to buy his own chef's knife.
Sparrow said he had such a great day at the Jackie Cameron School of Food and Wine, that he did not want to leave. “He enjoyed being part of the team preparing foods and meeting the students at the school, as well as all the wonderful equipment he got to work with. He got to see a real chef's jacket and learnt about how things work in a professional kitchen. He also got to eat an amazing lunch and got to chat with Chef Jackie. He did not want to leave,” said Sparrow.
Gary has a range of renowned chefs that he follows and has hopes of meeting one day; and his day with chef Jackie Cameron, who is one of his role models, was definitely a bucket list tick. His all-time favourite chef, is Gordon Ramsay, who he would also love to meet one day. This Easter, Gary intends on creating Chili Chocolate Eggs, inspired by his dad's love for chillies.