Meet The Chilli Chocolate Chefs

Two sisters started their cooking journey in their grandma’s kitchen at weekly family gatherings.

Their road to success has not been without its challenges. The girls grew up in a conservative Muslim home in Durban and left the normal schooling system to continue their Islamic studies. They both excelled and became Islamic educators. Even though this gave them independence, it was not where their hearts were. While being Islamic educators, they studied part time to complete their formal education, then went to culinary school after much family persuasion.

Chef Zainab, the older of the sisters, studied at Christina Martina Cooking School, while chef Faathima attended Fusion Cooking School. Without compromising their strong Islamic beliefs and values, they began internships to pursue careers as chefs. In addition to regular restaurant shifts, they worked from home to supply family and friends with their decadent treats. However, burning the candle at both ends did not work well for them and they eventually gave up their jobs to start fulfilling orders for food and sweet treats. The transition was not as smooth as expected and they did many things such as adult and children’s cooking classes before Chilli Chocolate Chefs catering was launched.

They have worked hard in the last 10 years to grow their business. They cater for high-end functions such as weddings, bespoke baby showers and corporate functions. In Durban, the Paruk sisters are celebrities with 15k Facebook and 56k Instagram followers.

Before the Covid-19 outbreak, they launched a retail store as their catering jobs had come to a halt during the pandemic. Their customers receive a daily menu via their website, Facebook or Instagram pages. The menu changes daily and orders are in high demand.

The sisters are fortunate enough to have launched 4 cookbooks:

• Entertain is a helpful book that provides the basics that all cooks
• Let’s Cook is a kids’ book inspired by the kids’ cooking classes they used to
• Feast includes recipes that cater to the home cook who loves to entertain and throw parties.
• Bringing it Home caters for everything, fancy and basic, Indian with a modern twist.

Bringing it Home is full of recipes that are dear to the sisters; they have been tested and retested so many times until they were perfect, and only then did they make it into the book. These are foods that the sisters love to eat and share with their loved ones, ones that they have perfected over the years.The new book was a new experience for them and they enlisted an entire production team to produce this book – the launch of Bringing it Home was one of the biggest events in Durban this year.

Chef Zainab still has plans to open her own café in the future and the sisters have many projects in the pipeline with their marketing manager, Ashraf Kadwa, chef Zainab’s husband.

Their message to young chefs is: “Follow your dreams, don’t compare yourself to anyone, be open to learning from your failings. Do what you do with passion.”

To their clientele and followers, they say: “We are nothing without you. We hope to continue serving and creating magical moments of happiness for you. If we can do that consistently, then we have done our jobs.”