China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Cooking up a celebrity lifestyle
Once on track to be a lawyer, TV chef Zola turned her passion for food into a rewarding career
Two years after starting law school, Zola Nene realized it was not the route she wanted to follow. With a passion for food, Nene quit the school and stepped into the kitchen.
A decade later, Nene hosts a daily TV show about food in South Africa and has published her first cookbook, Simply Delicious, winning her two awards at the Fifth Gourmand International Awards in Yantai, Shandong province.
During her recent visit to China, Nene tried Peking duck, dumplings, hotpot and fresh noodles-dishes she has been eager to sample for a long time.
“I will definitely throw a party featuring dumplings when I get back home,” she says.
Chinese food has provided her with plenty of inspiration, and she plans to write a chapter about it in her next cookbook.
“I like to travel and experience food in different countries,” she says. “I think as a foodie, you have to travel to broaden your perspective and learn more. I want to learn so that I can create as much as possible.”
Nene’s main inspiration comes from seasonality. She enjoys going to markets and trying different combinations of ingredients to make something new.
She believes the secret of her success is rather simple — following her passion and love for food.
“My passion for food is inherited within me. Every time I see a new ingredient or have a new food experience, it lights the fire again. And that can happen every day. Even when somebody is calling to ask a question about the best way to chop an onion, I feel excited. I am so in love with food.”
However, rather than luck, Nene’s success is the result of hard work.
When she realized that being a lawyer was not where her passion lay, Nene decided to become a chef, as she had discovered a love of food at a younger age. She quit law school and found a job in a professional kitchen near Manchester in the United Kingdom. She started out peeling potatoes, gradually being given responsibility for a section of the kitchen and then for pastries.
She returned to South Africa and enrolled as a student specializing in food media after realizing that her passion for being a chef wasn’t going to fade away. “And nowhere I am,” she says.
Nene is the celebrity chef and food stylist on SABC 3’s Expresso Show, cooking live for her TV audience every weekday morning. She has also released her first cookbook, containing dozens of precious recipes she has collected over the years.
“I feel like I am living a foodie’s dream,” she says. “If someone had told me six years ago that I’d be where I am today, I never would have believed them. It feels surreal to call myself a published author — and to share my recipes on national TV every day is just unbelievable.”
Nene feels her success is not only a personal recognition, but away to promote South African food and showcase the possibilities for people who are in a similar situation to the one she used to be in.
South Africa is a multiethnic society, encompassing a wide variety of cultures, languages and religions. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in its variety of foods.
“People don’t know what South African food is. I think part of the reason is that it’s so difficult to define because we have so many cultures. All sorts of influences make our cuisine hard to define, in the way pizza and pasta do with Italian food,” Nene says.
Beijing used to have some South African restaurants, but none survived.
“I think people will wake up and become more interested in South African food. Slowly, the wheels are turning and people around the world are getting more curious about our food. We are on our way, but it’s going to take a while longer. We just need more people speaking about our food and more South African chefs to be out there internationally. The more we show ourselves, the better it will be for our country’s cuisine.”
Her story also encourages people, especially the young, to follow their dream in the kitchen.
Nene is a mentor for potential young chefs. She teaches those who are uncertain if they really want to follow such a path and shows them what the work is like, as she used to do in the UK. Many of her interns have become successful foodies working for magazines.
On the road to success, Nene has enjoyed the strong and constant support of her family.
Born and raised in a Zulu home, Nene did not have too many restrictions imposed by her family. On the contrary, her father showed great support when she felt confused about her future.
Days before her final exam at law school, she became hesitant about whether to continue on her path toward becoming a lawyer.
“I called my dad and he said, ‘You can’t do anything that you don’t love to do. Stop everything, come home and we will talk about it’,” Nene recalls. “So I came home without even taking the exam.”
With encouragement and help from her parents, Nene managed to travel to the UK and learn to become a chef.
Her sources of support also included her grandmother and mother. In one chapter of her book, Nene gives recipes she learned from them.
“Every single recipe in the book has a story and a reason why it influenced me in some way. These recipes recall a certain time in my life and meant something to me at that time."
She jokes that her strictest critic — nowadays one of her fans — is her elder brother.
“I remember when I quit law school, he called me ‘quitter’,” Nene says. “But guess who thinks I’m the coolest person today? My brother — somebody who thought I was such a failure. He now invites his friends to meet me because he thinks I’ve done so well. That’s the major success for me.”
Yet, there have been challenges, difficulties and even criticism during her journey.
“Nobody starts out knowing what they are doing. When I started my job as a chef, I didn’t know what being a chef entailed or how things were run in a professional kitchen. So at that time the biggest challenge was to find a place that would accept me, when I didn’t have any skills, and to trust me and my ability.”
Fortunately, a Manchester restaurant made an offer to Nene. She grasped it and started out doing basic work like peeling vegetables.
Being a public figure has brought Nene some unexpected criticism.
“There are many people who think I don’t deserve the opportunities I have been given. But it’s OK. Everyone should have their own opinions.
“I just follow my passion and don’t let them bother me. I take it and then move on.”
For people who may not know where their passion lies, Nene has a suggestion.
“It’s never too late to find it. So just keep seeking it. And I always encourage everybody to do what they think their passion is right now,” she says.