Lorna Maseko ‘celebrates and enjoys’ home-grown tastes in new TV show

Food lovers are spoilt for choice with the current local offering on TV akin to a feast of  multi-coursed dishes peppered with a unique blend of flavours and personalities. From the new series of MasterChef SA and a local dramaRecipes for Love and Murder set in the Karoo, to the latest serving from celeb chef Lorna Maseko whose helping Homegrown Tastes SApremiered this week.

The ballerina turned media personality changed tack a few years ago and undertook a chef’s course and in her new show we see her delving into some of SA’s best loved dishes and the people who make them.

In the first show she kicks off in Soweto in search of the best rendition of one of SA’s favourite street foods, the kota. Set between two slices of white bread, the kota, a cousin of the Bunny Chow, is a large helping of ingredients and flavours, including the essential spicy mango atchar, the foundation on which pickles, lettuce, meat, slap chips, cheese and a fried egg  are added then finished off with a generous dollop of the signature pink mayo sauce. 

For Maseko this series has been long in coming. It has been her dream to put SA food on the map. “In my travels I’m always asked what SA flavours are and I think in this show we share a taste allowing the viewer to see who we South Africans are from a culinary perspective.”

Said Maseko; “Through putting the Homegrown Tastes together I’ve discovered so many amazing local ingredients that need to be celebrated and enjoyed.” In bringing her unique flavour to the show viewers get to see Maseko share her skills in the kitchen where she prepares her interpretation of the different dishes highlighted in the series.

“We’ve tried to bring it back to the home cook to show viewers how to take all the amazing ingredients and use them in your own kitchen,” said the celebrity chef. 

• 'Homegrown Tastes South Africa' airs on BBC Lifestyle, DStv channel 174, on Wednesdays at 8pm