Chef Tebogo Morgan on the mother who shaped his cooking, and what he’s serving up as Kaya 959 partners with the inaugural Chefs & Chenin.
Katlego Sekhu
Chef Tebogo Morgan on growing up between two homes, the mother who taught him to cook, and the open-fire menu he’s bringing to Chefs & Chenin.
Tebogo Morgan recently joined Fresh Fridays on Kaya Breakfast for a conversation about family, fire, and the food that connects the two.
Growing up, he lived with his father in Johannesburg after his parents divorced. His father did well for himself, and there were au pairs around the house, but none of them could cook. Meals were takeaways and eating out.
He wasn’t allowed to see his mother again until he was around thirteen or fourteen. Before that, he saw her only once or twice, including a single visit to a soccer match.
When the visits finally came, he stayed close to her in the kitchen. “I think my mom’s the greatest cook on the planet,” he says. “I was just like her handbag, stuck to her hip.”
Whatever he picked up there, he carried home and tried to recreate on his own. His mother and sister, he says, remain the cooks he measures himself against. “That’s where the passion came from.”
Almost seventeen years into the industry now, that early apprenticeship still shows in how he approaches a dish, an instinct for flavour built through time, not shortcuts. Patience, he says, is the one lesson South African kitchens still need to learn. “Patience is what produces amazing results in the kitchen.”
That same philosophy runs through what he’s preparing for Chefs & Chenin at Crawford International Sandton on 26 and 27 September, a two-day celebration of open-fire cooking and Chenin Blanc. His menu includes a chicken shawarma taco, a Wagyu steak bowl, hot honey halloumi skewers, and an open-fire Wagyu steak taco, tortillas, salsas and all. “Everything goes through fire,” he says.
To hear the full interview, listen to the podcast.
