K AYL A-ANN OSBORN
Executive head chef of The Chefs’ Table in Umhlanga
The food memory: Fresh tropical fruit and decadent waffles
Food has always played a central role in Kayla-Ann’s family life. “I grew up on a farm in Scottburgh on the KwaZulu-Natal coast, which had macadamia, avocado and paw-paw trees,” says Kayla-Ann. “During
the holidays, everyone ate paw-paw for breakfast – to this day, my gran cuts one up every morning. For lunch, we would eat avo sandwiches.” She says other fixtures on their summer menu were watermelons, floated in the pool to keep them cool, and mac-and-cheese dinners. “Always with a bottle of tomato sauce on the table,” she adds, laughing. For the Osborn children, the apex of indulgence was reached during the December holidays, when Kayla
Ann and her cousins would make their annual pilgrimage to the Waffle House in Ramsgate. “That place is an institution,” she says. “The queues are like two or three hours long. I’d always order the bananaand-caramel waffle, which comes with their amazing caramel sauce. And I always had a hot chocolate to go with it.”
@kaylaann.osborn, @thechefstableza