Get a job in a restaurant, they said. It will be fun, they said. That may be so but it’s also tough, with long antisocial and exhausting hours spent on your feet, cuts and burns are the proud battle scars of the trade, and egos and tempers can often explode in confined hot spaces. It’s also incredibly rewarding to create and plate culinary delights for happy diners, to be part of a team, and to be exposed to opportunities to grow in your career, in a global industry.
Jongqo has been in the development sector for more than 16 years and worked at various NPOs. Her position before this was as programme and job placement manager at the Salesian Institute Youth Projects, Cape Town, where she mentored hundreds of young people to achieve personal sustainability and personal progress.
“The aim of COOKtastic is that we do training but we are set up as a social enterprise – a bakery and catering – to generate income, which goes back into the development. They said yes. COOKtastic opened two weeks before lockdown so students used that time to bake thousands of ciabatta rolls for the hungry.
“The process is quite tough. We ask them to pay a commitment fee of R2,400. If you don’t pay for something it’s easy to give up and not feel the value of it. We provide transport, two sets of uniforms, two chef lecturers – they get the best possible.”The course comprises cooking modules, theory and practical exercises, assessments, assignments, and group work, Mondays to Fridays.
Brett Nussey of Stir Crazy Cooking met with Jongqo and her students because he wanted to see what she was doing and how she was conducting her training, as he sensed potential synergies between them. “I was impressed with the layout and set-up of her establishment, as it is well presented and a clean training area, although pretty small,” he said.
Nussey was invited to the school to run a plating and presentation class for the students. “The response to the training was enlightening,” he said. “We prepared four different plating options to show them how to approach plating and presentation of meals from different perspectives, including different meal options. The students were engaging, asked questions and were very willing to assist in the training where they could.