A daughter’s grief from losing a mother, the healing process through fond memories of them cooking in the kitchen and a mother’s love for her son, family and her community — all of these things have been beautifully captured and illustrated in a compilation of wholesome and hearty recipes using items that have been grown, raised and foraged.A Food Love Story is more than a simple recipe book; it’s a collection of memories, a preservation of tradition and heritage and a journey told through home-cooked meals, using ingredients grown at home and sustainably foraged in the stunning coastal village of Willowvale, along the Indian Ocean in the Eastern Cape.The author, Onezwa Mbola, a trained marine navigator and food enthusiast, gained fame on TikTok through her unique cuisine, often made in her backyard on an open fire. Her cooking videos, which include how she grows fruits, vegetables and herbs in her vast home garden, gained popularity because most ingredients used in her meals were organically grown or farmed in her homestead, and the seafood foraged just a short distance away from her home. With each video, Mbola tells a story about the dishes she makes and the inspiration behind them. She also educates her followers about life in a remote and rural Xhosa village that is about 50km from the nearest town. This long distance is what necessitates her growing her own food.Through her passion for food and love for home-cooked meals, Mbola founded eMandulo, a company that produces homegrown and homemade condiments and seasonings, using natural ingredients that she has grown and harvested. eMandulo (“long ago” or “at the beginning”), is an apt name as it describes life as it used to be.A Food Love Story takes readers on a culinary journey through more than 80 easy-to-follow recipes, from meals that were made by her late mother and grandmother in the same kitchen to meals she has enjoyed from around the world during her time in the merchant navy working on cargo ships.There are recipes for a variety of dishes, from various breads, pastas, fish and seafood to sauces and pastes.The first chapter, Back to Basics, covers the breads she loves. From the traditional udodorhoyi — steamed bread — to pita bread and bao buns.As she does with every dish, Mbola tells the story of the first time she attempted to make bread, when she was nine. Though the baking did not go as expected, she was determined to get it right, and after many more attempts, she figured out where she went wrong: “I used boiling water, which effectively killed the yeast. The dough never stood a chance,” she writes.This chapter is great for beginners, as it explains the basics of bread making, the importance of yeast, why and how long to knead the dough and how to get a quicker rise before going into the actual recipes.Mbola lost her mother at the age of 19 and with her passing, many of her favourite recipes were also lost. But because she had observed her mother cook for many years, being the first to taste whatever she had made, she knew she would find her mom and her food again if she attempted to recreate what she had seen her do many times.She reflects on her mother’s cooking in the chapter “The Foods That Raised Me”: “There are many wonderful things I could say about my mother’s cooking, but the most important would be that it brought me joy. It was a necessity that felt homely and was always made with love; cooking was never a chore for her, but a ritual of giving thanks for all we had.”The chapter “The Foods That Found Me” is all about the meals from her travels.There are recipes for nyama choma that she first tasted in Kenya, a pork and cabbage gyoza, coconut curry noodle soup and even a recipe for macaroni and cheese, which she describes as her ultimate comfort food.After high school, Mbola had a desire to go to culinary school, given her love for food, but her parents could not afford it. So, she opted for a career that would allow her to see the world and explore more foods.As a marine navigator with a diploma in maritime studies, she travelled to Namibia, Spain, China and many other countries. “Food became a lens through which the world revealed itself to me. Whenever I was in China or Australia, all I wanted to do was to find the restaurants the locals frequented. I wanted to experience their culture and their traditions through their foods,” she writes.The chapter “The Foods I Come Home To” is about when she was stuck in her Durban apartment with her newborn son during Covid. She yearned for home, the big yard and the fresh seafood, so she packed up her belongings and moved back to the Eastern Cape. The recipes in this chapter include a hearty beef stew with umgqusho (samp and beans) and sorghum tabbouleh with grilled halloumi.A Food Love Story is filled with well-curated recipes; it feels like a journey back home and a trip around the world, all in one book. There’s a sense of familiarity and nostalgia that resonates with the traditional foods that many of us grew up eating, like umleqwa (hardbody chicken) with dumplings and imifino (greens).The photographs are more than images of food. The images of Mbola and her family, set against the breathtaking backdrop of the village and shimmering ocean, provide a captivating visual element.With each recipe, one feels Mbola’s love and passion for making, eating and, most importantly, sharing food because for her, “cooking is about community and sharing food is one of the most powerful ways we care for each other”.Business Day