Thando Xiphu, Johannesburg based Private chef visited Tanda Tula for her birthday in October. Thando has over 13 years in the culinary industry.
Her journey started fresh out of school in Cape Town at Woolworths Head Office in their Culinary Studio, researching trends, recipe testing and designing meals for the brand. Thando has also worked for various Private chefs and had spent time on various sets of cooking shows, both local and international. Today, Thando can be found entertaining guests in the comfort of their own homes in Johannesburg. Her love of good flavour, unique food experiences and the bush is what inspired her to spend her special day with the Tanda Tula family.
Consideration
This is what immediately came to mind after our first meal at the camp, and it is what has stuck with me weeks after.
Firstly, consideration of flavour, technique and in honouring each ingredient and element of the dish. Each meal was an experience – from our tapas spread in the Watering hole Hide, surrounded my elephants, multi course dinners under the stars, to delicious bush breakfasts or even a small surprise canapé sunset spread out in the bush, Tanda Tula showed us how much they value fresh, playful, innovative and incredibly balanced meals.
Highlights included the fish cakes and the fish sauce from our first lunch tapas spread – I almost asked for a jar of it to take home! Another was the chicken noodle salad. The chicken breast was incredibly tender, served with a beautiful sesame ginger sauce , and fresh vegetables! Incredible! I took notes!
Secondly, we were shown consideration of all dietary types. My friend, who I visited the camp with is a vegetarian and she said that she is used to being given “scraps” as a vegetarian, being an after thought. But Chef Ryan and his team showed us that Khanyi was considered just as much as any other guests dietary offering, which she greatly appreciated and most certainly enjoyed.
I could, with all the confidence in the world, say that the food that came out of Tanda Tula’s kitchen was on par with some of Cape Town’s top eateries (a city that has recently been voted the best city in the world for food by Conde Naste).
