The Sunday Mail
Enacy Mapakame
Business Reporter
Imagine craving a traditional Zimbabwean meal while in the diaspora, a meal you last tasted 10 years back and probably don’t remember how it’s made. Or imagine trying to impress a Zimbabwean with their traditional dish but clueless on how to make one.
But thanks to innovator, chef and author — Rumbi Shoko of the ZimboKitchen fame, who recognised an opportunity and used technology to reach out to many across the globe with unique Zimbabwean dishes. Her online platform, which she co-founded — ZimboKitchen is now a household name locally and abroad for those who love cooking as it provides recipes for local cuisines.
The response has been overwhelming, not only from Zimbabweans, but many others with a nose for good food and love to try new dishes.
“The market’s response has been overwhelming, in the good sense of the word. ZimboKitchen being predominantly an online platform, the audience is not limited to Zimbabweans residing here in Zimbabwe alone, but the world over.
“This has given the opportunity for Zimbabwean varooras and vakwashas (spouses who are married to Zimbabweans in the diaspora) to learn more about our food and how to prepare it.
“Or Zimbabweans in the diaspora who miss home food to reminisce on some good old memories when they see the dishes and if the ingredients are readily available where they are, to prepare the food themselves and savour the moment.
“When we started we had a single goal of bringing good Zimbabwean cuisine to the home kitchen through our tried and tested easy to follow recipes,” she said.
But ZimboKitchen did not just come on a silver platter. This is a classic case of dedication and passion that made Chef Rumbie diversify into culinary arts from PC Engineering and Networking.
Cooking was her first love and the mother of four decided to follow her heart in 2012 by establishing ZimboKitchen.
Her love for cooking started at the age of 10 with her mother and grandmother as her culinary mentors.
“The culinary arts is something that has always been a part of me as I was growing up, gleaning things from my mother and grandmother, who were both exceptional in that department.
“Although at some point I pursued a career in PC Engineering and Networking, my heart and passion had always been in cooking. So in 2012, the journey officially began.
“Passion was the main driver that kick-started me in this direction, coupled with my love for teaching. There needed to be a space where Zimbabwean cuisine was documented for posterity. Prior to ZimboKitchen coming online, there was no other resource one could find online on how to cook maguru for instance,” she said.
To date, Chef Rumbie has authored 15 digital recipe books that are a fusion of local Zimbabwean dishes with a modern twist as well as cuisines from all over the world.
ZimboKitchen has been one of the pacesetters embracing digitalisation with use of social media platforms like Facebook making it easier to reach the market.
“We consider ourselves a technology driven culinary business. We made a decision to be tech-oriented from the beginning in order to easily scale at much lower cost.
“Our market is wherever the internet can reach,” she said, adding that social media enabled ZimboKitchen to expand their reach and increased traffic on their blog.
Their growing popularity has attracted collaborations. Recently, the firm partnered with Mr Sauce, another homegrown brand that is growing by leaps and bounds showcasing that it is possible for startup businesses to support and compliment each other and grow into big entities.
“Mr Sauce and ZimboKitchen have some similar ethos so the partnership came naturally. We both believe in local (in this partnership it’s reciprocal) and that everyone deserves to eat good food,” she added.
Like any other business operating in Zimbabwe, ZimboKitchen has had a fair share of challenges, but key among them being inflationary pressures affecting availability of certain ingredients as well as piracy of digital content which resulted in financial losses.
Going forward, Chef Rumbie sees ZimboKitchen growing with more opportunities likely to arise as the economy improves. For the journey ahead, technology will remain key in this business as the creators and digital distributors of culinary content.
“Overall, we see ourselves rolling out more products not only for the purposes of increasing our revenue base, but also for the purposes of continuing to give our audience some real value. Although we are nine years old this year, we are just getting started,” she said.
