Africa-Press – Lesotho. ELELLOANG Lesesa has always been happiest around food. And now, because of that passion he is getting to travel the world. The 27-year-old has turned his passion for food into being a well-travelled professional chef.
Born and raised in Khubetsoana just outside Maseru city, Lesesa is now a professional chef who has worked in various countries that include South Africa, Italy and the United States.
“I have always enjoyed food for pleasure since I was a little boy,” said Lesesa, who is now working as a front table chef at popular local restaurant, Four-Fourties.
He also provides special catering services for families and groups. As a child, Lesesa used to spend much of his time in the kitchen with his mother while other boys his age instead went out to play.
“I used to observe when my mother cooked and I would assist with other minor kitchen duties,” he said, recalling one of his earliest encounters with the stove and pots.
Aged seven, Lesesa returned home from school and found his parents away. “There was no food and I was so hungry,’’ he said. Lesesa said he took the initiative to prepare his own meal rather than wait for his parents to return.
As young as he was, he knew that tinned fish would need onion and tomato to make good food. He also cooked rice to accompany the fish. He remembers that when his mother returned, she was angry, and amazed at the same time.
“She wanted to shout at me, but I had done nothing wrong. The food was even tasty that she liked it,’’ he reminisced.
“The only thing which would be spotted in my work was the mess,” he says with laughter.
He says his mother in her mixed emotions showed him how to use some food utensils to keep the kitchen clean. A chef was born and the journey had started.
Lesesa says after completing his General Certificate of Secondary Education (GSCE) in 2010, his parents coached him to go and study mechanical engineering.
In 2011, he enrolled into a mechanical engineering course at Vaal University of Technology in South Africa. He failed some modules until he decided to drop out.
“I told my parents that their choice did not work for me at all,’’ he said. They were disappointed, said Lesesa, but that did not stop him from quitting college. A famous chef by the name of Kerth Gumbs became his role model and Lesesa yearned to be like him.
Kerth Gumbs is an experienced head chef, skilled in menu development, food preparation and creative cooking pre-opening with a demonstrated history of working in the food and beverages industry in Britain.
Lesesa took the initiative of going to cutlery school and enrolled at one of the cutlery schools in Maseru in 2014. “I was so convinced that this was my calling and I don’t regret ever doing it,’’ he said.
He then worked at the Victory Hall as an intern and later got a full time job as a head chef for two years. In 2015, he participated in a Johannesburg competition pitting chefs from 10 countries.
Lesesa and his team from Lesotho came second. “The competition made me realise that I was actually good at cooking. I realised that I needed to explore more in the cooking business.
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Next he was on the road to Johannesburg to further his studies and obtained a diploma in culinary arts. He had to go for internship after completing the course.
He was so fortunate to be enrolled at one of the top 10 United States’ top restaurants, the Fyn Restaurant, which was opening a franchise in Cape Town.
Since the restaurant was still opening, he was tasked to run a special section. “I was not working like an intern and that enhanced my skills even more,’’ he said.
In his mission to explore the industry further, he applied to the Cruise Line restaurant. In 2020, he got the job in Italy’s Cruise Line Restaurant. He says he worked there for a few weeks before moving to Miami in the United States where he worked as an assistant chef de partie.
The assistant chef de partie prepares, cooks and presents dishes within their specialty. Lesesa returned home when Covid-19 struck and many countries imposed lockdowns that hit the restaurant industry hard.
Lesesa said he always wanted to work in the front table where customers are able to see him while he is preparing the meals, an experience he got while working in Johannesburg.
He also always wanted to work with other great chefs. “I got to work with Kiwi Michelin star, Chef Matt Lambert, from New Zealand. To be a great chef you have to associate with other great chefs,’’ he said.
However, he believes he still needs to go and explore his cooking skills in Japan and France, which are considered as the birthplace of accomplished chefs.
Lesesa says working as a chef did not only enhance his skills but also his financial well-being. “I count my blessings through the assets that I acquired.
I am now working on investing more in my business,’’ he said proudly. He is also into manufacturing potato snacks. He is able to ferment his own food and is in the process of fermenting his own sauces.
“I no longer buy some pickling but I manufacture them,’’ he said proudly. Pickling is the process of preserving or extending the shelf life of foods by either anaerobic fermenting in brine or immersion in vinegar.
Despite the experience he has amassed, Lesesa knows he has to work hard to remain relevant in a profession he says is not for whiners. “It’s a survival of the fittest.
It’s not easy to stand on your feet for the whole 12 hours cooking,’’ he said, adding: “To be a great chef you need to be groomed by tough chef who does not call a spade a digging fork.
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“Our mistakes in the kitchen also contributes a lot in equipping us.
” He mentioned one incident when he had to prepare about 60 radish rolls.
“I was not good at it,’’ he says, explaining that he had to do it because he was the only chef left in the kitchen at the time.
He said while he was on the 15th roll, the head chef passed by. “What is this, is this how we make the radish roll?’’ he remembers the furious head chef shouting.
He had to start the meal from scratch. “You can imagine the shame,’’ he said, shrugging his shoulders. He says since time was not on their side, they had to be as fast as possible while the head chef continued shouting at him.
“I went to the toilet, wiped the tears in my face then went back to work,’’ he recalls.
He thought of quitting, but the passion for cooking was so overwhelming that he soldiered on. “It has its own challenges but this is actually a good industry to work in,” he said.
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