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LUSIKISIKI BORN HOSPITALITY AND PROFESSIONAL COOKERY STUDENT Chuma Cetywayo bagged herself an opportunity to showcase her cooking skills in the 2022 WORLD CUP that’s currently taking place in QATAR. Chuma describes her family as close-knit as she was raised by her late grandmother and her uncle who made sure she had all her needs as a child.
“I grew up as a curious very curious child and my grandmother who was a teacher then taught me Economics and Politics and I then thought Id be a great Economist,” she recalls.
Due to personal reasons she later had to relocate to Ladysmith and stay with her mother, she then gained more interest in food science which was inspired by his cousin Luniko Dlamini who is autistic and did not go out more often to restaurants because of few places who catered for people with his condition.
“I wanted to own a restaurant or be a chef that prepares meals for diabetic and autistic people, after I matriculated, I applied for Food Technology and Consumer I received rejections and I was finally accepted at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology for Hospitality and Professional Cookery,” she explains. She adds that the circumstances at home and around her inspired her to become a chef because of a belief that food is not only a need it is also a luxury when it’s prepared by her.
Despite everything she faced the rejections and not cutting in some competitions having a support system who kept on encouraging her even though she lost hope pushed her until she got a job offer at Qatar for the 2022 world cup.
“I had no difficulties with the move as I was used to being far from home. Telling my family that I got a job offer outside our country was heart-warming as I found myself crying because they couldn’t stop to tell me how good I am at my job until I finally believed them,” she says.
An introduction of a more diverse and inclusive menu, a menu for kids and elderly and people living with chronic conditions that need them to have a balanced diet, and hotels and restaurants should prepare more vegan and vegetarian dishes, free lactose and free gluten dishes are one of the developments she would love to see the change in the industry.
To the home, passionate cookers do not think that you can pursue hospitality with just passion because it is more than that, hospitality is not just food and drinks its love endurance, and the ability to go the extra mile,” she concludes.
