A love affair with food in Africa

ZIMBABWEAN-BORN television chef Callie-anne Gavazzi is on a mission to recreate African cuisine and introduce it to the world – one unique dish at a time.

Growing up on the dusty farm roads of Bulawayo, cooking prawns on the beach, eating street food like chibage (green mealies) and making sadza (pap) with her grandmother, who was an integral part of Callie-anne’s upbringing, is what sparked her love affair with African food that she’s eager to share.

The former Masterchef SA contestant was fortunate enough to turn her passion for cooking into a career this year, and has released her first self-published cookbook, aptly called A Love Affair With

Food in Africa.

Following a successful launch in Las Vegas in January, South Africans can now share in Gavazzi’s love affair.

Her cooking show on ITV

(DSTV Channel 347), Into the Wild, sees the food enthusiast develop unique five-star quality dishes on a wood-fired stove.

And her book piques the interest of “even the least enthused foodies” with African flavours getting a more modern twist.

Gavazzi says: “With A Love Affair With Food in Africa,

I’ve taken the African flavours ingrained in my cooking and given them a modern twist to make it the fashionable cuisine I know it to be.”

“My biggest desire is to make African cuisine something that the world craves just as much as they do any other cuisine,” she adds.

She’s crafting a trademark for herself in the cooking world. An example is the uniqueness of the recipes in her book – a garlic and chilli relish; sadza or traditional mealie pap with a variety sauces and relishes and Pap’s Peri-peri Prawns, a dish inspired by her dad’s Mozambican prawn recipe.

“I have a fabulous relationship with food,” she says.

“It is such an integral part of all our lives and I’m lucky enough to be working with it as my job. I feel very privileged to be able to share my passion for African inspired food with the world,” she adds.

Gavazzi says: “My childhood food experiences laid the foundation of my food career and has created a relationship with food that will hopefully take Africa to the world.”

The passionate chef attributes her love for cooking to her family, specifically her father.

Not one to follow food trends, rather creating them, the foodie says recreating an old recipe is what’s hot on her menu at the moment.

“Food trends are constantly keeping us on our toes in the kitchen, looking for new ideas and creating something delicious and fresh,” Gavazzi says.

“I am not much of a follower of trends as such, I kind of make my own.

“For me bringing (old recipes) into the now is hot on my menus, I love a re-creation of an old faithful,” she adds.

Gavazzi says her book is a tribute to “this beautiful country” she calls her home and also her culture.

“African cuisine is often forgotten about… (this) is my culture and my life, all I want to do is share it with the world.”

She says a lot more needs to be done to promote local cuisine and has made it her mission to change the status quo.

“There is not enough of it, our food is left on the back burner unfortunately, and I am determined to change that.

“Local African food is unlike any other and can be recreated in many ways. I am determined to do that too,” Gavazzi concludes.

A Love Affair with African Food is available at: Merchants On Long (Cape Town) http:// www.merchantsonlong.com/; Admore (Johannesburg) https://www.ardmore-design. com/pages/visit-us; Colle & Co and the Country Company (Durban) http://colleandco. com/ and https://www. facebook.com/pages/countrycompany-country-courtyardnottingham-road-village-kznmidlands/784896694903158; Baar and Bass (London) http:// baarandbass.com/