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This is
our vision
- Social Impact: Designed to empower talented youth from disadvantaged background and so changing the lives of more than 75 young people per year!
- Run economically sustainable: More than 50% will be generated by own income, coming from membership-fees, restaurant and agency
- providing skilled and workplace-ready staff for hospitality
- helping to create own Start-ups
- Developing a Social Restaurant Franchise System
Meet the team
Mbuyi Jongqo
COOKtastic is Mbuyi’s brainchild! Previously, Mbuyi spent five years as the Programme and Job Placement Manager at the Salesian Institute Youth Projects, Cape Town, where she mentored hundreds of young people to achieve personal sustainability and personal progress. Growing up in a rural village in the Eastern Cape, she at an early stage of her life’s journey, mastered the skill of compiling her own menu-for-living, tackling life’s challenges head-on, and always remember that “too many cooks spoil the broth”! Her fervour for the personal empowering of the youth has a positive impact. So to youth out there! Chumani!Andile Ndikandika
is an accredited South African Life-Skills trainer and out-reach programme manager. He will facilitate the Work-Readiness Programmes in a freelancing capacity. Andile is multi-lingual and contributes additionally the deep understanding and the personal link to the communities. Asking for his deep drive, he says “I want to die empty!”
Brigitte Sachs-Schaffer
is an experienced Austrian-based systemic business consultant. Being thankful for a highly privileged personal and professional life, she also wants to die empty. Her passion for COOKtastic is to prove, that up-to-date economic success does go together with social and ecological impact. Brigitte contributes partly remote from Austria, partly in Cape Town.
Arifa Parkar
Allow us to introduce Arifa Parkar – born in Zanzibar, daughter of an astute businessman, living for some years in Seychelles and then later completing her formal education in Mumbai, India achieving both a BA in Economics and Politics as well as an LLB as well as subsequent qualifications in teaching languages, marketing and management. She has had a highly varied career thus far spanning years that included legal counselling in family matters, teaching languages and facilitating training as well as the assessment thereof and is now SETA accredited in that regard. Her career also includes involvement in Marketing and Management, heading this department of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry for almost 13 years and, after a break in formal employment, creating her own business services consultancy, she then took on the leadership of the Western Cape Economic Business Forum.
All these qualities and work experience total a vast knowledge of business acumen and how it works, how to survive in this precarious economy. Arifa is “network city” and can effortlessly match business people together or help them find the right person at City of Cape Town or Province! She is also a consummate problem-solver and while she will hold your hand and guide you out of your slump, she will expect you to do your homework, to make that effort or change in tactics and woe betides you if you are caught without a bunch of business cards!
She brings along her years of experience to COOKtastic Culinary Hub, mentoring, networking and business strategies will be her main focus.
Chef Randall Maarman
Let us introduce Randall who, from humble beginnings in Belhar, Western Cape, has already enjoyed an extensive career in the preparation and creation of wonderful, appetising food, a skill he says, that runs in the family!
His food journey took him abroad to the shores of America in 2007 and when he returned to the Cape he gained even more experience in local restaurant kitchens. His food travelling then took him on an assignment working on the Queen Victoria Cruise liner for 12 months, thereafter a two year stint at the Mount Nelson Hotel and then later freelancing as a Private Chef until the present.
Chef Randall is still young and understands the need for young people to be skilled up, to be employable. He has not forgotten what it is to be an eager, aspirant young chef literally “hungry” if you pardon the pun, for a chance to learn the necessary skills and eventually shine. Chef Randall will share his experiences with these students and show them that nothing is impossible if one applies hard work and dedication to one’s dream.
OUR PARTNERS & SUPPORTERS
We thank Rotary Austria for financing the kitchen investment, students´uniforms and safety shoes.
We are working on MoU’s with our hospitality partners. We are working on international Business Partnerships. We are working on support by public and private funders.
The COOKtastic HUB has been founded in March 2019 as NPO, registered in June 2019 as Non Profit Company with the No 2019/287104/08. This is the South African legal entity for an organisation whose purpose is to earn own income to invest it responsibly and sustainably in social and societal development. Being accredited a Public Benefit Organisation, we may apply also for public and private funding, however, not being dependent on it. The public accreditation of our entry-level culinary training with CATHSSETA is in progress
(Status – March 2020)