All Dhal’d Up

The judges on MasterChef South Africa kept telling Kamini Pather to ‘put yourself on the plate’ and she believes that to her core. Growing up in ’90s South Africa and being almost the only ‘person of colour’ at her school, she has vivid memories of how different the dining room tables between her home and the homes of her friends were. To fit in with that multi-cultural world, her mum started including a fusion lunchbox, and Kamini felt a sense of well-meaning ‘otherness’, as though she was part of a world sandwiched between her grandmother’s masala and her competitive figure skating.Typically self-deprecating (she refuses to call herself a chef), Kamini’s life changed dramatically after her Masterchef SA win -- from an aspiring food writer to being in demand as a TV food show host and food-travel show producer on hits such as Girl Eat World. Fast forward through a few media awards (Cosmopolitan Women of the Year, Glamour Women of the Year, an SA Style Award), some spectacular campaigns (ambassador for the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, Yuppiechef Online Cooking School), Kamini found herself spending the Covid-19 lockdown back in Durban with her family and created a short ebook called Eat Glocal, which was shortlisted for a Gourmand Award, and precipitated the need to publish an actual cookbook -- All Dahl’d Up. And if that isn’t enough, Kamini has also found the time to be a serious runner and an Integrative Health and Nutrition Coach. This Cape Town-based resident chef on Ready Steady Cook is also in the final phase of her Master’s degree in Psychology.