Sylvia Banda is one of Zambia's most enthusiastic champions of local food and has been using her business, Sylva Professional Catering, to promote her cause. By purchasing her ingredients from regional, small-scale farmers, she showcases the country's bounty to the upscale clientele who employ her catering services.
Based out of the University of Zambia's Great East Road campus in Lusaka, the capital, Mrs Banda is promoting healthy eating, and all the while training a new generation of food service professionals who she teaches the merits of quality, ethical behaviour, professionalism, innovation, service orientation, and personal drive.
She started her business from scratch 27 years ago. At the time, she was employed by the government as a teacher.
She asked for 10 days' leave without telling her boss what she was going to do. "I did not want to tell my husband, Hector, that I was going to start a business because I did not want him to discourage me," she told the BBC's series African Dream.
"When we talked about it a bit before, he was suggesting that I look for someone to employ, and then me, I can just be going there to supervise and see how that person is working, and I didn't want that," she explained.
So, after her husband left for work next morning, she packed some food that she had at home, took her cooking utensils and cutlery, and called a taxi to go to the place where she had decided to open her first restaurant. "After sweeping and cleaning the place, I switched on the two-plate cooker and I got my new pan, I put the cooking oil, then I chopped the garlic, the onions, the green beans… then I started frying them, bit by bit."
Instead of going around the neighbourhood to advertise her new business, she left that to the food's aroma. "I opened the windows and I opened the door, and I could see the smoke fighting, going out, the steam… a few minutes later, people started coming."
Read on following the BBC Africa Dream story link below.
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