My name is Treasure Makwanise I am passionate and determined individual. Born in Zimbabwe, I left home at just 16, heading for South Africa in search of paid work. I didn’t know a soul, and without family or friends to fall back on, I became homeless, job hunting by day and sleeping on Cape Town’s streets by night. In 2009, my tenacity landed me a role as a steward at One & Only Cape Town, and I quickly fell in love with hospitality. Before long, I had a new goal: becoming a chef. I had very limited knowledge of hospitality and my job as a steward opened my eyes to the hard graft that goes into becoming a successful chef. I was attracted to the pace and pressure of the job, and I knew becoming a chef was my ultimate career goal
I was very passionate about becoming a chef and Jason Miller, who was the Executive Chef during that time, became a mentor to me. One & Only Cape Town then selected me to receive a scholarship at the globally renowned South African Chef’s Academy, one of the best culinary schools in South Africa. After four years of intensive learning and hard work as a chef for One & Only Cape Town, I got my first job overseas with Yas Viceroy at a resort in Abu Dhabi. I then broadened my experience in Dubai, the Seychelles and aboard a large cruise ship. These jobs allowed me to travel and learn a variety of cooking styles from around the world.
I missed South Africa and the opportunities it had provided me, so I was pleased to be asked to return to assist with the opening of Rockets Restaurant in Bryanston, Johannesburg as a Chef de Cuisine. However, my ultimate dream was always to come back and work for One & Only Cape Town, as I wanted to say thank you to the resort that gave me the opportunity to become a chef. I achieved this in 2017 when I returned as Sous Chef. To me this was the proudest moment of my career, knowing I started as a steward and was returning as a Senior Chef. It’s my greatest achievement to date.
I had been working back at One & Only Cape Town for a couple of months when it was announced that One & Only had a resort in development in Rwanda. Once again, One & Only believed in me and they entrusted me with the role of Executive Chef at One & Only Nyungwe House. I felt so fortunate to be given this opportunity and did not hesitate to accept. It has been an incredible 10 years and probably the most emotional yet beautiful and rewarding roller coaster I will ever ride in my entire life
For me One & Only Nyungwe will always be the highlight of my career. This was the most challenging phase of my path as a chef yet the most rewarding phase too as a young African chef. It was from here where I leant a very natural approach to the ingredients and being able to connect with the beautiful local people of Rwanda. This time of my career will always stand out for me, it made me even more bold as a chef and as a person. I wasn’t easy though to achieve high standards that the hotel had set due to few reasons such as being a remote resort we had limited access to many things and the level of skill set my team had been not up to the level where one would have hoped for. All these elements shaped the way I think and see things. I took this amazing challenge for almost 4yrs then I later resigned to start my own thing in the capital city of Rwanda.
Today I own a small restaurant in the middle of Kigali city called Anda Kigali. Our food approach is very simple. We try to be as much emotional as possible when we handle and prepare our food with hope that we can be able to soulfully connect with our guests while they dine at our place.
Me and the teamwork towards embracing the best of Rwandan produce and local flavours, served with an emotional twist. Our aim is to be able to speak to our clients through culinary indulgency. The food scene in Kigali is growing and becoming one of the leading hospitality places in East Africa if not on the whole continent. My purpose is to help build a strong team of young generation that will take over me and be able to be that steppingstone for many of those who are hopeless and keen to join the industry.
I also have a long-term goal to build good reputation in the industry so that maybe one day I can be trusted well enough with brands like One & Only to take over some of their amazing restaurants as a franchise chef, this will surely make me so happy and proud of the journey. It’s a huge dream that is close to being impossible, but I believe that with the right it will surely be achieved. I would love to finish my story with One & Only as their first franchise chef who they once employed as a steward and later on came back as an executive chef then went on to becoming a franchise chef on one of their properties.