Anyone who has scrolled through TikTok and been stopped mid-swipe by the sound of birdsong, the sight of a vegetable garden at sunrise, or a pot of umngqusho simmering over an open fire has likely already met Onezwa Mbola.
A South African chef, entrepreneur and digital creator from Willowvale who has won global audiences has just released her first cookbook titled A Food Love Story – Over 80 Recipes from the Heart of Onezwa’s Kitchen, and it’s already at the top of South Africa’s cookbook charts.
Published by Jonathan Ball Publishers, the book officially hit shelves on 18 May.
For the 32-year-old chef, entrepreneur and digital creator, this moment is more than a career milestone. It’s a love letter to home.
Born and raised in Willowvale outside Mthatha, Mbola has built a global following by doing what generations of Eastern Cape families have always done: cooking with what the land provides.
Her videos open with the now-famous line, “Hi, I’m Onezwa, and I make meals using items that I’ve grown, raised or foraged.”
From there, she can be seen picking spinach from her garden, milking cows at dawn, gathering wild greens from the hillside, or fishing in local streams.
She then heads to her kitchen — sometimes indoors, sometimes under the open sky — and turns those ingredients into dishes that feel both ancient and brand new: traditional Xhosa meals with a modern twist.
That very same spirit lives in every page of A Food Love Story. Part recipe book, part memoir, it’s dedicated to her late mother and grandmother, the two women who first taught her that food is memory, medicine and family.
In the book, there are more than 80 recipes shaped by her Eastern Cape upbringing and her farm-to-table way of life.
She shares classic Xhosa meals, reimagined — umngqusho, ulusu and amagwinya, each with a modern twist and her signature flair.
There are sourdough breads, fermented ginger beer, homemade chutneys and preserves that evoke a grandmother’s pantry, alongside garden-to-plate meals that start in the soil behind her house and end on the family table, and dishes that showcase her own brand of handmade hot sauces, seasonings and cordials, all made in Willowvale.
Mbola’s road to the kitchen wasn’t straightforward. She holds a National Diploma in Maritime Studies and worked for five years as a Navigational Officer in the merchant navy.
But in 2020, with a newborn baby and a longing for home, she left her Durban apartment and returned home to Willowvale.
“I was stuck in an apartment with a newborn baby,” she recalls. “All I wanted was fresh air, a big yard, and to be close to my family.”
Since then, she hasn’t looked back. She competed on MasterChef South Africa Season 4 in 2022, cooked alongside Gordon Ramsay on Uncharted for Nat Geo Africa, and now works with local farmers through the Phawu Agripak Co-operative in Willowvale.
Many first heard Onezwa’s name in 2024, when she spoke out about an international TikTokker allegedly copying her content ideas — from boba tea to homemade mozzarella.
The conversation came up again in April, when both creators were set to release their cookbooks. But Onezwa says her story is not about controversy but about coming home and showing the world that a fancy kitchen in the city is not needed to make food that matters — only land, hands and heart.
“Every recipe tells a story and evokes a memory for me,” she said. Through her writing and her eMandulo brand, she keeps putting rural Eastern Cape life on the map.
For Willowvale, this is more than a cookbook. It is proof that the stories people grow up with, the food they grew up eating and the places they come from are worth celebrating.
A Food Love Story – Over 80 Recipes from the Heart of Onezwa’s Kitchen is now available at major South African bookstores and online.
