Local chef wants to help youngsters cook up a storm

A CAPE FLATS-born chef who is on a mission to give back is making great strides in his dream of training youngsters into skilled chefs who will inspire others in his community.

Keanon Michaels, founder of Keanon's Kitchen, is aiming to realise his dream of empowering the youth through a cooking school.

Michaels, who hails from Strandfontein, said he started cooking at the age of 9.

“I was a greedy child. My mom would teach me the basics, like frying an egg because she was tired of constantly cooking for me because I was always complaining that I was too hungry.

“So she taught me how to fry an egg, it started there really and it developed into making other foods.”

Michaels advanced his career after graduating with a catering and hospitality studies diploma and has worked in esteemed local restaurants and hotels in the Cape in his 19-year culinary career.

The larger-than-life chef who is also a surfer, skater and an enthusiastic dancer said he wanted to set up a kitchen and train young chefs.

“There is a need in our community to empower young people and I know that working in the kitchen can keep young people off the street, as it takes a lot of your personal time and it also builds your character.

“This is important because there is no infrastructure and there is nothing to offer the youth here in Strandfontein and we want to break that chain and stand together as a community and empower our young people,” he said.

“I want to have a vegetable garden where we can grow our own vegetables and teach our young people how to grow their own food and use those vegetables at the cooking school.

“Once a month we will showcase our local produce to the community and the young people will walk away from the course with the necessary skills to take their cooking careers further,” he said.

Michaels said preparations were underway.

“I've had a discussion with another entity that has done all the groundwork with the government to get the funding needed and next we will be setting up a blueprint for the kitchen,” he said.

He can be contacted via Keanon's Kitchen on Facebook and Instagram or via email at keanonm@webmail.co.za.