When I left school, I went to study law, but it wasn’t my calling. My dad then asked me, what would you like to do without thinking about it, and I said I like to cook. He said, let’s explore where culinary art and cheffing is taken seriously in the world, and suggested I do a working holiday in England, to work in kitchens and see if it was something that I wanted to do. That’s how my journey began.

I started at the bottom: peeling carrots and potatoes, and I slowly moved my way up the ranks, making it to head pastry chef at a brasserie. Cheffing is a practical skill set career, and back then especially, it was – still somewhat- a male-dominated industry. I had the experience, and I knew that I had to study, so that when I walked into a kitchen as a woman, I would have the respect of being called ‘chef’, because of my qualification and because I’ve earned it. So, after two years abroad, I returned to South Africa, where I studied culinary art for three years, specialising in food media. And this is how I became the chef I am today.

My culinary philosophy is simplicity, and the belief that everyone deserves to feed themselves really good food. Cooking does not have to be complicated. I always simplify recipes, so that it’s understandable and easy to recreate, and that’s why all my cookbooks have the word ‘simply’ in the title! When someone tells me, “You make the recipe look easy, I’ve tried it, and it’s as easy as you made it look,” that’s really my greatest compliment.

I draw inspiration from seasonality, and the produce that’s available. And of course, I’m influenced by the nostalgia of the food I grew up eating. For instance, a seven-colour plate or a Sunday meal plate is 90% vegetables and maybe one or two proteins. In creating a seven-colour plate, all those components are dishes in themselves, and therefore can become meals in themselves.

As South Africans, I understand that we like what we like, so I use the ingredients we love, but in a different way. I create basic but good, simple dishes, and this is exactly what you can expect from this truly special collection of exciting new DASH dishes!