Coming from humble beginnings, Zanele van Zyl has grown in leaps and bounds in the culinary space.
Sizzling her way into people’s hearts with her curated cuisines, Zanele shares her talent online with nearly 500 000 followers and extends her knowledge by writing best-selling cookbooks.
Zanele grew up watching her mother cook soulful traditional food but it was only after she met her husband when discovered her passion and talent in culinary arts. Still basking in the success of her cookbook, Senidlile Kodwa (Have you eaten yet?), which is a bestseller, the chef says she’s focusing her energy on pushing her book.
“I still want to push this book. I want to stay number one bestselling cookbook until the end of 2024. For now, I just want to concentrate on selling this book. I don't have plans yet for next year but I want to concentrate on pushing this.”
Sharing the journey with her newly-released cookbook, she says it’s been almost a year since she started working on it and her efforts haven't gone unnoticed.
“I started writing in January. I sent the manuscript to the publisher and then in March we started shooting. We shot for four weeks. We shot all hundred recipes and it went for printing in June and then in October we started launching. It's been a long, long year. But all went well,” she tells us.
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With the festive season drawing near, the celebrity chef doesn't plan to stop cooking but says she'll definitely be taking it easy. She advises novice cooks to do the same.
“I see [the] festive season as a time to wind down, to relax [with] no stress. It's been a long year. We want to keep life simple. I always say don't stress too much about food. Start with what you have in your pantry or in your fridge [and] make your life simple. My cookbooks are all about how to make cooking fun with what you have in your house.
“It's all about simplicity and a flavour with love because I always pour my heart in whatever I cook ... so, what I always tell people that make it simple. Start with what you have in your kitchen [and] don't go out of your budget or don't go out of your way to source the ingredients. Just start with what you have and life will be easier.”
Launching her cookbook wasn't the only project Zanele has been working on lately. She features on M-Net show Festive Get-Together hosted by Unathi Nkayi and presented by Stella Artois.
On each episode, Unathi is joined by a celebrity chef to create dishes for guests that invoke fond memories of love for their family and friends. During a special brunch episode, Zanele cooked up a storm for the Nomzamo Mbatha and her sister Wendy as they reflected on their KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) upbringing.
Growing up in KZN herself, Zanele was able to find commonalities with her brunch guests, which she expressed through the meals she created.
“The storytelling role says a lot about us, our background, how we're raised, how we relate to our siblings ... it's more [about] bringing our families together and me having six siblings it speaks a lot to me.
“My cooking as well, just to talk about my recent cookbook Senidlile Kodwa, it says a lot about 'I care for you. Have you eaten yet? I see you, you are welcome. It's how we were raised and it brings out who we are.”
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Zanele shares Nomzamo hinted about a seven-colours dish so she incorporated that into the meal.
“Nomzamo, she said she loved seven colours and I did deviled eggs, lamb pockets - but then I wanted to bring that element of the seven colours. Then I thought, ‘let me just do a biryani’ because it's something that puts everything together. It's colourful, has all the spices, it's tasty but it has rice, potatoes, meat and all the spices. So, I made all of those just to accommodate what she asked for, though we are shooting the brunch episode.”
The meal itself exudes the simplicity that Zanele prides herself on since she likes to keep her cooking uncomplicated.
“The thing about me, I love making things simple. I don't like my cooking to be daunting or people thinking it's too long or people thinking it's boring. I like keeping it simple yet very tasty and looking beautiful.”
While it's not her first rodeo on the show, she tells us she says her journey started in 2022 for a feature in Season 3.
“I'm here again, Season 4, which I'm very excited about. So, I started working with them, with other campaigns, and I've been feeling at home because Stella Artois is all about celebrating. It's all about getting people together,” Zanele says.
