The Sunday News
Thembinkosi Khumalo, Sunday Life Reporter
HIS life is one ensnared in adventure, from being a creative, comedian, cookery book publisher, rural tourism ambassador to being a celebrity chef. Carl Joshua Ncube is indeed a man of many talents.
A quick search of his name on Google reveals Ncube’s vast portfolio, with various superlatives that have, over the years been used to describe him. These range from “multi-talented comedian and chef, Zimbabwe’s biggest comedy export to the face of Zimbabwean comedy”.
Of late Ncube has been pushing rural tourism after he literary moved from the buzz of big city life to a rural setup in the outskirts of Victoria Falls, constantly posting the rural journey that is motivated by a serious intention to further rural tourism.
In between the journey, Ncube would constantly show his culinary skills, focusing on traditional Zimbabwean meals, he even went to publish a cookery book.
Bulawayo, will for the next three months have an opportunity to rub shoulders with this famed celebrity as he will put one of his many talents at work and residents will have the opportunity to taste his dishes.
Carl seems to have inherited a part from each of his parents. His late father was a talented woodwork technical graphics teacher and part-time comedian and his mother is a retired home economics lecturer.
And it can be argued that this set of genetics inspired him in his comedy and in cooking.
In an interview, the celebrity chef revealed that for the next three months he will have the opportunity to belt out his culinary skills, as he puts some of his personal recipes to test.
“I came to Bulawayo to collaborate with one of my biggest sponsors in my career – Carne Casa. The idea is to unlock the tourism potential of Bulawayo business by making it a tourist attraction.
I hope to work on the systems of the restaurant that stand out from a branding perspective, recipe development, customer experience, lateral integrations and sustainability practices in their procurement that is working with local farmers and really making sure to put Bulawayo first in how we train and develop our staff,” said Ncube.
He said with the opportunity given to him by the local steak house, he hoped to hone out some of his recipes included in his cook book, Chikafu, incorporating them with the Brazilian type of approach to help further the local tourism drive in the city.
Ncube revealed that he was now working on completing his cooking text book which will be essential in helping young local chefs in developing food ideas around local ingredients.
Questioned on whether, during his stay in Bulawayo, he will host some comedy shows, Ncube said; “I have a hectic international tour schedule this year Covid-19 permitting.
So, I may not be in a position to do many shows although I am sure my guests at Carne Casa will benefit from me cracking a few jokes here and there as I check up on service when they come to the restaurant.”
Carne Carsa proprietor Jabulani Tafadzwa Nyoni said their engagement of Ncube was mainly to help push their local tourism drive.
“Carl is someone whom I have worked with before but above all he is someone who is well versed with the tourism industry. He is also a fanatic in terms of food and recently he launched his hand book that is about cooking.
He understands our vision in terms of having a Brazilian Steak House which has elements of African food so he is someone who can bring change in terms of bringing the right type of meals which are exotic and also closer to home,” said Nyoni.
