Lindelwa Mthembu’s food journey is living proof that passion, heritage and heart are the ultimate ingredients for a thriving culinary career.
The 40-year-old chef and entrepreneur from Maritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, now runs a flourishing culinary company, Chef Lindy, where her love for flavour and people takes centre stage.
Raised in humble beginnings, Mthembu drew early inspiration from her grandmother, whose creativity transformed simple homegrown vegetables into a variety of wholesome, memorable meals.
“She grew almost everything that we ate,” says Mthembu. “She was creative with what she had and was able to make a variety of dishes from the one simple ingredient. Her food was tasty. She cooked the simplest food and didn’t use too many spices.”
Even with a strict grandmother who did not allow her to cook, Mthembu’s love for food shone through and caught the attention of her family.
“One day I took an empty tin, and she gave me a handful of small potatoes to play with. I took the tin and placed it near the flame where she was cooking, and I placed my potatoes inside. After she tasted them, she gave me permission to be an assistant chef to her and my aunt. I was 9,” she says.
“One thing I knew about food growing up is that food has to be tasty, no matter what it is you are eating. It’s only much later that I discovered that appearance also plays a role in the presentation and flavour of food.”
Mthembu attended the Capsicum Pretoria campus in 2022, enrolling in an assistant chef course.
“At the beginning of my training, I thought I would need to know how to plate, but once in the course, it changed everything I thought I knew about cooking. The experience built up my self-confidence in how I communicate with my staff at my company,” she says.
In 2023, Mthembu founded Chef Lindy from her ghost kitchen in Pretoria North, where customers pre-order food or request the special of the day.
“I cook African cuisine mostly, as it is [the] most trending, and people are familiar with it. However, my menu changes every day, and I would love to start introducing other cuisines to our customers, such as Asian cuisine, but in a way that is authentic to me,” she says.
Mthembu’s 23-year-old daughter Xolelwa has joined the family business as her executive chef. She has also obtained a culinary qualification at Capsicum.
“I taught her how to cook when she was young. So, when the opportunity came for me to go back to culinary school, I asked her if she would like to go instead, and she excelled,” says Mthembu.
Blonde malva pudding
Ingredients
- 1 cup of flour
- ½ cup of sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp apricot jam
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp butter or margarine (melted)
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ tsp salt
For the sauce
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ cup butter or margarine
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup hot water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Make the pudding batter, and preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Grease a deep baking dish.
- Beat the sugar and egg together until thick and pale. Add the apricot jam and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt.
- Melt the butter, then add vinegar to the melted butter.
- Add the dry ingredients, butter/vinegar mixture, and milk to the egg mixture in alternating additions. Mix until smooth (don’t overmix).
- To bake, pour the batter into the dish and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is deep golden and a skewer comes out clean.
- To make the malva sauce, in a small saucepan, heat cream, milk, sugar, butter, and vanilla. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is smooth (don’t boil hard).
- Soak the pudding from the oven.
- While still hot, poke small holes all over with a skewer.
- Pour the warm sauce evenly over the pudding so it soaks in completely.
- Serve with hot custard and garnish with your favourite summer berry.
Beef short rib with mash
Ingredients
- 1kg beef short ribs
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cups red wine
- 2 cups beef broth
- 2 sprigs thyme
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 2 bay leaves
For the mashed potatoes
- 910g potatoes
- 4 tbsp butter
- ½-¾ cup warm heavy cream or milk
- Salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Brown the ribs by patting the short ribs dry and season generously with flour.
- Heat oil in a pan and brown the ribs on all sides for 8-10 minutes. Remove and set aside.
- Begin to build your flavour base. In the same pot, sauté onion, carrots, and celery until softened (5-7 minutes). Add garlic and tomato paste, and cook until fragrant.
- Deglaze the pot by pouring in the red wine, scraping the brown bits from the bottom.
- Simmer for 5 minutes until slightly reduced.
- Return the ribs to the pot. Add beef broth to come halfway up the meat. Add thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf.
- Cover tightly and cook in the pot for 4-5 hours until the meat is tender and nearly falling off the bone.
- To finish off the cooking, remove ribs. Skim fat from the surface of the braising liquid. Simmer the liquid for 5-10 minutes to thicken into a sauce.
- To prepare the mashed potatoes, peel the potatoes and cut them into evenly sized chunks (about 2 inches).
- Place the potatoes into a pot and cover with water. Add 1 tablespoon of salt into the water and bring to a boil, then simmer for 12-15 minutes until very tender and easily pierced with a fork. Drain and dry.
- Into the mash, add butter first and mash with a potato masher or ricer.
- Pour in warm milk or cream, little at a time, until you reach your desired texture. Season with salt and pepper.
- Serve the beef short rib on a bed of mashed potatoes
