tawandamusarurwa
Kimberly Mhembere
ZIMBABWE-BORN and United Kingdom-based Caroline Gundu has come up with an invention that could change life in the kitchen for many families.
Affectionately known as Caz, Gundu is the brains behind “Cooking With Caz (CWC)”, an initiative that focuses on the catering business.
CWC also has an online platform that showcases Zimbabwean cuisine.
Gundu recently launched an automatic sadza cooker. The CWC Sadza Cooker is an eight-in-one electric gadget. The appliance, which has the capacity to prepare a meal for up to a 15 people, has brought convenience to many with regard to preparing traditional dishes.
“It is my hope that the user-friendly features will help many prepare perfect dishes that include sadza, porridge, rice, steamed pumpkin, oxtail and road runner stews.
“The idea is to make life easy for many who have a busy schedule and cannot spend much time in the kitchen. The sadza cooker operates automatically, thus, creating more time for you to do other things,” said Gundu.
She worked with her father Humphrey Gundu, a team of engineers, testers and designers in coming up with the cooker. The gadget includes a power-connected and removable nonstick pot, as well as an electric heating plate, and has a built-in stirring mechanism that mimics the manual process.
The machine is programmed for a specific task. For instance, when cooking sadza, one first adds water and mealie-meal to the cooker. The machine then automatically starts the cooking process, stirring up to the simmering stage. The cooker uses the preset time during the seething process and cuts off the supply of mealie meal into the pot according to the programming.
It is the same case with relish as it has several programming options that include deep fat frying and stewing.
The product is expected to be sold across the globe.
Meanwhile, Gundu said the invention was inspired by her upbringing.
She learnt how to cook when she was 10 years old as she often assisted her parents in the kitchen, in Bournemouth, England.
Her passion for cooking intensified after she was randomly selected to enter a cooking competition when she was 14.
“The final verdict was announced and I came a close second. I lost out on presentation, but that is when my adventures with food really began,” she said.
“During the cooking competitions, I learnt how to plate food and how to cook with different wines and cream. All I can say is dinner time in my family home was never the same again.”
She went to university and graduated in 2014.
“I started ‘Cooking With Caz’ on the social media platform Snapchat as a pastime whilst I was in search of the perfect graduate job,” she narrated.
Like many before her, she has demonstrated that social media is a robust tool for selling products and building up businesses.
“‘Cooking With Caz’ was therapy; it was my way of escaping the uncertainty of life after university and it became a conduit for expressing my love for cooking and bringing people together through food,” she said.
Gundu has grown into a successful businessperson, consultant and self-published cookbook author. Her major focus is on promoting local dishes and further improving them.
Through her cookbook “Zimbabwean Food Reimagined”, she has transformed life in many kitchens. Outside the kitchen, Gundu is an independent senior business consultant with over nine years of experience in the UK power and utilities market.
Online Reporter