cooking pans traded for mascara

Upon entering the prestige chef school premises. I knew this one would be tough. Real long hours would only be my smallest ‘problem’. My impulsive decision (like most of my career choices) , of enrolling into one of the country’s finest  Culinary school would soon be tested to the uttermost.

I did not have the foggiest idea of what I got myself into. Being a stubborn, headstrong person …chef school was bound to sauté that personality fault right in the hot kitchen frying pan.

Being one of the country’s 30 handpicked future junior Michel Roux  wanna-be’s , I thought it fit to wear some mascara , in a place where make-up is considered  a swear word . My pastry Lecturer saw right through my imminent make-up artist canniness and told me to go wash my face. I decided I wanted out of this gastronomic prison that was making ‘gastro’ very pictorial. Every day I thought of ways to get out of this custodial place. .. literally

Until the dreaded experience happened… I started loving it. Little by little my once strict anti-mascara Pasty Lecture became the culinary Mozart or Beethoven in my eyes, being the personification of artistic dexterity meeting culinary skillfulness. It was glorious.

On my practical term, I had the privilege of meeting yet another gastronomic Leonardo da Vinci in her own right, Susan Esterhuizen .Making cooking not only a form of art but also such a fun experience.

My pastry lecture Lorainne Meaney  ( one of South Africa’s finest Pastry Chefs , Head Pastry chef at Cape Grace Hotel, Cape Town. Being featured in MASTERCHEF SA), became my biggest inspiration. She alongside my dear friend Susan, ‘stirred’ up in me a passion that I never knew existed. I graduated with a love for something that I never knew I had…. Plus I ditched the mascara, for atleast 30 more mascara tubes, studying make-up artistry a few months later, applying make-up for South Africa’s Masterchef judges, the irony of it all. 

The beauty of people that change your life forever because of their passion…passion is contagious... never loose it.