Calm chef in a hectic kitchen
Calm chef runs hectic kitchen
SHEILA Somers, the Durban International Convention Centre’s Indian cuisine sous chef, has been the force behind one of the city’s busiest kitchens for 17 years. The accomplished India-trained 60-year-old spoke to SIPHILISELWE
MAKHANYA about her life in food and the food in her life. When did you realise that you enjoyed working with food?
I’ve been interested in cooking from when I was a little girl — I’m talking about from about the age of six. It’s when I started basically playing with dough and little rotis. By the time I was 18, I was already a very good cook because I could do everything — I could bake, I could make sweetmeats, I could cook all kinds of biryani and curries. What’s an average day at work like for you?
I run the halaal kitchen and we have at least five staff members working with us, but if I need more I can request additional staff from some of the other kitchens.
We serve about 2 000 plates of food a day, on average, and we also do menu tastings. We even did seating one day for 4 000 people. It wasn’t hard because we have the facilities and the infrastructure. The most important thing is to stay calm — you shouldn’t get excited. Who are some of the interesting people you’ve cooked for?
We’ve cooked for the late Nelson Mandela, MECs, royalty. We’ve cooked for Britain’s Prince Charles and the queen, as well as people from many different countries. For us, it’s just a job and we’re used to it, but we take pride in it. I love my job. What’s your favourite comfort food?
I love vegetarian food a lot and, growing up, we used to get our vegetables from our own garden. Even now, at home, we still do a lot of gardening and have different kinds of beans such as green beans and gadra beans. I love lentils — I could eat them every day. My favourite dish was cooked by my grandmother. We called her Nani. She made things like dhal pitte — it’s a lentil stew with dumplings that are rolled and put in the dish. What advice would you share with those just starting out in the culinary field, especially with regard to Indian cuisine?
I think cooking is an art. You have to be creative and you have to take pride in it — cook from the heart. Your blend of spices is very important — Indian cooking is all about the blending of the spices. Commercialised spices cannot compare to home-grown spices. Even at the centre we do our own spice blending, which is something I also train my staff to do. Are you the only chef in your family?
I’m the only one whose career is in cooking. However, my sons, 32-yearold twins Sarin and Sachin, also cook. They took an interest and they love it. They can cook the dishes from my two recipe books, Indian Cuisine: The South African Way and Indian Entertainment Cookery. They and their sister, Keethal, all live in Cape Town, so they have to know how to do it for themselves. When I visit them, they cook and lay the table for me — and it’s so good. What are some of the most interesting foods you’ve eaten?
I was in New Zealand once and I ate steamed food that had been cooked by the Maoris in one of the Maori villages. What they do is dig a hole in the ground and cover it with fern leaves. We had yams and chicken with vegetables. It was really nice. It was the first time I had eaten something cooked in a different way.
When I visit other countries, I love to taste their different foods. Whose cooking besides your own would you gladly eat for the rest of your life?
My executive chef John Moatshe’s. When we started out, we used to cook side by side. He loves attention to detail — presentation is important, everything must be nicely garnished and all of that.
Whatever he does, he makes sure it’s 100% perfect. He makes a very nice lamb ragout.