THE NGUNI REVOLUTIONARY
At her Cape Town restaurant, Emazulwini, Mmabatho Molefe is changing the way the world views Nguni food. Try her home-cooked winter favourites and see for yourself
DON’T LET MMABATHO MOLEFE’S SHY DEMEANOUR FOOL YOU.
The head chef and owner of Emazulwini Restaurant knows exactly what her role is in South Africa’s food revolution – and she isn’t so much breaking the mould, as making it.
She’s taken a few detours to get here, having abandoned her studies towards a Bachelor of Arts in politics, philosophy and law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal to pursue a career in food. “I failed constitutional law a few times before deciding to follow my true passion.”
With her family’s support, Mmabatho enrolled at Capsicum Culinary Studio in Salt River, Cape Town, in 2017, which is where the shift would begin and her real life would start. While there, she took to celebrating her growing skills by hosting informal suppers for friends, cooking her favourite meals every Friday evening. “Feeding people is how I have always expressed my love, and today my friends and I still make sure that we regularly share a meal.”
Indeed, sometimes you just have to push some tables together, invite people around and hope for the best. And that’s exactly what Mmabatho did in 2018, when she made her official debut as
