Thando Manyoni’s interest in food and cooking started in Grade 9, at Randpark High School in Johannesburg, when one of her technology projects was to prepare a dish and share it with her classmates.
“I made a red velvet cake and the positive reaction from my friends sparked my interest. Something about how what I had made brought the class together, and made everyone happy, made me fall in love with food,” she says.
Manyoni (25) is now a private chef living in Wynberg, Cape Town, having achieved Capsicum Culinary Studio’s Advanced Professional Chef Programme and graduating in 2022.
So what has she been doing for the past few years?
“My journey started while I was still studying. While in my second year (patisserie course), I applied for, and was granted, a position at a bakery in Observatory in Cape Town as part of my industry experience requirements. Even though I was based in Joburg at the time, at Capsicum’s Rosebank campus, I really wanted to be in the food media space or product development, and I felt I needed to be in Cape Town to make that happen.”
Manyoni completed all her requirements two months after joining Dolce and then successfully applied to Woolworths to join its internship programme for product development. During her internship, she successfully created and developed two meal kits, both of which launched in their stores.
After her internship ended, she moved back to Rosebank to complete her third year and it was during this time, that she was hired to work as an assistant chef on a cookbook shoot for Veggelicious Cookbook by Mokgadi Itsweng.
“This was the first time I had been exposed to food styling and the art of food photography.”
Halfway through her final year Manyoni entered the SABC2’s The Taste Master SA baking competition and made it all the way to the finals: “I did not win, but being a runner-up definitely lit another fire in me to keep going,” she says.
Immediately after the competition ended, Manyoni approached the production company and asked if they would consider hiring her to work on any of their other food-related shows, helping with anything from food styling to recipe writing.
A month later she relocated back to Cape Town to take up an accounts manager position where her position involved managing brand campaigns on a TV morning show, copywriting scripts, developing recipes, food styling and directing food videos for TV and social media as well as weekly appearances as the show’s resident chef and later producing and managing cooking competitions.
Three years later and Manyoni is now freelancing as a private chef in the Mother City but is also hard at work developing plans and ideas towards producing and hosting her own successful cooking show.
And knowing this little ball of creative, talented and ambitious dynamite, that’s something that’s going to happen sooner rather than later.
She also answered a few quickfire questions:
What is your speciality?
Pastry and anything vegetables.
Is there anything you still want to master?
Cooking rice! I know, don’t judge me, I think I was asleep when my lecturer was teaching that skill.
Name five things always in your fridge at home
Butter, milk, eggs, hot sauce, chickpeas.
What would be your last meal?
Anything that my mom cooks, one of her curries with dombolo.
Is there anything you do not eat?
Fruit! I know but hear me out. If I eat fruit it has to blended, like in a smoothie or incorporated into a dessert. But like fresh from the earth, God’s original recipe, is a no from me. It’s a texture issue.
If you had to cook dinner for five famous people, who would they be and what would you make them?
Tems (Afrobeats artist) – I’d make her the most delicious iced tea with a selection of canapés; Uncle Waffles (Amapiano DJ) – would get waffles and ice cream; for Nasty C (Hip Hop artist), I’d make a lobster dish; Fuhad and James from ShxtnGigs (UK podcasters) would get steak and veg; and for Chloe Bailey (Pop/RnB singer), I’d serve her any of my specialty salads.
Do you have a favourite celebrity chef?
I have three! Zola Nene, The Lazy Makoti and Jenny Morris.
Do you have a favourite cookbook?
Veggelicious Cookbook by Mokgadi Itsweng, of course!
How can people get in touch with you should they require a private chef?
I can be contacted via my Instagram account which is @thando_manyoni.
