The family recipe stirring up a tradition of togetherness
Her Facebook page, Cape Malay Cooking with Fatima Sydow started out as an initiative to simply pay homage to her late mother. 15 years later, Fatima has authored two cookbooks and hosts a cooking show with her twin sister on Via, featured on SABC 3’s breakfast show.
By the age of nine, Fatima Sydow had found her calling in food. It was inevitable. She grew up immersed in the aromatic preparation of large family meals, oscillating between her grandmother’s vegetable garden and her mom’s kitchen. “It was my mother who brought me closer to understanding food as an important part of my identity,” Sydow says. After her mother’s passing, she turned this realisation into action, and then into a legacy.
Cape Malay food permeated Sydow’s childhood, but as time went by, she noticed that the world was changing. Her heritage was being left in the dust of a fast-paced modern world. It wasn’t just the shift towards quick and easy meals, but the diminishing routine of family dinners around the table. Bonding over a plate of food and away from technology is irreplaceable. “The beauty of sharing a meal lies within creating memories that live on,” Sydow says. To revive this fading tradition and bring back the joy of home-cooked meals, she decided to make her Cape Town-specific tastes accessible online.
As an ode to her late mother, Sydow began a culinary-inspired Facebook page. Cape Malay Cooking with Fatima Sydow is an archive of all the recipes passed down her maternal lineage. In 15 years, it has grown into a community of over 300 000 people immersing themselves in her dishes. Sydow’s internet presence has led to two cookbooks and a television show. In spite of her renown, this chef measures her success not by taste, but the family around the table.
For more Beautiful News stories see below:
- Namibia’s seal saviour: How one man is freeing hundreds of animals from deadly debris
- Why female hyenas always have the last laugh
- Champagne Valley: Where the pinnacle of heritage and adventure collide
- Get in tune with buskers and barking seals in Kalk Bay
- How baby clothing rentals are breaking the fast fashion trend
In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, you can help us spread information and hope. Share your positive stories by clicking here and we’ll be in contact.
Main image courtesy of Beautiful News