THE YOUNG CHEFS
Like father, like son — and like daughter, in this family. The Maresch siblings are already chefs in the making, writes Shanthini Naidoo
Joseph and Alex Maresch are bustling about the kitchen. She is rolling homemade pasta through a machine. He is expertly piping boerewors into casings. It could be a regular kitchen scene, except the 11-year-old boy is not much taller than the counter top and Alex, his 13-year-old sister, is taking time off from exams to make tagliatelle flavoured with rocket.
The offspring of steakhouse-owner and chef Steve Maresch, Joseph and Alex are both foodies who have turned their passion into a little business. They teach classes to groups of children wanting to sharpen their skills during school holidays.
“I used to bake at home a lot and wanted to earn some pocket money, so I thought I would teach other kids how to bake at the restaurant,” says Alex. “We do cupcakes, pizza or pasta. I teach kids aged six to 10 and usually have about six kids per class, not more. You have to help them a lot, especially he younger ones. One time a little girl turned a bowl of flour over her head, so you have to prepare for that stuff. It gets messy.”
Joseph is a meat lover like his dad and teaches his boerewors-loving friends the art. “I love to work with meat and see how the spices go together,” he says, trimming fat.
“You have to separate the meat and fat. That is very important, because you have to mix the right amounts in again so the wors will be juicy.”
Why boerewors? “I love the smoky taste and juiciness.” His favourite spice mix includes coriander, cloves, black pepper and Himalayan salt.
One of Joseph’s students is his friend and schoolmate, Luke Lawson. “It is nice to see how this delicious stuff is made,” says Lawson. “Boerewors is my favourite meat.” Joseph quickly corrects him: “It’s not meat, it’s a sausage.”
“Whatever it is, it is my favourite. And my mom said she won’t buy any other boerewors after I learnt to make it,” the young sausage-maker says.
Joseph says it is easy to make wors. “It is a whole process, but it takes about 20 minutes. After you trim the meat you must mince it, then add spices and then put it into the sausage press. That’s the fun part. Sometimes the casing pops and it can squirt, once all over my dad. The trick is to practise and keep trying. The more boerewors you try, the easier it gets. Now I make some every weekend.”
Alex, meanwhile, has taught her friend Georgia Taylor how to perfect home-made pasta. “If the dough feels sticky, just add flour. If it is too hard, add olive oil,” she instructs. The girls make spaghetti and tagliatelle infused with fresh herbs.
“It was much easier than I thought,” says Taylor. “I’m going to practise at home a bit more before I make it for my family.” Alex, echoing the philosophy of the film
Ratatouille , says: “Anyone can cook. I’ve been cooking since the age of two, when my mom and dad and I would make scrambled eggs. It escalated from there, baking Christmas-tree biscuits and so on. You just have to enjoy it.”