“I even have cherished food and being within the kitchen for so long as I can consider. At the age of five I became playing amandlwani (gambling residence) out of doors with buddies and we’d prepare dinner in little tins for pots. I didn’t know then I’d move into food as a profession, however I knew I loved the sensation cooking gave me,” says Kepe.
From the beginning Kepe’s mom wanted to give her daughter and her 5 different children the fine. However, her mother’s dreams and sacrifices came at a price – Kepe had to move round quite a chunk.
“I went to numerous colleges. I did primary in five exceptional schools in 3 distinctive provinces. And I did excessive college in two schools in provinces. My mother wanted the exceptional for us and that supposed sending us to head and live with different spouse and children in order for us so that it will attend the best faculties she ought to have enough money.”
Born in Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape, Kepe additionally in brief lived together with her paternal grandmother in Cape Town. When she returned home, she brought along all of the cooking guidelines and hints she had learnt from her gogo.
Eventually Kepe matriculated from Queenstown Private High School in 2003. Afterwards she took a yr off to paintings and save cash in order that she will have the funds for her very own tertiary expenses. She then did a degree in public administration at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in the Western Cape.
“I attended component-time night time lessons while nevertheless running. And in 2008 I were given a job at Vega School and my passion for marketing became ignited there. And so I began reading via them. As an employee I were given to study free of charge. I did a certificates in media buying, certificate in public family members and a certificates in advertising control.”
Kepe got married to her husband, Lunga, in 2009. The pair, who now has two kids, celebrate their 10 year anniversary this 12 months.
In 2012 she decided to give her cooking talents a shot and entered the first season of MasterChef South Africa. Kepe got here in because the top 6 finalist of the season. During one of the episodes Kepe says she skilled considered one of her maximum embarrassing moments in the kitchen.
“I took coriander, mistaking it for flat leaf parsley. I became in my first trimester of being pregnant and my senses and taste buds were awry, so I didn’t even smell the distinction. I became horrified that I’d grow to be called the coriander woman.”
The pleasant childhood reminiscence that Kepe remembers is the day she located pasta for the first time. She turned into 8 years old and had long past on holiday to go to her grandmother in Cape Town.
“Being from a rural village inside the Eastern Cape, maize meal, flour, rice and sorghum have been staple meals. It changed into the maximum great and delicious aspect I had ever had, and I nevertheless love my pasta to this day.”
She says the kitchen is where she goes when she needs to recalibrate and centre herself. Cooking brings a certain calmness and peace. But that peace is effortlessly ruined while people don’t recognize what she organized.
“One of my largest pet peeves is people who season their food without tasting. It just makes me want to scream. It’s just like the least you may do is have one mouthful before possibly ruining someone’s amazing creation that they took so much effort to prepare.”
Kepe may be very excited about the future. And although she can’t elaborate a great deal, she says, “I’ve were given tremendous things in the pipeline with my partnership with SPAR Eastern Cape”. For now, Kepe served us a delicious baked chicken liver pâté.