Get to know Caz
I moved to the UK from Zimbabwe when I was nine years old and grew up in a coastal town called Bournemouth in the south of England. I have always been foodie, I learned how to cook at the age of 10, helping my mum and dad to prepare dinner most evenings.
At 14 when I was randomly entered into a cooking competition to fill a space for someone that had dropped out last minute. I won the first round and won the two following rounds getting shortlisted to the finals. The final verdict was announced and I came a close second, I lost out on presentation but that’s when my adventures with food really began. During the cooking competitions I learned how to plate food and learned how to cook with different wines and cream - something completely unheard of in a typical Zimbabwean household. All I can say is dinner time in my family home was never the same...
Fast forward now, In 2014, I started Cooking With Caz, on the social media platform Snapchat as a past-time whilst I was in the search of the perfect graduate job. Funnily enough I had flirted with the idea of a cooking show since my second year in uni but it was only after I graduated I did something about it. Cooking With Caz was therapy, it was my way of escaping the uncertainty of life after uni and it became a conduit for expressing my love for cooking and bringing people together through food. I landed a job as an Analyst in the energy and utilities sector in the same year I started CWC. I have managed to progress my career and grow CWC simultaneously since. The food I create is mostly traditional Zimbabwean recipes with my own twist. I am inspired by my childhood memories in Zimbabwe and the diverse cuisines I have been exposed to from other cultures while living in the UK.
Over the years, Cooking With Caz has evolved into a chic southern African foodie brand where I showcase my creative recipes. My aim is to put Zimbabwean food, reimagined, on the map through unique dining experiences, bespoke catering services and through the recipes in this book.
I have evolved from being just online to providing catering services and street food; to hosting my flagship summer event the Boozy African Brunch which has sold-out tickets in London and Birmingham and also to speaking at Africa Food Week London raising awareness of about the evolution of the Zimbabwean food scene. I have even filmed my own cooking show and have released my debut book, Zimbabwean Food Reimagined.
Through Cooking with Caz, I want revolutionalise the evolving Zimbabwean cuisine by experimenting with traditional recipes and recreating new ones along with other Zimbabweans doing the same. But generally, I just wanna cook!