Cuisinier
My name is Sakie Lawrence Manyape, I’m 23 years old I was raised in small village Taung at the North west province in South africa
I began my hospitality at career expo during my high school at Mankuroane technical and commercial high school , where I developed a keen interest in learning about culinary arts. The person who got me interested in learning more about cooking was my grandmother, she played a magnificent role in my life, not only taught me how to cook she groomed me from birth and taught me about my cultural food.
My culinary education started when I relocated to the city of Gauteng , I was granted with the sponsorship from peermont education trust under emperors palace hotel and casino where I completed my professional cookery in the sector of CATHSSETA. I trained at emperors palace hotel for the period of 12 months after I completed my training,due to hard work the company hired me for the period of two years where I developed cooking skills and experienced more cuisine. I then work at the South African Brewery canteen as a head chef for the period of 1year. It was a nice journey to me because it gave me a lot of pressure and taught me how to handle pressure in the kitchen and be able to work with people
The experience I’ve got comes from the chefs whom I worked with around Africa , The chefs who inspire me and who have taken part in my culinary are chef aobakwe david phangase and chef Kenneth morekolodi from South Africa. They taught me from knife skills , cooking and how to respect food.. Even though the industry is tough, they made me to believe in myself and they never gave up on me. The other chef who groomed my skills is Chef juvina from Ghana. I was able to learn about the food from his country and how to cook some of the dishes which originate from Ghana. And also Chef Tonny Long from China,he taught me Chinese cuisine and that was challenging because it was an A la carte menu and he always tried his best to put me on the standard and shaped me to be a great chef . It was a great honour to work with all the chefs in Africa
Food is an identity of a chef and it feeds the soul. To the extent that we all eat food, and we all have souls, food is the single great unifier across cultures. But what feeds my soul,my heritage it identified by where I come from as an African, my life is centered around food.
I have worked with many top and great African chefs from Ghana ,Malawi ,Zimbabwe and chefs from abroad U.S.A , Germany and Italy during the African international food and drinks which was hosted by the HOSTEX. I learned practical and theory about gastronomy,beverages and their genesis cultural dishes during the time of the festival,It will be a great honour to me to share this knowledge which I have about gastronomy to African food lovers and upcoming chefs.