The owner, Hlalefang Mzingwane, says she was inspired by her mother’s Sunday meals to turn her love for food into a booming and sustainable business.

“My mom would prepare a firm favorite in our house on Sundays, the seven colors, a traditional South African meal that would include rice, chicken or beef, and sides such as pumpkin, sweet potatoes, beetroot, cabbage, bean salad, potato salad, or coleslaw. Her skills were unmatched.” 

Mzingwane had ambitions of becoming a professional chef, but she had no financial means to make it happen. She started up her own catering company in 2013.

'Do what you love the most and make money out of it'

“I offered cooking and baking lessons to people at an affordable price, over a short time frame,” she explained.

“In 2017 I was awarded a bursary to study Culinary Arts at the Food and Beverage Institute in Bloemfontein, which is when Kitchen360 came to life.”

She applied for the SAB Foundation Tholoana Enterprise Awards Programme, an 18-month business development programme.

“The programme assisted us a lot, our business was assisted with mentorship, where I got an opportunity to work with a mentor. He helped me so much in coming up with strategies for the business and how to keep it going. They also gave us grant funding and we were able to buy equipment,” she said.

Job creation for local community members

Five people worked with her before joining the programme. After receiving business assistance and mentoring, she currently has 14 employees.

“One of my main business goals was to drive job creation for local community members and I continue to look for opportunities to grow this even further.”

Kitchen360 has signed its largest contract for baking with the Small Enterprise Development Agency.

Mzingwane said this will enable them to further equip the unemployed youth with culinary skills to enable them to start and run their businesses.

She has won prestigious awards, such as the Royco Qala Cook-off, and was recently selected at the Tabalza Pitching competition as Head Chef to represent South Africa at the Dubai Food Expo.

Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to find something that you love, there is nothing as fulfilling as doing what you love the most and making money out of it.

OFM News/Zenande Mpame