COOK IT WITH THABO MAMELODI
Thabo Mamelodi, 34, is a self proclaimed professional foodie, who is working towards becoming a certified chef. Mamelodi is also trying to teach everyone how to cook, one little cooking video at a time. He has a cooking show titled Cook It.
Why did you decide to become a chef/cook?
I’m not a chef. I’m a cook. I’m actually not certified. I chose it after someone liked something I cooked and they said, “Hey, you should do a show.” So I gave that a shot. I’ve been cooking since 9.
Did you go to culinary school?
As previously stated, I did not go to culinary school, although I am. I’m working on a certification with the American Culinary Federation.
Is there a chef you admire the most? Who and why?
My chefs are not your run of the mill chefs. I follow people who made me love cooking. Not the Gordon Ramsays or the Anthony Bourdains. Joshua Weissman, Brad Leone, Matty Matheson, Barry Lewis and Rie McKlenny. If I had to choose one, it’d have to be Joshua, because he is someone who gave me a lot of advice. He’s such a friendly, lovely human! I sometimes jokingly call him my best friend (but I also want him to be my bestie).
What is your favourite cuisine? How many different types of cuisine are you capable of producing?
I love Asian cuisine. I studied in Malaysia for a bit and I loved the cuisine. You can’t get it here, but that has to be my favourite! When it comes to producing cuisine, I can pretty much replicate any meal. It’s all about technique. Now to offend everyone: I hate tswana food. Except for seswaa, setampa, pap and dikgobe.
What are your favourite meals?
Breakfast: Blumenthal scrambled eggs on toast. Simple, but absolutely delicious. I also love muesli with strawberry yoghurt.
Lunch: I’m a huge chicken fan. So Hotwings possibly with wedges.
Supper: A toss-up between Oxtail and dumplings or Rothi and chicken curry.
That being said, I don’t prescribe to the notion of food belonging to a certain time of day. I’ll have eggs and toast at 8pm and eat meat at 5am. Society doesn’t dictate my appetite. I’m a maverick.
What is your favourite wine?
I guess the real wine lovers may consider me trashy, but I’m a Sweet Red or Rose lover. That’s if I do drink wine. I absolutely cannot stand white wines. Let’s not even get started on Champagne not sparkling wine).
Tell me about pairing wine and food.
I don’t pair wine with food, but I guess I have a basic idea. I’m a beer guy and I can pair beers with food. But if ever you’re in doubt, just use black label.
What do you do to stay current on new trends?
The internet is my friend. I stay on trends because of the people I follow on YouTube. I don’t usually do these viral videos. Well, I supposed I did dalgona coffee during lockdown and I did do wool roll bread once, but I usually just make the basics or invent my own tricks. I do, however like watching the hacks they come up with.
How do you test the quality of your ingredients?
It all comes down to taste. Some things may not look nice, but once they are there, they taste nice. It’s all about how you apply them.
Describe your knowledge of food safety.
I would like to think that I keep a fairly safe environment. No one has gotten food poisoning/diarrhea. Funny story though: I once catered for the local councilor in our neighborhood and the next day he says he and his wife had terrible diarrhea. That day I had cooked for 40+ people so I wondered if everyone had the squirts. Turns out, they just had some bad chicken from elsewhere. So I’ve never poisoned anyone.
Cook it
What motivated you to start a cooking show?
My show started after someone asked me why I don’t have one. So we tried a pilot episode (featuring Bouncy) and it was terrible. I had a few more awful episodes and nearly gave up. Trying a cooking show in Botswana is not easy.
What steps did you take in making your show come to life?
Perseverance is key. I had a great partner (Katso Morapedi) who was willing to shoot me all the time. I just pushed and shot and the views racked up. From double digit views to quadruple digits.
How was the show received?
Cook It has been well received. Sometimes I get yelled at if I don’t put out an episode or if I haven’t done a tutorial on something. I also had a stint on Maru TV before it shut down. Now, that show probably got very few views because it came on at 18:00 during premier league season, so everyone was watching football.
What else, besides the show, do you have cooking up for your fans?
I’ve been typing up proposals for the past few weeks. I recently started working with Foodies Botswana and there is a lot coming up. Also, I’ll have a show up on Now TV with chef 267. I’m posting content on Cook It as well, but my dream is to do something with Botswana Tourism before I go and do some things out of this country.
Maverick Kabelo is the founder and editorial director of Africa’s Very Own Magazine. Kabelo is a business student, digital media enthusiast/entrepreneur, creative, writer and content creator. He started writing when he was just 16 after founding the magazine on Facebook.
