Celebrated Instagram food entrepreneur Neo Nontso has taken her Instagram fan-favourite recipes and turned them into one spectacular cookbook; @dinewithneo - my insta feast.
Raised in East London in the Eastern Cape, Nontso grew up around a family of exceptional cooks, quickly developing her own passion for cooking.
”Food and family went hand-in-hand when I was a child. In my grandmother’s house, the kitchen was the heart of the home. It was where people would eat, cry, get shouted at, and apologise. If anyone was in trouble, we would deal with it in the kitchen; if someone was happy or had good news, we would hear it in the kitchen. Out of the chaos and the discipline grew my love affair with cooking,” she said.
It was with this familial spirit in mind, and after much persuasion from her friends, that Nontso started her Facebook page in 2017 to document her cooking. Now with a whopping 316 000 Instagram followers, her page is one of the most popular, featuring all types of recipes that make cooking easier for beginners.
From classic South African dishes like chakalaka, oxtail stew, and mogudu (tripe) to internationally-inspired favourites like paella, burritos, and sticky BBQ wings, she covers all taste and skill demands.
The most requested of these recipes are now all together in one beautiful fun cookbook, along with Nontso’s top tricks, cooking terminology, kitchen kit, go-to-grocery list, and baking versus grilling options.
Fans can expect over 150 pages of recipes split into categories such as ‘Dirty Dining’ (fast food), ‘Weekend Special’ (dishes for special occasions), ‘Pasta la Vista’ (all sorts of pasta), ‘Something on the Side’ (winning side dishes), and ‘Sweet Cravings’ (desserts and treats) and her hearty recipes like lamb potjie, prawn curry, creamy chicken stew and spaghetti Bolognese that are treasured by home cooks across the nation. @dinewithneo - my insta feast is available at Exclusive Books, Bargain Books and Wordsworth Books nationwide and retails for R395.
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