Chef Thuli Gogela champions traditional recipes and indigenous dishes on her blog Thuli Gogela grew up in Alice, a small town in the Eastern Cape. "My mom only knew Xhosa cuisine," she says. "When I started working in the food industry, I wanted to explore food from all South Africa's different cultures. To do this I had to acquire some understanding of many different languages. It made me see that we in SA are more similar than we are different. If you take the time to get to know other people's culture and background, you will see that in many ways they are just like you."Thuli obtained a BTech in Consumer Science: Food and Nutrition at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Her early work was in food product development, but in 2011 she started the website Mzansi Style Cuisine. "I wanted to encourage young people to cook, and provide them with an online platform to access traditional and indigenous dishes."She receives many letters from people in other countries ("they are excited to learn about the food and cultures of South Africa") as well as local requests. "Men love traditional dishes," she says. "They expect their wives to be able to cook these foods, but not everybody can. So maybe I am improving people's marriages as well as their cooking skills."Thuli also has a keen interest in wine. "Enjoying wine with food is a much more mature way of drinking," she says. "By encouraging people to learn more about wine and to sip it sensibly, with good food, I like to think I am encouraging responsible drinking."Try some of Thuli's recipes, which have been created to match South African heritage wines.Visit mzansistylecuisine.co.za for more recipes...