By Rex Mphisa
A Beitbridge chef’s mouth-watering traditional meals earned him a slot at Amai Mnangagwa’s Provincial Cookout tourney in Plumtree where he raised the district’s flag high.
The First Lady’-s Traditional Cookout Competition is a nationwide culinary initiative introduced by Amai Mnangagwa, to promote gastronomy tourism and celebrate the country’s rich cultural heritage.
The program encourages communities to embrace indigenous foods for their high nutritional and medicinal benefits.
And there was Beitbridge’s own Chef Felix from the Zebra Hilltop Lodge 50 kilometres along he Bulawayo highway who met and beat the province to earn a place at the National Cookout scheduled for the Midlands town of Kwekwe later this year.
Chef Felix said for starters he prepared salted groundnuts and macimbi or madora, Mopani worms with chilies.
“For the main dishes I had Mazondo (cattle trotters) served with Sadza reMhunga (highly nutritious pearl millet firm porridge together with a road-runner (free-range) chicken in peanut butter. I also made a steamed bream served again with pearl millet sadza,” he said.
“I also had Maguru (masusu), beef tripes served again with pearl millet and kapenta fish (traditional dried fish varieties prized for their rich flavor and high protein content) served with zviyo (finger millet sadza),” said Chef Felix.
“For vegetables I made mufushwa wemunyemba, (dried cowpea peas leaves) and mutsine (highly nutritious dried black jack leaves), munyevhe (Cleome gynandra) with peanut butter,” he said.
Chef Felix prepared made a world fruit dessert of Umxanxa which is shamba or ijodo porridge and maize grains, and had Juices from Muuyu (baobab) Tsubvu (also known as Vitex payos or “chocolate berry) watermelon juice and maheu emapfunde ane chimera.
For snacks he had Matohwe (Azanza garckeana, and commonly called the African chewing gum or snot apple) Masawa, Tsubvu and Nyii (Berchemia discolor).
With that, Chef Felix got his ticket to Kwekwe and if successful will win the ticket for the regional SADC Cookout.
The SADC Regional Cookout finals are scheduled to take place in Zimbabwe, integrated with the broader 44th SADC Heads of State and Government Summit and UN Tourism event while the preliminary National Traditional Cookout Competitions are being held on Africa Day, May 25, in Kwekwe
Management at Zebra Hilltop said Chef Felix had done the establishment proud.
“The Lodge is looking at improving him and making him a brand in the culinary arts through sponsoring him to attend culinary institutes to further improve his knowledge.. He has great potential .. and we are proud of him we have seen him grow from when he stared with us over two years ago,” said Food and Beverages Manager Washington Dzifu.
Chef Felix is a product of Mshagashe Skills Training Centre where he obtained the National Certificate and beat 10 other chefs to land his provincial title.
For ladies planning to eat well, Chef Felix is single, perhaps searching.