Jessica Munisamy fought hard for her place as a female chef, defying the expectations of her family and the men dominating the industry. Today, she heads up an Indian restaurant as the executive chef in Johannesburg.
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00:00 Rich, colourful and tasty, this is Jessica Munisamy's twist on Indian cuisine.
00:07 But it wasn't easy for her to bring it all to the table.
00:12 Every challenge I had, I had chefs spit at me, I had chefs throw things at me and I've
00:20 had moments where I needed to stand up and grab somebody by the collar and be like, "Yo,
00:27 you don't do that in my kitchen."
00:29 Before we find out how Jessica is reviving Indian cuisine in South Africa, let's take
00:34 a closer look at how she came to be a chef in the first place.
00:38 At home, I was always in the kitchen and I loved spending time there and my mum had all
00:44 these spices and she'd have all these goodies always in there.
00:48 Even if I'm playing around, like messing around, it's where I discovered that this is what
00:52 I can do.
00:55 Today Jessica is the executive chef at a trendy Indian restaurant, but it wasn't a straight
01:00 path.
01:01 Growing up in an average Indian home in Johannesburg, her father worked hard to enable a higher
01:06 education.
01:11 Looking back, that was just the first hurdle Jessica had to overcome.
01:15 How did she manage?
01:20 When I had told my family that I'm not going to be a doctor like a typical Indian home
01:25 you brought up to be a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer, my dad was not happy.
01:32 So he didn't speak to me for almost a year.
01:35 He refused to pay for my college also.
01:38 And I was like, "I'm doing this, dad."
01:41 I took a student loan, asked one of my siblings to stay on a surety for me.
01:46 I worked.
01:48 Once I qualified, pretty much I worked pot wash for six months.
01:54 And as much as as little as I earned, I was like, "It's cool.
01:57 I'm going to pay my student loan off."
01:58 And I did.
02:03 After completing her studies in restaurant and hotel management, Jessica started out
02:08 in the catering sector, then spent four years working in Dubai and Qatar before returning
02:14 home when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
02:17 Getting here has not been easy.
02:19 As a female chef, how did she overcome the biases she faced and make her mark?
02:26 I think my greatest challenge was most definitely when I reached Dubai.
02:31 Men don't take lightly to women telling them what to do.
02:35 And especially not in an Arab nation.
02:41 And so it toughens you a lot because it's not for the weak.
02:46 And I'll be very honest, as a woman in this industry, you can't, you've got to have a
02:50 thick skin, you need to have the ability to overlook it and kind of just like push through.
02:58 The Modern Tailors restaurant is dedicated to showcasing traditional Indian foods and
03:03 flavors, catering to an upscale South African audience.
03:08 So how does Chef Jessica maintain the integrity of authentic Indian street food while modernizing
03:14 and elevating it?
03:17 My bestseller is my Durban lamb curry.
03:19 So my mom obviously is from Durban.
03:22 She was the cook there at a white house household.
03:26 And she pretty much made everything, baked, cooked and all of those stuff.
03:31 And it's her recipe.
03:32 And we kind of tweaked it a bit, obviously, to give it a little bit more flavors and,
03:39 you know, to make it more complex.
03:41 But we want to keep that nostalgia.
03:46 You know, they always say that a curry tastes better the next day, because it gives the
03:50 flavors, your spices enough time and aroma to just like blend into the food.
03:55 And it's true.
03:58 Our spices though, I can guarantee you is 10 times better than India.
04:03 Our curries are much more in depth in terms of flavoring and textures and all of those
04:10 kind of things.
04:11 Whereas with India, I think a lot of the flavors that they play with is very subtle.
04:17 Just going to start adding in my whole spices, my black cardamom, star anise seeds, some
04:26 cinnamon, cumin seeds.
04:33 As much as our spices, some of them come in from India as well.
04:36 But majority of them are done and blended in Devon.
04:41 And you know, they roast their own chilies, they take it, the sugarcane fields, we get
04:45 our own jaggery there, you know, so we have the ability here in South Africa to also bring
04:51 in Indian authentic spices.
04:55 Chef Jessica Munisamy is capturing and recreating the essence of Indian street food.
05:00 Her journey is not just a story of flavors, but is a celebration of culture and resilience
05:06 as she continues to keep her heritage alive.
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