Cooking with Faith: Karabo Masela

(Left) Karabo Masela, an up-and-coming Johannesburg chef whose speciality is pastries. (Right) Karabo Masela in the uniform of the Sacred Heart Sodality
Young chef Karabo Masela is quickly gaining a reputation as one of Gauteng’s great cooking talents. She spoke to Daluxolo Moloantoa about her journey of faith and in the kitchen.
Few have expressed the place of food in life better than the US food writer Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher: “First we eat, then we do everything else.” From a spiritual point of view, Catholics might say: “First the Eucharist, then everything else.”
Food is first and foremost essential nourishment. But it is also a ritual and heritage. Food connects us to our beliefs, our communities, and our lineages. Christians are called to treat food like all of God’s gifts, with respect and gratitude, and to avoid overindulgence and waste.
For Karabo Masela, food is an expression of her spiritual path in life. The 24-year-old professional chef has been cooking for as long as her mind can remember. Raised in Diepkloof, Soweto, Karabo grew up in a strongly Catholic family where various members took part in a range of responsibilities in the parish of St Margaret/Immaculate Conception. Her grandmother was a member the parish’s St Anne Sodality, and her father was a member of the St Vincent de Paul Society. The family has among them a late priest as well as Bishop Jeremiah Madimetja Masela of Polokwane.
Karabo served as an altar server from the age of six until Grade 11, at Veritas High School in Springs, Gauteng. “The requirements for one to be an altar server was to either be attending first Holy Communion classes, or have already completed them. I had done neither yet. All I wanted at that young age was to see serve the Lord in my altar server garments at Mass. I was very insistent about it,” she recalls. “Fortunately our parish priest at the time, Fr Benedict Mahlangu OMI, gave me a chance, and I started on my long journey of service to my parish as an altar server.”
Serving at Mass was one of Karabo’s big loves. The other is food. “I have always loved food, and I was inspired by my hospitality teacher at Veritas High School to follow my love for food as a career,” she tells The Southern Cross.
Cooking for church
Memories of her adoration of food involve some events at church. “As an altar server we would be given tasks to prepare certain meals for our deanery or fundraising events. I would be involved in a number of aspects of this, from the peeling and chopping of veggies to the mixing of the dough for scones or even the baking,” she recalls.
After finishing high school, she proceeded to train as a chef at the Food & Beverage Institute & Patisserie Academy in Randburg, Johannesburg. “I studied culinary arts and earned an advanced diploma in pastry.” After she completed those studies, she hit the highway to implement her skills abroad.
“I got the opportunity to go and work in the United States. I was based in Miami. I could write a book about my special moments in the kitchen and out of the kitchen while there. I worked at one of the best restaurants in Miami, the Bazaar Mar, under world-famous chef José Andriés. He is a Spanish chef, and owns quite a few restaurants across the United States.”
Some of the highlights of her time in the USA include trying out new and various types of food that she had never known about, learning Spanish, and working with people from different parts of the world, some of whom are still friends with her today.
And in Miami, she made sure to stay connected with her Church. “Experiencing Christmas and Easter Mass at St Patrick’s church in Miami Beach is a memory I’ll treasure forever,” she says.
Upon her return from the US she started a cooking and catering business which she simply calls CHEFKURRY. “I do cooking, catering and baking for individuals and any types of events. I cater to the required menu, and also bake and do pastries.”
Sacred Heart Sodality
Apart from her busy enterprise, Karabo is also preparing to become a member of the Sacred Heart sodality at her new parish of the cathedral of Christ the King in Johannesburg. “I actually wanted to follow in my grandmother’s footsteps. She was part of the St Anne Sodality for 36 years. I wanted to join the St Anne Sodality, but it’s only for married women. So I chose the Sacred Heart Sodality, because I want my heart to be more like Jesus and preach the love of Christ,” she explains.
She has one piece of advice for young Catholic girls and boys who yearn to travel on the road to personal discovery and self-actualisation: “Before doing anything, career-wise or even church-related, always ask the Lord for guidance and wisdom. Follow your heart and follow your dreams. Choose a career that you are passionate about, a career that speaks to you. Be devoted to the Lord and your church — and do it wholeheartedly.”
Follow Karabo Masela on Facebook as Chef Kurry and on Instagram @_chef_kurry.
This article was published in the March 2022 issue of The Southern Cross magazine
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