Meet Tebo and Lebo Ndala, the food-obsessed private chefs behind @Twinmade_Food. They are Laarger Rooibos Tea brand ambassadors, do pop-up restaurants, food styling and food photography. Whoever said passion doesn’t pay the bills has never met Tebo and Lebo ? #SlayNationSA
Can you believe we are actresses now ?! ☺️☺️lol. Ok, not really but… we were asked to do a feature as “celebrity judges” for a Kasi cooking show that was part of the story line. How cool is that? We were asked us to play ourselves ☺️☺️ except, we are not celebrities or judges, lol. ?? but Ma’am Dorah Sitole is, so it’s the same thing… right?! ??.
We came in for two different days to shoot two different episode- days but it spread out to 4 episodes soo… we are professionals now?! ☺️☺️ we honestly have a new found respect for actors and actresses, it’s really no joke. We were on that set for hours and hours ??? lol, we decided to wear heels ? … bad idea!!! Lol. For the second episode we had to do some real life acting ☺️? we had a scene where we had to spit the food out and cough, lol. And we were like “we really have to pretend good here” and our baby Given Stuurman was like … “don’t pretend, act” ?? well then superstar… that was great advice though. ❤️
We had the best time ever with the loveliest and kindest cast ever❤️❤️. Very accommodating and sweet people, it was such an honor and a pleasure.
When you watch the episodes though, make sure you don’t blink ? ?? lol, you literally just might miss our close up… honest????!!! Lol ??. The first day we were on, my mom was expecting the episode to be about “the twins” I guess ??? lol and she was soooo disappointed that we were on for a few seconds ?? Haha, but we assured her that we’d have more seconds on the other episodes to come?… and our acting skills… on ?. We are literally ready to take on this career ??
But honestly though, it was a huge privilege and a huge honor, what a lovely opportunity. We are soo soo sooooo thankful ❤️
#etvscandal
#celebrityjudges
#withlovefromthetwins ❤️❤️
Twin bloggers Tebogo and Lebogang Ndala are chefs by profession who came, who cooked and who conquered.
We were born and bred in Pretoria. After studying at the beautiful Hurst Campus on the Backsberg Wine Estate in Stellenbosch, our love of food drove us to becoming professional and private chefs, pop-up restaurateurs, food bloggers, assistant food editors and aspiring food stylists.
Our mom has always been a good cook and, when we were little, we loved helping her in the kitchen – that’s where the passion took flight. But it was our high school Hospitality teacher, Mrs Le Roux at Hoërskool Hendrik Verwoerd, Pretoria, who made the rage more fierce!
We always told our friends we could cook very well, but they never believed us. So, we started sharing pics of our food to prove our abilities. Our mentor, Ragmah Abrahams, told us to create a blog to keep a record of everything we make. And so, we started off by blogging on Tumblr.
The secret to blogging success is to be consistent – as easy as pie. Be constant and uniform in your work and posts alike – even on the bad days.
We’re besotted with Thai food, so we tend to add a dash of Thai curry paste to everything – be it butternut soup or pea soup. We’ll bring Thailand home, to any dish, at any chance we get.
We love cooking for our friends; they get excited to try our dishes! At the end of the day, that’s all that matters and the reason we cook: to make people happy.
Apart from spending time in the kitchen and taking food photographs, we’re obsessed with keeping fit and finding interesting new workout spots. Oh, and we delight in reading. Cuisine, hikes and books equal: The Twins.
We simply adore the crisp roast duck recipe on our blog. We work regularly with Ma’am Dorah Sitole and this is her recipe. She’s so sweet and always allows us to use her creations. We like preparing food that’s not intimidating and that’s why we love this dish. You can effortlessly impress your guests, without having to work yourself into a spin in the kitchen. Plus, it’s a foolproof recipe that’s super-delicious.
Mamelodi-born twins Lebo and Tebo Ndala might not yet have a television series like the famed twins Tia and Tamera, but the talented 23-year-olds would certainly put on an entertaining show.
The twins graduated from The Hurst Campus in Stellenbosch. As part of their training, they worked as interns in the kitchens of the Victoria & Albert Hotel and the Radisson Blu, respectively, after which they decided to branch out into other sectors of the food industry. They have now started their own business, With Love From The Twins, a pop-up food concept. The duo caters for intimate dinners; they are also freelance food editors and food stylists. Their company celebrated its first year in July.
“Being featured on Top Billing was a highlight. Collaborating with food brands has also been a highlight, and, of course, meeting the influential people in our industry and being featured on amazing media platforms,” Tebo says. “It’s encouraging because some days are tough, so when someone recognises our work, it’s a beautiful highlight.”
The Ndala twins have certainly had a very busy year, filled with ups and downs. “Not being taken seriously as young women is a big challenge. People assume we are just pretty faces and that’s it, but it’s not true,” Lebo says. “Also, being rejected: oh goodness, that’s hard.”
Despite these challenges, the young entrepreneurs continue to work hard to make a name for themselves. What is their long-term dream? “To own a studio with a functional kitchen, where we could do our food styling and food photography, and open it up to other food creatives who’d like to use the space,” Lebo says.
You can also download the PDF version of this interview here
What an honor to be featured on MyKitchenSA. It’s a lovely article on yours
truly. Very thankful.
Please read all about our “wooh-Saaah” ?????? Moments in the kitchen
☺☺☺ you’ll love it.
Click here to read the article
An amazing interview done by Londiwe Dlomo. We are so thankful, what an honor.
Please click below to have a read,it’s a lovely interview.
Listen to our absolutely lovely and funny interview with Gareth Cliff.
Fun!!! ☺☺❤❤
Loved every single second. ?❤
Thank you so much #cliffcentral cliffcentral.com ☺
Gareth’s Guests, 1 Feb Twin Chefs: Lebo & Tebo Ndala – iono.fm
TOP BILLING!!
“The Pop Up Twins and Azania.”
Isn’t that awesome??! ☺️☺️☺️ Top Billing? So exciting. What an honor to
have an opportunity to be on this show and cook for Azania and her friends
too? … Hello Pressure, welcome ???? lol.
So Top Billing told us exactly what they wanted, as they should right? ☺️☺️
and we had to make what they wanted come to life, the trick is we had a
very short time to plan all of this??. We had to find the most beautiful
venue in Johannesburg and basically create a mini pop up restaurant, which
is pretty cool because all of this happened in about 3 days before our last
pop up restaurant of the year and it was about the same theme. ??
The most amazing woman let us use her exquisite house, we know her and for
some reason she trusted that we wouldn’t burn her house down ???. We
call her Aunty Nana, she’s amazing. We appreciate her. ❤️❤️
Fast forward to the evening of the shoot, we set everything up to create
this beautiful and magical garden DINNER that had to be a bit Christmassy
?? too. We had lots of fairy lights, the cutlery and crockery were
perfect, The Food in the kitchen is gonna be amazing, we looked great
??????… what more could we ask for? … right? ??
The weather… nope!! It started getting cloudy and we were like? ?? well
there goes the perfect garden shoot ?? oh and the other fairy lights
decided not to work ?? lol. No more Christmas??? Can we cancel the shoot
please??? What else could go wrong? ??? anyways, we tried to look past
the little things that were going wrong. The crew came, Azania and her
friends came and guess what else came? The nerves!!!! ?? But we got
straight to it, because the weather was a bit grumpy and it was getting
late but… everybody loved the set up, we were good to go man. ????
We thought this was gonna be easy, We mean… lights, camera, action ??
how hard can it be? ?? lol, jokes!! We did like a hundred takes for every
little part and we were like… EHHH ?? lol, but it was an absolutely
amazing experience!!! ?? we wanna do it over and over and over again!!!
Maybe we should have our own cooking show ??… ok, anyways moving on…
The food is ready, the twins are coming out with the food, let’s sit down
and eat, shoot, perfect dinner… ok, ACTION!! And the weather was like…
NOPE!!! In about 2 seconds it started pouring!!!!! We scattered like crazy
birds soooo quickly ?? that was so painful!! The shoot was cut short!!
How dare you rain!!! ?? lol. And the yummy dessert? You guys didn’t get
to see that?. So we wrapped up at almost midnight and it was great ??.
We had an amazing time.
We had to wait for about two weeks for the show to air and we were soooo
nervous. Come on, it’s our very first TV debut nyana, it needs to be
perfect right? ?? lol. Long story short, it looked great, The Food looked
fantastic, our two minutes of fame were probably our highlight of 2016 and
mommy was proud, thats all that matters. ☺️☺️
It’s so cool that we kinda dreamt of being on a show like that and we were
like … nah!!! That’s never gonna happen and God was like… ACTUALLY!!
You’re my kids so let’s do this.??❤️ Lol. We really can’t wait to dream
bigger dreams and work even harder so that bigger things can happen.
??????
Did we thank Top Billing enough? ?? hmmmm, we don’t think so and everyone
who helped us put this together? We are so thankful. Let’s do this again
sometime soon? ?☺️☺️??
Oh, our new nickname are “The Pop Up Twins” ☺️☺️ because we just pop up
everywhere!!! ??❤️❤️
#withlovefromtopbilling
#withlovefromthetwins
Had the honor of being interviewed by the beautiful Masechaba on Power FM. Please have a listen.
So you all know Siba Mtongana right? The beautiful South African celebrity chef who went super international? She’s absolutely amazing at what she does. Before hosting her cooking show, she was the food editor for Drum Magazine. We chose a role model in the industry and she was it, lol. We aspire to be like her one day and we are definitely well on our way. ️
️
She has this amazing cookbook out called “My Table” and it’s based on her food network cooking show and guess what???!!! One of us got to work on it 🙂 🙂 … yes, I did… (Tebo). 🙂 ok, I’ll finish the story ️
️
We met her at church on a random Sunday and obviously we were star struck
, Lebo saw her first and then she ran, grabbed my hand and took me to her, lol, she was sooooo lovely. Best day ever. Then we were like… “hmmmmm, so she goes to our church? Ok” then we started “looking out” for her at church, to see if we can spot her again … lol, we weren’t stalking her by the way
. We eventually tracked her down and saw her a couple of times after, so we got to know her a little bit. My sister and I went overseas a few months after that but before we left, we told her we were leaving soon and she gave us her contacts and then she was like … “can I pray for you guys?” And so she did
?, she told us we are set apart for a special purpose, like a stick of butter separated from the whole block, set apart for a special purpose. I will never forget that, ever!! Oh, and then she asked to take a pic with us
️ this is a true story
️
️. We kept in touch with her, which is pretty dope.
Fast forward to mid-Year, last year (2015)… I (Tebo) came back to the country first and went back to Cape Town, started interning at Drum magazine and a month later I got an opportunity to work with my inspiration!! And I took it!!! I was honored to work with her. The first month though, was more like a “get to know each other better” month ^__^. I got to meet and know her lovely family, we went out to all these incredible restaurants in Cape Town, told each other funny stories about each other, took lovely drives, laughed at each other. lt was the most amazing experience of my life. And then we started working on the cookbook, it was a lot of fun, a lot of work, a lot of grumpy, a lot of tears, a lot of hugs and kisses and obviously a lot of success. Her and her husband are just incredible and their execution of that cookbook ?? … incredible. Diane and Christophe too (the photographer and food stylist), I have no words, absolutely amazing!!! How blessed am I? To work with such incredible people! They are a very funny bunch and every single time we sat down for lunch, Diane and Christophe would say “born up a tree, under the sea” I find that funny, laughed every single time and that’s where we got our inspiration for our blog but that’s a story for another day
️
️. I’m definitely honored to have been part of that experience and it’s something I will never, ever take for granted. I’ll probably tell my grandkids about this one day :). I’m so glad this is part of my story
I love you so much Sisi Siba ️
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#withlovefromTebo
#withlovefromthetwins ️
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