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The way to anyone’s heart is through food

Monique Adams



One thing the year 2020 has blessed us with is upcoming food businesses that started providing reliable, innovative and convenient services during the Covid-19 lockdown when restaurants were closed.

One such business is Keni & Kandy’s Kitchen, established at the beginning of 2020 by Yoolokeni Mugaba and Ericah Kandy Nawinda. They cater for private and corporate events, no matter how big or how small. They also do home and street braais.

“Keni & Kandy’s Kitchen was actually birthed at a street braai. It was on a cold winter morning that Keni and I decided to host a braai at a friend’s pub. It was extremely successful and from that day onwards we didn’t stop.

“Covid-19 came and street braais were no longer allowed but we didn’t sit around, we decided to continue each weekend with home braais. We made use of our social media platforms to advertise and the response was great,” Kandy says.

When starting their business, honesty was one of the most important attributes that both women feel is vital for any business. Both Keni and Kandy have a love for food and having served at First Lady Monica Geingos’s office on several occasions is one of their biggest accomplishments.

Just like any upcoming establishment, finding a place to operate from has been difficult.

“We cannot afford to rent a place; rent is quite costly. That’s why we decided to overcome this challenge by operating from home or at our clients’ premises,” Kandy says.

What makes Keni & Kandy’s Kitchen different from other food businesses is their drive, set-up and presentation. They try and give their customers a different and unique experience with everything they serve. Their food is about colour, taste as well as the great customer service that they offer. In five years’ time they hope to have a restaurant where people can sit down and enjoy their unique cuisine.

As business owners they measure success by customer satisfaction because when the customer is happy, it makes them happy. Satisfied customers inspire them to deliver an even better product.

Kandy’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to start with what you have and from where you are. “Tomorrow is not promised; don’t wait for a large sum of money or a fancy place to start. Social media is a new way to market any business, make use of those platforms and just start, the rest will fall into place when you get there,” she says.