More than a Meal: Buy, feast and connect at the CoCreate Hub
Victoria Street in Stellenbosch marks a mission of community, development and hope. Stellenbosch isn't just home to boutiques, cafés, and a university campus — it's a space where black and locally owned food vendors turn their culinary visions into full-time ventures.
I know what you might be thinking — how did Daily Maverick convince a retired supermodel to write an introductory piece. Tony Jackman must be quite the negotiator.
Unfortunately, I am not a famous British model. I sometimes wonder if she would ask me to change my surname, but being named after a supermodel has carried me quite far in life. Of course, that's not why I am here, but it does cause the occasional eyebrow raise, smile, and introductory icebreaker.
Naomi Campbell, if you happen to read this piece, I promise that my parents' motivation was out of admiration, more than imitation.
Food was always more than a meal to me. I was born to chefs without a traditional culinary background. Turning scraps into signature dishes is tradition in my household. Spices and sugar are found in every cabinet, but most importantly, love for the food and family and friends is released from the person preparing the meal to the plate. From the South to the North Atlantic, cooking in my household blended cultures to meet not just cravings, but needs.
Both of my parents were born on the island of Trinidad, yet my father grew up in Jamaica, a story for another day. I sometimes joke — half seriously — that I wish I'd been raised in Trinidad. Perhaps my privileges would have been revoked and my introduction to cooking wouldn't have been an option between the elders, parents, and the dreaded home economics.
Listening to my mom recall the memories of late-night food projects and examination scores made me laugh, but also afraid, knowing I might have failed those assignments even though I believe cooking is in my veins. Hence, I wish my parents had let me experience some parts of my childhood in Trinidad.
My palate for culture and diversity stayed consistent throughout my life. Growing up in Jersey City, New Jersey, was a melting hub, as clichéd as that might sound. Race was never a concept to me until I experienced it, but that is also a conversation for another day.
Before coming to South Africa I completed my Master's programme in journalism, and before that I was a schoolteacher. I often find myself sharing my teaching background because everything leads back to education — a tool that can both empower and oppress. Two truths can coexist. I find the act of cooking to have similar ways of resistance through the lens of black and locally owned restaurants.
The CoCreate Hub feeds entrepreneurs and satisfies cravings — for food, fashion, and even knowledge. The Ranyanka Community Transformation Business model that the CoCreate Hub follows allows small businesses owners the opportunity to build their socioeconomic capital. Ranyanka, 'to pursue', is to support business owners from marginalised communities.
Wamkelekile. Welkom. Welcome. The hub is a home. My first week in Stellenbosch has been nothing short of immersion. I'm blessed to say that I have experienced more in 10 days than most tourists might have experienced, and I don't mean wining and dining, I mean true immersion.
Immersion with the cuisine, locals, and township. I was given the opportunity to stay with a host family in a township. While some people might have shied away from this experience, I saw a chance to challenge my biases and reshape township narratives through storytelling.
As a black girl from the States with Trinidadian and Jamaican roots, culture and diversity are familiar to me. My mom is a beautiful dark-skinned woman and my father is a fair-skinned man whose mother is Jamaican, yet half white. Growing up, going to the homes of my father's siblings wasn't shocking as I'd see complexions ranging from brown to beige. I see the same diversity in South Africa.
Two things make me stand out
Though I experience this same diversity quite familiarly, there are two things that make me stand out: my height and my race, two parts of my identity that cannot be changed. At 5 '11, I get stares wherever I go — whether for my height, race, or both. In South Africa, I tower over most people, as in the States, but in South Africa I get different stares. I can tell South Africans know I am not from here. Is it my dress code? Is it my height? I won't mention my accent as the clear giveaway.
In 10 days, I have decided to leave my introversion in the suitcase and mask myself in extroversion. I have found a strange sense of social safety in South Africa. Yet despite this net of comfort, I still have more questions that desperately need answers, but might be too complex to solve in an introductory column.
How do I insert myself into a country with a deep history of colonialism from a black American perspective? How do I arrive in a country with little to no understanding of Afrikaans or Xhosa, let alone stumble to imitate the ancestral clicks of the Bantu ethnic group? How do I create genuine relationships in less than three months while reporting on the culinary industry and spaza shops? How do I experience privilege as a black American in a country where some Black South Africans are struggling to exist?
My dad is a retired veteran of both the Trinidad and United States armies. He prides himself in also being a scholar. For each deployment, my dad preps not just his suitcase and the conversation around the dinner table to tell his family he will be on civic leave, but his mind and heart. Deployments weren't just destinations for my dad, but a desire to immerse himself in the country, and most importantly the community he and his team would be stationed at. He would sit on his laptop for hours scrolling and researching the history of the country. My father isn't one to ask if you know something — rather he will tell you as if is his obligation to educate you, as a teacher himself.
Leading up to my trip, I decided to follow in my father's footsteps. The tasks of tourists should be beyond checking visa requirements or vaccination requests, and should include historical awareness and cultural sensitivity. Kindness shouldn't only come from locals; tourists leave their economic and social footprint too. It is our civil duty to be mindful of our postures abroad.
The oil from her hands drips onto the pan
In the hub, a culinary experience is awaiting not just for the locals, but for tourists.
A woman with a black hijab wipes her brow. The oil from her hands drips onto the pan, just missing the cloth over her hair. She dries her hand on a napkin before grabbing the batter in a glass bottle. She is preparing pancakes for the hungry university students at her Creamy Creations stand.
Comfort meets coffee, a coffee company, Coffee MM, provides the best of both worlds for the coffee lover or fan of the traditional rooibos tea, especially during the winter months.
At Mother India, curry spices simmer in a pot in the far right corner outside the hub. The brisk air surrounds the chef, yet he cooks with a smile on his face. On the opposite side, a man cracks his knuckles before turning on the stove. He grabs two pieces of toast to start preparing an egg and steak order for a regular customer at Lux Caters.
Buy, feast, and connect local to build businesses is the slogan for CoCreate Hub. The spirit of entrepreneurship is alive and thriving at the hub, but support is still needed whether that is on the local, national or even international level from tourists like myself.
I think of my uncle who often dreams of having his own restaurant more than I realise, and when I walk through the doors of the CoCreate Hub I think about how such spaces in the States can be created. We all have dreams and visions waiting to be supported despite the centuries of oppression that attempted to block such buildings.
Serendipitous encounters brought me to South Africa
I am what society calls a 'foodie'. But I am also a pescatarian. How does a pescatarian review food? Am I true a foodie if I do not cook as much as a traditional chef? Growing up in a Trinidadian household, my palate welcomes spices, my nostrils absorb strong aromas, and my stomach appreciates a filling yet appetising meal. From this perspective, I can find the wow factor in any meal despite the absence of poultry on the plate.
Serendipitous encounters brought me to South Africa, specifically Stellenbosch. I'll be interning with iKapa Impact, a mutual benefit experience founded by Dee Moskoff that will allow me to highlight black and locally owned restaurants at the hub and beyond. I'll also be working closely with Tony Jackman to dive into traditional African cuisine.
A term I have started to use since I have been in Stellenbosch is intentional investment. I have asked myself at least once a day where I should spend my dollar. When my coworker told me that we were going to a traditional African restaurant, my invitation to immersion was unlocked again. Located in Strand is a Zimbabwean-owned restaurant called Pap Mama. Traditional dishes like sadza (pap) and maguru (tripe) are offered on the menu. Impatient to try it all, I grabbed the flaky fish, seasoned spinach and the pap and popped them in my mouth. The thickness of the pap allowed me to absorb the different textures and tastes. Needless to say, I will be returning there before I return to the States.
In Trinidad, locals and tourists create long lines across the savannah to indulge in different food like doubles and bake and shark for the long weekend fêtes such as cultural celebrations like carnival. But people, especially tourists, shouldn't wait until there are cultural gatherings to support local businesses. Street vendors are a small yet essential part of the economy.
That's the essence of Diasporic Dinner Dialogues, to dine locally while digesting different topics. It is to explore cuisines while embracing cultures and customs.
These are the faces that cook the food of grit, diversity and love for food at the CoCreate Hub where food is more than a meal — a comforting culinary experience.
The country of history and hope has embraced me — I hope to return the favour through storytelling.
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Daily Maverick
a day ago
- Daily Maverick
V is for VUUR: A fiery bro-fest redefines what a restaurant can be
After a tour of a fine foods business that grew out of a car boot, fire rained down on a sunny, lazy day on a Stellenbosch farm. If fire could make waves, this was it. She ate an oyster for the first time in all the 26 years of her life so far, right in front of me. She had her android device on video, trained at her face, while she focused, smiled, and let the sweet Saldanha Bay oyster slide into her mouth. Three or four chews and down it went. 'That was nice. Quite nice. Hmmmm,' she said, laughing the kind of laughter that you laugh when you're pretty pleased with yourself but not sure why you did that. Then she ate a Namibian oyster from Lüderitz, even bigger, but more metallic than sweet, and less salty than the West Coast mollusc. I was not at all surprised. Naomi Campbell had already shown herself, over the preceding two days, to be brimful of questions. And curiosity is one of the best attributes of a journalist. You just want to know, need to know, have to know. So now Naomi Campbell knows what it's like to eat an oyster. A live oyster. Uh-oh. I had not thought to mention that part. We were at the Wild Peacock factory and shop that has its origins in 1992 when Sue Baker imported a load of live oysters, collected them at the old Cape Town airport, then called the chefs she knew and said, I have oysters, I can bring them directly to you, how many would you like? And Wild Peacock was born, out of the boot of her little old car. Soon afterwards, she called me and offered to bring me some. I was editor of Top of the Times back then and writing weekly food columns for the Cape Times. She arrived at my Tamboerskloof front door and I poached them lightly in champagne and served them to Anette and Jeremy Cowley-Nel for dinner that night. They still talk about them. Must have been good oysters Sue Baker was getting. Andrew, her husband, invited me for a tour of the facility while I was in Stellenbosch last week. Now it is run by their son Ross Baker, MD of Wild Peacock Fine Food Merchants. We're shown from room to room, some icy, some damn cold, others not quite so cold. Oysters of various sizes from near and far, kept alive and sprightly in endlessly filtrated water tanks. Abalone too. Trucks pull up in front and drive off again to take them to restaurants all over where clever chefs do their work on them before plating them up prettily, scattered with microherbs, also from Wild Peacock. But oysters are a small shellfish in the Wild Peacock pond. Imported Loch Duart salmon and other grand species. Tiny tins of caviar to please every discerning palate. Herring pearls. Most intriguing are shelves of large round containers of mysteries. The brand is Sosa and they're filled with the magical goodies that molecular gastronomers use to make geegaws and whizzbang food. Emulsifiers and aerators. Leavening and fizzing agents. Enzymatic fruit peelers and gelling agents. Fabulous imported and local cured meats and massive boxes of free range eggs. Bee pollen and dried black garlic. And they carry some of our best cheeses, from Dalewood and Klein Rivier to Langbaken and Belnori. Ciao Ciao burrata and Zanetti grana padano. Back in the front shop, Ross opens Saldanha Bay and Lüderitz oysters and wafts black winter truffles past our nostrils, which are now wide awake and ready for anything. A spread of cheeses and cured meats is the final act of generosity before our happy crew have to fade off into our respective days. For Naomi and I, this means we're heading to lunch at VUUR where Ian Downie, friend and gourmand, is to meet us. Naomi and I (and no, she's not related to that Naomi Campbell) were at VUUR when I mentioned in passing that oysters are still alive when we eat them. It hadn't occurred to me to mention this earlier, when she was eating one. She was duly horrified, wide-eyed, but after many Oh-my-Gaaahds and Are-you-seriouses she was still smiling, which she does a lot. She's a stellar student at Syracuse University in upstate New York, and I have the honour of mentoring her until mid-August, a task I am relishing now that I've met and come to know this super-bright, engaging human being. I can't wait to observe her career from a distance. At some point in the next few weeks she will be in Soweto, and more stories will come out of that for my colleagues at Maverick Citizen, but for now — this being last Friday — the task at hand was to review not one, but two restaurants in Stellenbosch. With something like six or seven courses each — at a certain point you stop counting, or are unable to count, or both. But let's start with the first and come to the second next week. It didn't seem like such a big deal when I first accepted an invitation to have lunch at VUUR, and later another to have dinner at Dusk. Lunch is … lunch, right? You start at 12.30, by 2pm you're done, and you have five hours or more to be ready for dinner. Yes? No. Lunch at VUUR was at one. Then ensued one of the most exciting, vibrant eating experiences I can remember and it was 5.30pm when we finally left. Around 4pm I called ahead: 'Can we change our booking to 8pm please? This gave me a space for a brief nap, refreshing shower, and to find the resolve to start all over again. What impressed me was that Naomi took this all in her stride. 'Sure,' she said when asked if she could handle another seven-course meal. Without oysters. At VUUR, chef-owner Shaun Scrooby hosted us in person, at the smallest of their two waterside venues, ably assisted by his super-slick crew of chef bros. This restaurant is refreshingly different. And I felt a kinship with this man, because the fireside is his natural domain, and also because he is self-taught. As am I. But boy is there a lot I can learn from this man. Oh yes: As well as Naomi, I had invited fellow gastronaut Ian Downie to join me, knowing he would be excited by this fiery experience. And he and I duly found our way several times to the open fire where we peered over Shaun's shoulder and quizzed him while watching his flaming wizardry. He and the guys all wear heavy aprons like medieval armour, strange implements stuck in leather pockets, bellies and forearms protected from the scorching Hellpit. But no chainmail as yet; maybe that's on order. Brows are sweaty, arm hair may well be singed. Banter is welcome, so there's a lot of cheeky back-and-forth. It's a bit of a bro-fest, and I climb right in, happy to be a part of it. A massive iron grate far to the rear of the open indoor braai is decorated with a sturdy iron V for VUUR. To the foreground is a grid over red-hot coals over which meat is cooked, just like at my home braai but with more Guy Stuff. Like the implements they've crafted themselves which look like frying pans but with holes in them, like braai grids fashioned into round baskets with long handles. (Or just use a sturdy sieve?) Note to self: buy more Guy Braai Stuff. Vegetables are thrown in a basket and a brave leather-clad arm shoves it into the flames at the back. Something is sprayed on them and whoosh goes the fire. Exciting! Ian and I catch one another's eyes and they're ablaze, like the eyes of little boys playing games they shouldn't. With fire. Outside there's a long table where five of us are sitting. The other two are from Bloubergstrand, an Afrikaner man and his Spanish wife. Temporary friendships form. Signs of Guy Food show themselves early. There's a bone marrow sourdough roll, with rooibos-salted black garlic butter to smear on it, Flippin' naais, as we would say in Cradock. The fish (Cape Point yellowtail) that follows is aged. For 14 days. (Please don't try this at home.) 'It condenses the moisture to the centre of the fish,' Shaun tells us. Yeah. So. If you want to achieve this yourself at your own braai, remember that this guy is not like you and me. He's a master of flame, we are ordinary guys who like to braai. There's braised cabbage and a light mustard sauce, and the cabbage too has been given the flame. Anything not put to the flames here would be sobbing its heart out in a corner somewhere, wailing, 'But what about me, Fire-Daddy!?' There is wine along the way, and an earnest young sommelier called Leroy who, on his first day in a new job, finds himself having to acquit himself right alongside Fire-Daddy who is watching closely but silently. And what does Leroy do? He kills it, absolutely nails it. This wine is a chenin called Honeybunch and is from the farm we're on, which is Remhoogte not far from Stellenbosch, and though it's dry, oddly it has some botrytis in it. Is it a wine at odds with itself? It's a tad unsettling, but the fact that we're thinking about it makes it interesting. And it goes pretty well with the 14-day-aged fish, and maybe that was the point of this pairing. (Nearly all decent wine goes pretty well with nearly all decent food, only some goes better than others, though nobody ever tells you this.) We're served a gin and tonic — an African dry gin from Muizenberg — and the fruit for this is braaied too: naartjies and strawberries. A sweetly shy pastry chef brings out a palate cleanser. It's lemon sorbet in a pool of darkly intriguing syrupy naartjie peels, madly delicious. The next course is Shaun's braaibroodjie, but it's nothing like that one your uncle makes. A supremely crunchy log of bread is topped with beef tartare and tallow. You pick it up, open very, very wide, and hope for the best. There's some on your chin, possibly some on the table and floor, and what you're able to get down is stupidly delicious, especially the tartare. Oh and we're back to wine: Vantage bush vines pinotage to remind me of Beyers Truter and how he made our own red varietal world famous. And now the real meat comes out. Tweetand loin, from that beast at its optimal age for flavour, though sheep farmers will argue for and against this deep into their brandies and Cokes. The meat is divinely tender and so full of lamby flavour that the tweetand wins the argument, hooves down. A yummy gastrique serves as pan juices, slightly acidic, a tad sweet, and meaty; I presume it's a deglaze; it sure tastes like one. Naomi is pescatarian, so she has been given all sorts of lovely not-meaty things, and now she is presented with a gorgeous plate of beans of many colours. 'It's a play on curry beans.' Remhoogte cabernet sauvignon comes out for the next meat course of Wagyu prime rib and sirloin alongside which was a sort of 'African chermoula' that will enchant me forever. It was made of various Things Green including spring onions and nasturtium leaves that had been dipped in fire. Something vinegary in a good way too. But just when I thought this was the best part of it, other than the madly delicious wagyu, I had a taste of wedges of potatoes that had 'been at the back of the fire all day'. Oh and bokkom butter. (Shaun is an ironic Weskus surfer boy whose natural element is not fire, but water.) And what does he do next? He ends this fiery repast with a slice of Basque cheesecake which, if the sweetly shy girl made this too, will have her poached by all and sundry. Beyond sublime. And then, two hours after I thought I would be in my guest house for a nap, a gentle drive back to Bonne Esperance Boutique Guest House, a world-class small hotel in a Victorian villa with a pointy roof, smart elegance in every part of it. I stay in a lot of fancy guest houses, and I'd struggle to think of one that was better than this. Classy yet unfussy. That's the perfect mix for me. And it could not have been better situated for the places I needed to go and people I needed to see in Stellenbosch. I'd forgotten how lovely this old town is — one of the four oldest in the country, along with Cape Town, Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet. I intend to spend a lot more time in this classy, beautiful town. Then the alarm woke me up and, after a quick shower, and I know you're shaking your head now, I was off to meet Naomi again, this time at Dusk, which happily is within walking distance of the guest house. But I need a week's rest before I tell you about that. DM VUUR and VUUR Goose Island, Remhoogte | 083 600 4050 | | The experience at VUUR consists of a seven-course tasting menu that is paired with six Remhoogte Wine Estate wines at R2,450 per person.
IOL News
a day ago
- IOL News
South African sporting weekend: Time to line-up some chores as we scrape the barrel
South Africa's Brad Binder will be hoping for a better for performance at the Italian MotoGP Grand Prix. Image: Lluis Gene / AFP This weekend could be the ideal opportunity to catch up on those chores that you have been ignoring since the start of the year. A bit of gardening, a bit of DIY around the house. Spend some time with the in-laws. It's the weekend to get your tax return in order and the ideal dust off that old gym card and do a bit of cardio. This is not the weekend you're going to spend on the couch and channel hop while watching your favourite sports teams in action. It's rather slim pickings, I'm afraid. Friday night is decent, with our first glimpse of the British and Irish Lions ahead of their tour of Australia, while the Proteas Women start their T20 series against West Indies. But Saturday and Sunday is looking rather dire, with only Brad Binder in the MotoGP, Mamelodi Sundowns in the Club World Cup and the second T20 between the Proteas and the Windies of national importance for - as sports minister Gayton McKenzie puts it - 'the best sports nation in the world'. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ There's not a lot of rugby on Saturday and Sunday, as the Springboks' international season only kicks off next Saturday with a clash against the Barbarians in Cape Town. Rassie Erasmus' men will then play a two-Test series against Italy before concluding the winter window with a match against Georgia. The only Test match this weekend is the British and Irish Lions' match against Argentina on Friday night (9pm). That match is essentially a warm-up for their tour Down Under, which starts next Saturday with a game against the Western Force. The Super Rugby final between the Crusaders and the Chiefs could be a good watch to see how New Zealand rugby is going ahead of their Test series against France and Rugby Championship, which will see them host the Springboks in Auckland and Wellington later this year. After last week's gripping World Test Championship final, the Proteas men will enjoy a two-week break before getting back into action in a two-Test series against Zimbabwe away. England vs India should make for some good viewing for lovers of Test cricket, but it's not going to conjure up the same emotions we experienced last weekend. However, the Proteas Women are in action on Friday night and Sunday afternoon in the shortest format after they beat the Windies in the ODI series. The team will be involved in the Women's ODI World Cup in October and will definitely be worth the watch to see the next generation of Proteas greats. Sundowns' match against German giants Borussia Dortmund is probably the highlight of the weekend. It will be a fascinating watch to see how the Betway Premiership giants go against one of the best club sides in the world.
IOL News
2 days ago
- IOL News
For entertainment that fits every mood – Find your happy only on BBC Brit
Whether you're in the mood for high-speed thrills, clever quizzes, or enjoy spending a night trying to figure out the voice behind the mask, BBC Brit's (DStv Channel 120) new season line-up is here to deliver feel-good entertainment, seven nights a week. With premium British programming to suit every mood, across every genre, BBC Brit is your new go-to destination to Find Your Happy. The new slate is carefully structured to deliver something delightful every evening. Fridays bring the rush with Top Gear Australia. Sundays are for surprises through The Masked Singer. Tuesdays delve into drama in the world of Beyond Paradise and Death Valley, and Wednesdays test your trivia with The Weakest Link. This curated content calendar invites audiences to build new habits and rediscover their favourites. It's premium entertainment, tailor-made for every mood BBC Brit is built on the idea that great television not only entertains, but also immerses viewers. The channel offers smart, surprising, and satisfying content that feels like a reward at the end of a long day. Designed with loyal fans of British entertainment in mind, and ready to welcome new viewers with open arms and some tongue-in-cheek British humour, the refreshed channel structure ensures every evening brings something to look forward to. New premieres that pack a punch
