Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Mayat makes food a language of love
JUST before South Africa went into a hard lockdown in March 2020, I did a podcast interview with Naqiyah Mayat about her first cookbook, The Beginning: Indian Recipes from my Home.
Aside from her warm hug and infectious personality, Mayat arrived with a special home-made treat of freshly-fried puris with ginger halwa.
Food is her love language and it permeates all she does. So it was lovely to chat to her again this week, about her partnership with luxury nougat brand 1701, where she created a bespoke Eid-inspired flavour of sesame halva and almonds.
First, she quickly caught me up on what’s been keeping her busy. The doting wife and mother of four said: “I’ve been working with brands that I feel resonated with that journey of starting at the beginning. For me, it was developing more recipe content.
“Also, I noticed lifestyle content started picking up. I’ve been featured in Fairlady magazine as a fashion icon.”
Mayat acknowledges that the cookbook was a catalyst in propelling her into the spotlight.
Now that she has a new kitchen and beautiful space to work from, there is renewed energy and creativity that helps her push the envelope when it comes to flavours.
Interestingly, Mayat first collaborated with 1701 in 2020. “We actually launched an Eid collection, a cardamom and date nougat specifically centred on Ramadaan and Eid. It was the first time that Nick (Sher, the founder of 1701) had done any sort of collaboration and we were testing the waters.
“Following the success of that, we decided to embark on a new collaboration this year as well.”
With the cardamom and date nougat flavour promoted in the UAE as well, the feedback was encouraging enough to revisit the partnership.
“Nick said, ‘Let’s do this again, we have such a great synergy’. When we first sat down to talk about the collection, I said to Nick, ‘we have to be very intentional’. I do everything in my life with purpose. I always ask who does it benefit, what can someone learn from it? Not necessarily my market, which is predominantly Muslim females, but the greater market.
“When it came to packaging design, I said to him, ‘Colours like pink and blue are lovely, I have nothing against using those colours, but what are we trying to convey with this? What sort of message are you trying to send out?’
“I said in Islam as a whole, green is a preferred colour of the prophet. It is also very revered as it is the colour of paradise. If we are going to do this, we need to go in with an understanding of the market.”
They went back to the drawing board and the result is an iridescent green, which is also aligned to fashion trends right now.
“It was quite ironic, the colours lined up with the season as well. I also said, we need to tell the story, and can we not do a little bit more and every recipient that gets one of the beautiful big boxes gets a note card with it, and it will say why it was the chosen colour, what we do for Eid and why we celebrate Eid.”
On flavour profiles, Mayat revisited her 2020 creation and looked to Middle Eastern culture for inspiration.
She explained: “They have something called a Qahwah arabiyya, which is Arabic coffee that we break our fast with – and dates. I wanted to marry those two flavours.
“Coming up with the cardamom, which is one of the major flavour profiles in Arabic coffee, almost takes you back to people that want to do a pilgrimage.
“For 2022, it meant going back to that route, speaking of Middle Eastern profiles because they do dominate a huge percentage of Islamic following.
“For me, it meant doing halva, which is made with sesame seeds, ground to almost a paste, and tahini is added to it. You get this beautiful scent that comes through. That was the flavour profile I was hoping would come out in this Eid collection.”
While Mayat felt it premature to talk about a second book, she did say it is “early in the creation phase”.
Currently fasting for Ramadaan, she added: “It’s usually the time when I take a step back from social media. I try to connect spiritually. It’s just a mental and physical detox, where I use the month for a renewal of energy. The focus, though, is to continue working with brands. 1701 was a great start to the year.”
Curated 1701 Eid gift boxes filled with the new Eid-inspired flavour can be ordered on the 1701 online store. 1701 have also created an exclusive discount code, 1701xNaqiyah, which will entitle you to a discount of 10% on all orders, irrespective of value. Free shipping will apply for orders over R1 000 in value.