Sunday Tribune

Self-taught chef cooks up recipe for success

THE PIZZA GUY SINENHLANHLA ZUNGU sinenhlanhla.zungu@inl.co.za

IN LIGHT of World Food Day, which was commemorated yesterday, the Sunday Tribune met with a 23-year old self-taught pastry chef from umlazi.

Thabani Dube, entrepreneur and founder of The Pizza Guy, has become a household name in the township. Dube was raised by a single mother of three, who unconsciously trained him into becoming the chef he is today.

“I would give credit for my cooking skills to my mom. When preparing us a meal, she would sometimes ask for my assistance and I would do the chopping. From there, my passion for cooking grew,” said Dube.

During the lockdown, Dube kept himself occupied by playing around with different ingredients and flavours to make pizza.

“It was during the hard lockdown when I decided to get off the couch and get busy in my mom’s kitchen. I did everything from the top of my head and voila, my pizza tasted like those sold in established pizza stores.”

He said that he would post some of his work on Facebook, where people were impressed and encouraged him to start a business.

“I had always known that I wanted to start something; after people saw on Facebook what I do, they showed great support. I established The Pizza Guy on June 21, 2020 and I have never looked back since that day.”

Dube said that he never got the chance to study the culinary arts. He also never envisioned himself as an employee nor dreamt of studying towards a particular profession. However, he knew that he wanted to be a breadwinner at home.

“I always believed that life is about work but family is of greater value. We often picture ourselves having acquired materialistic possessions and equate that to success, and for most this comes with a price. They often forget what it means to have a family that needs to be well taken care of and cherished,” said Dube.

His mother, Thumani Dube, 46, said she was proud of her son’s success but was saddened by the fact that his business still needed equipment and she was not in a position to help him financially. “My son is kind-hearted, patient and well-mannered ...

“I am proud of what he has achieved, but I am also saddened that he still needed financial support to buy equipment like a stove,” said Thumani.

Dube says he reached a point where he had felt like quitting the business. “When I started my business, all I had was R500 and that was simply not enough for me to cater for the demand. There was a time where I had 20 orders in one day, and due to financial restrictions, I could not meet the demand.”

He managed to raise R3500, but was scammed out of it. “I felt like quitting and letting everything go, but at some point I realised that giving up should not be an option, and so I decided to go back to the streets and sell socks to fund my business.”

The Pizza Guy operates from Dube’s home and hopes to have a bigger and better equipped space for his business in the near future. He said that though he was grateful for the great support he has been receiving from the umlazi community, he wanted to cater for the greater KZN in the next three to five years, and eventually throughout the country.

Mazwi Dube and Wandile Jembe are two of the people that Dube thanked for the support they gave him in everything he does, which led to the establishment of The Pizza Guy.

Mazwi aided with operations for the business, administrative duties and marketing strategies including developing a business plan.

“I am happy that we are established as a business, but I am not yet over the moon; we still cannot meet the high demand because of our location and the small premises that we work from,” said Mazwi.

Dube said he had applied for government funding but had not received any feedback.

He advised others who dared to dream of becoming entrepreneurs not to wait for a perfect moment but take a risk and use what they already have in the hope that someone would eventually reach out to help.

METRO

en-za

2021-10-17T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-17T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://sundaytribune.pressreader.com/article/281638193395504

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