Cook Traditional Cape Malay Dishes in a Cape Town Home

Colleen and Ruth are sisters with over three decades of experience in the food industry. Passionate about Cape Malay cuisine, the sisters consider their unique culinary traditions a rich legacy passed down from generation to generation. Food has offered them both an opportunity to better their lives and the community they come from. Colleen and Ruth were born in Manenberg on the Cape Flats, a community that was borne out of Apartheid's spatial laws, yet rich with diverse cultures as a result. Growing up on the Flats allowed them to forge deep bonds with neighbors, and create a community based on love, kindness and food. The sisters learned to cook from their grandmothers who took nothing and made the most delicious meals, and their mother who cooked for the entire community. Colleen and Ruth are honored to share their culture and history through food with guests from around the world. The village of Manenberg rose from insurmountable odds, to become a community and not just a settlement. It is a community where love abounds in the face of hate, generosity flourishes even in poverty, and innovation lives where resources don’t. There is a unique magic that exists here, when a neighbor gives their last to someone who has less, and stretches their already stretched pot of food to feed those who don’t have food. Colleen and Ruth are eager to share their favorite childhood dishes in honor of their mother and all those whose unbreakable spirits gave them everything.