Food - The Standard Bank Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival

CULINARY ART

This year the Standard Bank Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival explores food as both an art medium and an edible eccentricity. The festival will merge high-end gastronomy and African design, facilitating collaboration between visual artists and chefs to collectively design, create and serve a tasty visual feast.

COMPETITION

PICK N PAY Luju Cook-Off

Congratulations to Justina Bain and King Terry for making it to the finals of the Pick N Pay Luju Cook-Off! We look forward to seeing them go head-to-head live at 11am Saturday 1st October in the House On Fire Amphitheatre at the festival. Finalists were selected through a combination of an instore pre-cookoff activation and public voting process on social media.

At the Festival, celebrity food enthusiast Somizi Mhlongo will lead an Afro-Fusion cooking showcase using 100% PnP Luju Pantry ingredients. Drawing inspiration from the celebrity showcase, the finalists will be challenged to recreate the gourmet dish, adding their own African flair, in a bid to win the title of PnP Luju Cook-Off Master Chef. Over E20,000 worth of prizes to be won!

Programme

Richard Bosman [ZAR]

Richard Bosman is a South African charcutier of note. He was the first to produce a range of pasture reared cured pork products commercially available in South Africa, with a customer base of over 100 outlets in the Cape. In 2015, opened a Bacon Bar in Cape Town, called ‘Bacon on Bree’.

Mrs M [SWZ]

Neliswa Nkala, known as Mrs M, is a household brand known for her healthy, yet mouth-watering gourmet meals and desserts made from her original recipes. She is on a journey to reintroduce herself as an all rounder in the culinary space that allows her to express her feelings and emotions through culinary art.

Eric Malinga [SWZ]

Dubbed the local “culinary guru”, Chef Eric Malinga holds a diploma in food preparation, graduating into his cookery and patisserie career from the international hotel school in south Africa. He is also a member of the South African Chefs Association. Chef Malinga has been instrumental in shaping the local culinary scene with the launch of his culinary gourmet fashion house (CuGoFa).

King Terry [SWZ]

King Terry’s cooking, just like his music, is a performance, blended with global influences with each dish designed to make you FEEL! He has launched BBQ Shack, his own pop food eatery servicing different local festivals.

Justina Bain [SWZ/MOZ]

Justina Bain is the cookbook author of “Home Cooked Meals with Justina Bain”. She has cooked alongside the likes of celebrity chef Somizi Mhlongo and Chef Juan at the Masterchef restaurant kitchen in Dubai. She draws her inspiration from her Mozambican heritage to broaden her diverse culinary exploits.

Tinashe [ZIM]

Tinashe Nyamudoka is an internationally recognised sommelier and wine judge. Founder and director of Kumusha Wines in South Africa, he is a regular on South African wine competitions and sits on the wine jury at Mundus Vini in Germany and Wine2Wine in Italy.

Mokgadi Itsweng [ZAR]

Mokgadi Itsweng has been a chef, food writer, and food activist championing indigenous South African foods and flavours for 20 years from her restaurant, Lotsha Kitchen and Cocktails. She launched her debut cookbook “Veggielicious” last year.

Nelly Mavimbela [SWZ]

Nelly is a self-taught chef who has piqued her interest in food and versatility from her exposure to multi- cultured cuisine. She is a culinary artist who garners amazing confectionary and savoury dishes inspired by African and Asian cuisine. In merging flavours and presentation, Nelly subscribes to the philosophy that food preparation is an art.

TRADER APPLICATIONS

The Standard Bank Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival invites suitable candidates to apply to trade in the festival’s Culinary, Fashion and children’s Beehive spaces. Different pockets of the festival, called Hives, offer opportunities for unique experiences, such as pop-up food stations that support drinks pairing, tastings and specialised demonstrations by renowned chefs and connoisseurs. Trader applications open Tuesday 13th June and close on 3rd July 2023. The application process is all online.