Local cook shares cooking skills on social media

HE MAY not be a Michelin star chef or feature on Food Network, but local cook “Uncle Rashid” has attracted millions of views for his cooking demonstrations of authentic Durban Indian dishes.

After featuring on the Dala U Crew social media platforms demonstrating his cooking skills, Rashid Mia, 60, gained popularity through his videos, cooking dishes such as mutton breyani, mutton kalya and crab curry.

In his step-by-step videos Mia is captured cooking various dishes on an outside fire.

Due to his social media following, the creator of Dala U Crew, Sanjeev Singh, said they would be hosting

Season 2 of Cooking with Uncle Rashid.

Singh said Mia shares the oldschool type of cooking for big groups of people.

“His uniqueness is preparing the meals on an outside fire. The flavours are different when prepared on an outside fire,” said Singh.

Mia, of Phoenix, who has over 40 years of cooking experience, said he learnt to cook from his dad who used to also cook for weddings and functions.

“I love cooking. I improved on what I learnt from my dad. I am happy to share my recipes with others so they can also enjoy cooking,” he said.

He said that ever since the country was affected by Covid-19 he has been involved in cooking and feeding the poor every Saturday.

Singh said Mia garnered about 3 million views on Facebook and a million more on Tiktok and Youtube.

“He will return with some favourites which his fans have asked for: fish breyani and mixed seafood breyani.

“We are also going to add some traditional Indian sweet dishes like soji and vermicelli being prepared on an outside fire. Every episode is sponsored by different businesses,” he said.

Singh said he met Mia during the lockdown when they volunteered in Phoenix with food distribution.

“I asked if he would be keen to do a few cooking demonstrations, which he was keen to do. The first one we shot got about 300 000 views. We then decided to do a few cooking demonstrations showing people how to cook from scratch,” he said.