The Standard Bank Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival, back for its 5th edition, is a unique and sophisticated African-vintage-styled celebration of the local, the wholesome, the creative, and the delicious, truly sensory experience.
The festival is a lavish two-day feast of music, fashion, entertainment, culinary exploits, and connoisseur-led premium showcases, taking place in Eswatini on the 4th – 5th of August 2023.
Luju 2023 will explore food as both an art medium and edible eccentricity. The culinary space draws on age-old techniques, fusing rich African heritage with contemporary tastes for all palettes in the experiential pockets of the festival.
This year’s culinary spaces and celebrity chefs have been specially curated to present an individualized aesthetic with complementing artisanal foods and drinks.
Within the intimate Pick n Pay Pantry culinary demo platform, top chefs and culinary experts from the region will host a range of interactive demonstrations, tastings, and master classes.
This Year’s Top Celebrity Chefs
Tinashe Nyamudoka, an internationally recognized sommelier and wine judge from Zimbabwe, is the founder and director of Kumusha Wines in South Africa and has become a regular on South African wine competitions, as well as sitting on the wine jury at Mundus Vini in Germany and Wine2Wine in Italy.
Tinashe will also lead connoisseur wine tastings as well as Food & Wine pairings in The Grapevine hive, supported by Bruce Jack and Parmalat Eswatini.
Richard Bosman is a South African charcutier of note, based in Cape Town. He is a producer of the finest quality pasture-reared cured pork products commercially available in South Africa.
Festival goers will have the opportunity to take part in his sausage-making master class and get a taste of his sausages from the Smoke & Grill stall in the Beer Garden.
Mokgadi Itsweng is a chef, food writer, and food activist promoting indigenous South African foods and flavours.
As the executive chef at her restaurant, Lotsha Kitchen and Cocktails, she transforms simple African flavors into gourmet restaurant food.
Mokgadi works with The Chef’s Manifesto, a global movement of chefs championing the UN Sustainable Development Goal to end world hunger and achieve food security, improved nutrition, and sustainable agriculture by 2030. Mokgadi will run an indigenous food cooking class and tasting at Luju this year.
Neliswa Nkala, known as Mrs M of “Mrs M’s Decadent Pleasures” is a household local brand name in Eswatini. The 2022 LUJU top 5 cook-off contestant is a trendsetter in the confectionary space, with her signature dessert jars, cheesecakes & unique cakesicles. Catch her master class of decadent confectionary in the Pick n Pay Culinary Showcase.
All-Star Chefs
Guests can also look forward to some of the Luju Festival’s All-Star chefs from Eswatini, preparing high-end menus that incorporate the design gastronomy theme.
Featured chefs include local culinary guru Chef Eric Malinga, who has been instrumental in shaping the Eswatini culinary scene with the launch of his culinary gourmet fashion house CuGoFa, where he leads a team of creatives that have successfully introduced and executed pop-up fine dining concepts across the country.
Chef Justina Bain, the Pick n Pay Luju Masterchef 2022 competition 1st runner-up winner, and cookbook author of “Home Cooked Meals with Justina Bain,” is featured, as well as King Terry, a multi-talented rising star who dominated the Luju culinary space in 2022, going on to win the title of PnP Luju Masterchef 2022.
Since his Luju Master Chef win, King Terry has launched BBQ Shack, his own pop-up food eatery servicing different local festivals.
Don’t miss out on this exciting line-up! Book tickets now: www.lujufestival.com