Mavuso Cuisine: Lusizo Dlodlo’s home-cooking restaurant fills a gap

Starting a restaurant and catering business during the lockdown seems counterintuitive, especially as millions the world over have shut their doors, many for good.

But rising from the ashes of events that saw him retrenched and sinking into financial uncertainty this year, 30-year-old Lusizo Dlodlo now owns his first restaurant after working for a decade in the food and hospitality industry.

Born of equal parts survival instinct and a natural proclivity for entertaining his friends and loved ones with generous portions of food, Dlodlo’s life-long dream has materialised in a way he says “only God could have predicted”.

Little did he know during his infamous parties into the wee hours of the morning that he would soon be cooking and entertaining for money and not just love.

Dlodlo was still climbing the ladder as a professional in the hospitality industry with a small company in Bryanston when, in July, he was hit with the news that he was to be retrenched. At this point he had several considerations but few available options.

He had to avoid the inevitable pileup of unpaid bills and a frantic job search in the middle of a lockdown. But with the economy bleeding millions of jobs at the height of the pandemic, going back home to mother and father was looking like the only plan.

Luck and a little courage brought him to ask a close relative what she planned to do with a restaurant in Bramley she had all but closed down.

Confronted with both a challenge and an opportunity, Dlodlo drew on his last resources and forged ahead with a plan to welcome the first wave of restaurant-goers during lockdown Level 1.

Statistically, restaurants are among the riskiest businesses, with a global failure rate of 90% within the first year.

During the high alert level lockdowns in the country, thousands of restaurants shut their doors for good. Servers, chefs, cleaners and other workers went down with them, joining the 2.2 million South Africans who became classified as unemployed by the third quarter of this year.

Many went home, leaving the drying wells of the urban economy to the lucky few who survived what was dubbed the “second pandemic” of job losses.

Dlodlo said: “I am proud that I am now an employer and I am contributing to the revival of the economy as well.”

A quintessential “rural boy from the Eastern Cape” brought up by Christian parents who saw hope for their future in their children’s eyes, Dlodlo outran his peers, passing matric before 18 and graduating from university in 2010. He obtained a national diploma in hospitality management at Durban University of Technology.

Beginning a career at the magnum opus of one of his career role models, Sol Kerzner, Dlodlo said his introduction to the hospitality work environment in customer relations at Sun City’s Cascades Hotel set his career aspirations even higher.

MAVUSO CUISINE. Owner Lusizo Dlodlo. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

But he still hadn’t realised his calling was for cooking, although he was fast making a name for himself as a social butterfly, entertaining coworkers, celebrities and close friends from his home after hours.

During that time his unwavering love for the good things in life began, from fine couture and cuisine to travel.

“It sometimes showed me that I was being prepared for bigger things and it gave me a lot of courage to not look down on myself and say who am I to engage with certain people, or think there were things I cannot explore.

“I think it comes from the self-confidence to be able to dream. If you are closer to the things you are dreaming about it is easier to see yourself there.

“I have always enjoyed the idea of making people feel at home and to want to come back again. That was the vision I had when I first got the idea for the theme of my restaurant. I wanted to make food that my friends and I grew up eating at home and at gatherings.”

Dlodlo gushes about one of the main attractions at his restaurant, which Johannesburg folk call “hard body chicken”, while in the Eastern Cape it is referred to as “running chicken” or umleqwa. These are organically grown and fed, free-range chickens with a slightly tougher texture than the brittle-boned factory fowl bought at supermarkets.

This chicken is boiled and sometimes roasted afterwards, with very few ingredients added to give a signature golden glow. A handful of restaurants serve this dish in Johannesburg, though barely meeting the demand.

Other “home for the holidays” favourites include dumplings, steamed bread and a butternut and beetroot salad with a modern twist. His years in Durban are evident in his decision to add a beef curry dish to his menu.

At his restaurant opening three weeks ago, Dlodlo had a full house by 1pm.

Relief and joy filled his eyes as he remarked that he was as busy as he prayed he would be. The Engcobo-born foodie has high hopes for success, with plans to open more branches of Mavuso Cuisine.

– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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