How Makers Landing helped these foodies kick-start their businesses

Makers Landing is an innovative space at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town where you grab a bite to eat, and browse and shop the wares of small-scale food producers and artisanal food makers.

It's more than just another food market, however. It's also a launch pad for foodpreneurs, courtesy of the Makers Landing Food Lab Incubation Programme.

This structured five-month programme was created in partnership with the V&A Waterfront and the National Treasury's Jobs Fund to support job creation and skills development in the food industry.

It offers opportunities to start-ups and existing small food businesses that can show they will benefit from mentorship. (Scroll down for details of how to apply.)

The course, developed by Stellenbosch University's LaunchLab and industry experts, involves a combination of online modules, in-class learning and assignments.

Participants are given expert technical support, have weekly meeting with mentors and also have access to a commercial kitchen space.

Launched late last year, the programme is now starting to bear fruit. Here, we speak to two of the first eight graduates who tell us more about the course, their love of food and their plans for their businesses.

FAIEEZ 'FUZZY' ALEXANDER OF FUZZY'S FOOD

After Covid-19 devastated the travel industry in March 2020, Alexander, a 50-year-old tour guide, decided to start a business selling koesisters to support his family. On a whim, he entered Vannie Kaap and KFM Radio's koesister competition and was crowned the “World Koesister Champion”.

He has a stand at Makers Landing, where he aims to expose the world to the sweet and spiced SA delicacy, and eventually sell his finished and frozen product to retail and food service outlets.

Why koesisters? Koesisters are a Cape Malay delicacy, different to the twisted koeksister. The koesister is an oval ball of dough with a texture like a doughnut, but fragrant with spices and naartjie peel, and darker in colour. Many people have just taken a liking to my koesisters, saying it's the balance of spices and the syrup. When I started making them it was about money and survival, but the more I made the more I wanted to better them by making them fluffier and lighter, and most of all to get feedback from customers.

I only started making koesisters in May 2020, for the very first time. My philosophy is whatever it is that one does — be it selling cars, food, clothing, shoes — the one important factor is to have a passion for what you do, which will spill over to your customer. At times it is not just having the best product, but believing in the product you sell and always providing an overall wow factor. Then the rest will take care of itself.

After graduating from the Makers Landing Incubation Programme, my business is steadily growing. I now have a good grip on my finances and have set milestones and time frames for developing the business. Through the programme, there was lots of contact with experts in small business development who one could approach and ask for guidance or assistance, and they were always willing to assist. I have managed to scale my product and develop a fresh-frozen, ready-to-eat product for retail.

Committing to the programme is not easy — you have a start-up business, stock to be made, family to see — but if you want to survive you need to put in the hard yards. There are times when you will fail at juggling all the tasks, but you need to get up, dust yourself off and soldier on. Come prepared to learn, be willing to step out of your comfort zone and be open to criticism, and learn from it. A highlight is the phenomenal people involved in sharing their expertise in the programme, and especially the mentors assigned to the candidates.

What's next for Fuzzy's Food? I'm hoping to have my fresh-frozen, ready-to-eat koesister in retail stores soon, as one of my visions is to make this authentic traditional koesister accessible to everyone.

JANE NSHUTI OF TAMU BY JANE

At a young age, Nshuti and her siblings fled from Rwanda to a refugee camp in the DRC, where she learned to cook to feed her brothers and sisters.

After moving to Kenya to live with her uncle, she became a Seventh-Day Adventist, a religion that emphasises personal health and which exposed her to vegan cooking. She began cooking plant-based meals for her family and friends to convince them how delicious healthy eating could be.

Nshuti now has a growing business called Tamu by Jane, which delivers vegan Sunday lunches to select areas in Cape Town, and has gained a following on social media where she showcases her creative and delicious plant-based recipes.

She plans to open a deli in Woodstock.

Tamu is a Swahili word for delicious. My food company is about reintroducing lost indigenous African foods into the limelight, with a modern take.

My speciality is vegan food. As a Seventh-Day Adventist, one element of my belief was committing to living a healthy life, and preferably adopting a plant-based lifestyle. Even though that was my foundation, I also started doing research into our African forefathers and their diets. I was surprised to learn they lived mainly off the land; meat was eaten occasionally, either on special occasions or during ceremonies. It really made sense to me to revolutionise this way of eating and to go about rediscovering neglected African indigenous ingredients and turn them into delicious meals. [By doing so I hope to] awaken people to the plants that grow around them, that for years have not been recognised as being foods.

The Makers Landing Food Lab Incubation Programme is not for faint-hearted individuals — it was intense on my emotions and time. I learnt that time is the most expensive thing we take for granted. One of the many highlights were my fellow graduates, and even outside the programme we have remained a support network for each other.

Advice for someone wanting to enter the programme? Make sure you are super-committed to the process way before you start.

Three of my top-selling dishes are my African-inspired vegan cheesecake made with baobab and tiger nuts; coconut beans, a Tanzanian national dish eaten with chapatis; and definitely my chapatis themselves. 

What's next for Tamu by Jane? To grow my frozen food range, continue to educate people about African indigenous foods through pop-up restaurants at the deli we'll be opening, as well as through cooking classes. 

• Applications are now open for the next instalment of The Makers Landing Food Lab Incubation Programme, which will run from August to December 2021. Visit makerslanding.co.za for more information. Applications close on June 30.