Gathering around a table with loved ones to share a meal is a tradition that transcends cultures, and this holiday season, KOO’s Eating Together initiative is bringing that magic to life. At the heart of this festive celebration is the vibrant and talented Mmule Setati, chef, cookbook author, and the creative force behind Feed My Tribe.
We sat down with Mmule to delve into her culinary journey, her inspirations for Feed My Tribe, and how she uses her partnership with KOO to champion the importance of eating together.
Friendsmas is about bringing people together—what’s your funniest holiday memory or mishap that always gets laughs at the table?
Feed My Tribe was started off the back of COVID actually. I’ve always had a love for food. I owned a juice business which distributed fresh fruit juice. I used to go to 200 Pick n Pay stores and corporate companies, and then COVID happened, and I had to choose my juice business.
And on the back of that, my life changed. My Life Coach and I sat down and I said I’m a failure. I have failed at life. I don’t know what else to do. She said, I’ve known you for five years, and in the five years I’ve known you, there’s one thing that we always talk about and it’s been on the back burner.
And that’s how Feed My Tribe came about. I’ve always had Feed My Tribe there, but I took it as a passion, right? I was passionate about it because that’s how I grew up. My gran is actually the inspiration of my tribe. She influenced my life a lot from the moment I was growing up, like any other grandmother.
You know, in a South African city, our grandmothers would cook for people any time they came to the house. And that was my first experience or resonance of a tribe. And then fast forward to COVID. I fell pregnant six months before and then my son fell in the kitchen and had a subdural hematoma and went into ICU over the Christmas period.
I remember having to come back and then we came back after he was in ICU and we didn’t know if he was going to walk, talk, sing, whatever it was. And then we got into COVID. I spent alot of time in the kitchen and it became my place of healing. So I started cooking – cooking every single day, religiously – during COVID.
I started making meals with him, with both of my kids. It was just to get his mobility going and to see where he was in terms of his progress. And that’s where Freed My Tribe started. Feed My Tribe was my tribe, which are my kids. It grew into me realising that I always knew what the essence of a tribe was to my grandmother.
And I think the older you get, you realize that you choose the family that you want instead of the family you were born with. Not everyone is blessed to have immediate families and grandmothers.
You know, you realize growing up that not everyone grew up with their grandmothers and their immediate families.
Some kids are only children and it’s just them. So Feed My Tribe is that, it’s who is your tribe at the current moment, at the current stage of life that you are at. Are you someone who just moved into their new place and your tribe or your family is that?
And you’re enjoying the space that you’re in. Are you a newlywed? And your tribe is you and your husband? And you’re learning how to cook? You’re a new makoti? Are you a new mom? And you now need to learn how to cook?
to make food for a kid and a household you know or are you in your later years In your later years where your tribe is people that you’ve learned to grow and to love over the years now that you love hosting. So how do you host? What do you do?
When I was establishing the book, it took me two years to write, and I sat during COVID and I said, who’s reading this book, and why is it important? Who is using these recipes and why they’re using it?
And then I had to look at myself and I said, I’m a mom. But in being a mom, I work. I’m not an old school mom. From a tough job has to still be present, and has to still make meals that they love. If you love cooking, and cooking is what you want to do, but. You find it exhausting? How do I make it easier for you?
So how do I speak to you? I speak to you in my different chapters? So if you’re new, Makoti, or you’re dating someone. The new moms have just given birth and want to lose weight. That’s me. It’s relevant to me. So it’s about being relevant to the current market and who the current woman is.
How do you think humor plays a role in breaking the ice and connecting people during festive gatherings like this?
If you like having oxtail? It doesn’t need to be made on the day. Let’s use meal prep as an example. So let’s use a festive season. So my go to tip is prepping dishes that are difficult to make and make them a few days in advance. So things like oxtail can be made two days before, and you just pop it in the freezer.
When you are making turkey, in order for it to be flavorful and full of moisture and juicy – you need to brine it. Brining takes three days before you make it on the day and when you make it on the day it’s going to take a few hours to cook.
If you want to make, let’s say, a pasta salad as an example. You say, let me cook my pasta, put it in a tupperware dish. All I need to do is on the day, take the pasta salad out. And then assemble all the other ingredients.
What I do every single day is in my fridge, you always find chopped onions, chopped peppers etc. You chop your onions in advance and on the day, all you’re doing is putting it into your ingredients, right?
So write down your Christmas menu or your Christmas recipes in advance so that you know if there’s turkey, if there’s a pasta salad, if there’s any salad or any starch or any sort of heavy meal that needs to be prepped in advance, you can do it a day before, two days before, and then on the day you put the dishes back into the oven and cook them. If you’re making anything that requires onions, peppers, you’re not chopping them on the day.
If you are making spaghetti bolognaise, you make spaghetti for the week and put the rest in the freezer and all you’re doing is prepping the minced meat. Are you having shepherd’s pie?
All you do is prepping potatoes. Same goes for Lasagna. Make your life as simple as possible. And simplicity is where you’re going to have fun.
Also plan and sit down and have a menu written in advance. Then you’ll know, like I marinate my prawns in advance. I marinate my chicken in advance – so that the morning before we go to church, all I’m doing is popping it in the oven when I wake up at five.
Once I’m back from showering in an hour. It’s done. I take it out of the oven, and then when I come back, I’m just putting leaves on it and everyone thinks that I’m the greatest chef ever.
Your content often reflects relatable everyday experiences. How do you incorporate themes of food and community into your comedy?
So I’ve got one recipe in the book – cheesy meatballs.
It’s minced meat, and you season them and shape them into meatballs. Put them in a large pan to cook. It depends how you want to serve them – you put them in a tomato marinara sauce. And then you sprinkle cheese over some bezel pencil, and then you can use a bit of mashed potatoes. Some spaghetti on the day. Whatever it is. That’s a nice sharing meal.
My book also has Mozambican dishes and roast chicken – I love african inspired meals. So learning from other african countries and incorporating them in my dishes.
If you could invite one fictional character to Friendsmas, who would it be, and why?
For me every single day after school I’d never go and watch cartoons – I’d always watch Jamie Oliver or Nigella. I’d watch cooking shows religiously but my grandmother never understood that when I was eleven years old. And it only made sense later on. But she was so fortunate for that time.
But there are whispers in life, but because we also changed and we know how difficult it is to change. You might not realize it at the moment. That’s how I knew cooking was my passion.
My grandmother loves food, and I would watch her cooking – just stand by the stove. But I think it’s also like a thing in terms of black women and family and stuff like that. We’re always taking care of our families.
What’s a personal holiday tradition or dish that you can never go without?
I actually enjoy blending traditional and modern. So let’s use trifle as an example. I don’t like trifle although it is a staple in many homes over the festive season. When I think of trifle at Christmas, all I think of is it’s wet, it’s soggy. So now I think of how I can make trifle different?
So take jelly, add some sparkling water and that’s a different take already. It’s got bubbles. It’s got a texture. And then I’m like, what else can I make with the sponge? I can take the sponge or vanilla cake that I’ve made and soak it in some amarilla.
But then I’d deconstruct the trifle because I hate the sogginess of it. You prep all the different elements and then assemble it at the last minute so that it’s not soggy. Layer the flavors and the taste profile. What else can I put in there? I don’t want fresh fruit, so I’m going to make a chocolate mousse instead of fresh fruit? Because I’m not a fresh fruit person, right? So you just do it differently.