Chief’s wife wins Matabeleland North cookout competition

Flora Fadzai Sibanda

IT was a heartwarming moment as Ms Kezneet Mathe, wife of Chief Menyezwa, was on Friday crowned the winner of the Matabeleland North Provincial Traditional Cookout Competition. With tears of joy, she accepted her prize and shared her passion for cooking traditional meals that are healthy and made with love.

The finals of the traditional meals cookout competitions will be held in Harare this year. They are designed to ensure people embrace traditional dishes and learn how to prepare them.

Amai Mnangagwa launched her traditional meal cookout competition in 2020 to promote the uptake of indigenous dishes and ensure citizens benefit from their nutritional value and medicinal properties, which was a success up to the national finals in 2021. Thereafter she handed over the programme to the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry. As the founder and patron of the competition the First Lady is expected to grace the finals which will be held in Harare. She will also attend the Sadc regional finals which will be held later in the year.

Ms Mathe’s menu was specifically tailored towards married women, with a focus on keeping families healthy through light and nutritious meals. Her recipes included roasted peanuts, umxhanxa made with pumpkin, sorghum porridge with intolwane, and a main dish of millet isitshwala, a road runner chicken, goat offals with a side of pumpkin. For dessert, she delighted the judges with a watermelon juice and a wild fruit salad with baobab yogurt.

As a mother and wife, Ms Mathe’s cooking skills were self-taught, drawing inspiration from watching her mother prepare traditional meals for her family. Her win in the competition serves as an inspiration to other women, encouraging them to take care of their families with meals made from the heart.

“Growing up I used to watch my mother prepare traditional food for us as a family and we would hardly get sick from any diseases like most are now. That is why l decided to enter the competition because l wanted to be an example to other women and show them how they should take care of their families. It is also an act of showing other women that despite your position in society traditional meals should always be prepared with hands full of love. I used my hand to make the melon juice and that on its own is a true example of a meal that is made out of love,” she said after winning during the competition held in Lupane.

In second place was Ms Blessing Chatandabala, a 24-year-old Lupane State University student who brought innovation to authentic African dishes. Her menu included a pumpkin soup with fried pumpkin seeds, and a moringa tomato sauce rich in iron and Vitamin C.

“Most of our dishes were made out of traditional resources because we wanted to bring out the traditional foods and richness which a lot of people have forgotten about especially in our generation. I am really excited l will be going for the national competition soon but the worrying part now is what am I going to prepare which will impress everyone and still represent our generation,” said Ms Chatandabala.

Both winners praised Dr Mnangagwa for her efforts in empowering women and promoting traditional cooking, and expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to share their skills with the world.

Deputy Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Barbara Rwodzi commended the participants and encouraged them to continue planting traditional plants to ensure a steady supply of ingredients. She also urged them to share recipes and enhance each other’s skills, as the competition continues to inspire and bring together women from different regions of Zimbabwe.

She said it is her desire to see Zimbabwe preparing, packing and selling Indigenous recipes and cuisines which will make it easy for locals to partake in businesses internationally and boost tourism.

“In the same breath l encourage you all to plant these traditional plants so that we will not go short of ingredients to make the dishes. It is quite notable to highlight that l have noticed that some of the hotels are now serving local dishes and this will present employment opportunities as local people are the major suppliers of traditional ingredients,” said the Deputy Minister.