“I want to try it own my own! Even better … Do you want to join me?! “

Mbuyi Jongqo on phone to Brigitte Sachs-Schaffer. This was the founding spark for Cooktastic.

In November 2018, Mbuyi Jongqo, the then Programme Manager at the Salesian Institute Youth Projects in Cape Town, received bad news – due to financial restrictions, many of the youth projects needed to be closed, social workers and other staff retrenched.

“Hey, I cant believe this, all this was so successful …”, she told Brigitte Sachs-Schaffer, a former Volonteer Senior Expert at Salesians, far away in Vienna, Austria, on phone,
“I want to try it own my own! Even better … Do you want to join me?!”

Andile and Stanton, also Salesian facilitators like Mbuyi, had already been on board. Brigitte came down to Cape Town for 3 months for intense market research, networking and co-developing a unique innovative business model. This was on the ground of South Africa having the world’s highest Youth Unemployment Rate (around 65% ) and yet, hospitality industry was continuously struggling to get skilled staff. How can that be ?! – Together with stakeholders we identified the pain-point: Youths did neither have the skills, nor – the proper attitudes for a professional working realm. We needed to think out of the box and the result was a Social Enterprise in the prosperous field of hospitality.

What does this mean?

We had this strong intention of creating a space, where talented and willing young people from disadvantaged background get the skills and attitudes they need, to break the cycle of misery and go for a self guided career and life.

From the very beginning, we focused on empowerment, not on “feeding”. Empowerment by providing a Wholistic Training Package for Hospitality: Work-Readiness-Training (addressing attitudes and personality), culinary skills, assisting with job placement support and giving a springboard to entrepreneurship.

We founded Cooktastic Hub NPC on June – 17-2019. Austrian Rotary Clubs were the first, who believed in us and funded the training-kitchen equipment. The first Training cohort started in March 2020 – by the way, 2 weeks before COVID started. This was hard, yet we could utilise our brand-new kitchen equipment to bake 40,000 Ciabatta for the suffering communities in Cape Town’s townships.

Despite all odds, the training side took off. It has been publicly accredited by QCTO. More than 320 students have graduated, with a Job Placement Rate of 88% at one of our over 80 recognised partners in the Hospitality Industry (status 7/2025).

Cooktastic´s Entrepreneurial Path Our vision included, to run an own business. (1), to not fully be dependant on donations, and (2), to prove in the market place, that social and ecological impact do go together with economic sustainability.

This feature has become reality in form of our Cooktastic Bakery, Bistro and Catering (PTY) LTD, with talented graduates “running” it. Our business started in October 2024, when we had moved to a much bigger location in vibrant Woodstock, at the iconic mall “The Palms”. Hospitality partners order our outstanding artisanal bakery products. People love our creative light food for lunch and for catering.

The second feature towards entrepreneurship is called “ChefPreneurs – empowered by Cooktastic”. This program gives promising young entrepreneurs access to resources and skills to transform their ideas into thriving food ventures. Since 2024/25 the first 8 are passionately pushing their divers services into the market. The unique chance for 10 upcoming entrepreneurs per year.

Talking about our journey, we want to point also to the shadow side beyond the impressive success story. The shadow side mirrors, how the complex and violent history of South Africa has shaped and impacted the mind set of its people. Many of the millions of unemployed youth have been raised in broken families, in poor and violent communities, with rare positive role models and experience of self-efficacy. We as Cooktastic, do approach this issues with our recognised Work-Readiness Training and further mentoring,

Last but not least, our journey has been shaped by highly commited funders and supporters, whose own vision matched with our special model. With deep gratitude, we have the honor to show them by name on this website.

So, our journey is an exciting common Learning Journey. Both, great achievements and set backs are driving parts of it.