AFM Word of Life, Pretoria Cooking Competition - Celebrating Woman
The beautiful and almost reassuring fact about lessons in life is that there is no due date or expiry date. Life is all about learning, and although the cooking competition took place on that specific date, the lessons will continue forever and forever. The cooking competition was for every female, no matter the age. A young lady will value her life and shape her life according to what she saw, heard, and experienced growing up. This was the church’s second cooking competition; they successfully hosted their first cooking competition in 2022.
“I have a desire to equip ladies. I also appreciate that God has blessed the ladies with different and unique gifts. I try to empower each one according to the gifts that God has given them. We have ladies that are professional chefs in the church, and I thought it would be amazing to let the other ladies learn from them,” states Pastor A Chitekedza.
Instead of giving lessons on how to cook and present the food, Pastor A Chitekedza thought it would be better and beneficial to the ladies if they took part in the cooking competition. It was all about having fun, learning new cooking skills, uplifting each other, and above all, learning from each other.
“Three of our sub-assemblies are here. Above all these, I must mention ‘my heartbeat’, the Girls of Destiny. I always think about them. I want them to be fully equipped before they say, ‘I do’. I call this a ‘Pro -31 type of Woman’. I am busy building the future Pro-31 types of Women, and I am perfecting the skills of the Pro–31 Women,” she adds.
The Proverbs 31 Woman is a gem in the Bible. She is a magnificent woman of admirable strength. She is a woman of virtue, she is hardworking, disciplined, takes care of her family, and always strives to do her best in everything she puts her mind to and Pastor A Chitekedza sees this woman in the women she is working with.
Despite the cold weather, the ladies’ spirits were not dampened, in fact, there was no room for such emotions as it was all hands on deck once the competition was underway at exactly 1 PM. Even the young ones were trying to be as helpful as possible. There were six groups taking part in the competition – groups A, B, C, D, E, and F. They also called themselves the House of Benjamin, House of Judah, House of Levi, House of Levi, House of Joseph, and House of Gad.
The main ingredient was fish and the judges had sky-high expectations, that is how confident they were in the groups’ cooking skills.
The cooking area was outside the church, and it was filled with joyful shouts, some anxious, some taking charge, and some laughter as the three-hour mark ticked away. The judges were Mrs. Gwinyayi, Mrs. Vandirai, and Mrs. Kupara.
“Cooking is my passion and as a Chef by profession, I could not let this opportunity pass by, that is why I decided to be a judge today. I want to pass on my knowledge to others. I am eager to see how other women cook and how they teach those around them,” states Mrs. Vandirai.
As the clock struck 3 PM, it signaled the end of cooking and the ladies stepped away from their cooking stations and anxiously waited to serve the judges, who were professional chefs. No pressure, absolutely no pressure!
The judges were truly impressed by what they saw and tested, with Group B’s starter making the judges take more than one bite. Group E’s starter, fish wrap with garlic, was so good that the judges vowed that they would try the recipe.
Talk about taking a creative chance with food! Lucky group.
In fairness, all groups did such an amazing job in impressing the judges, of course, there had to be constructive criticism, that is how one learns. The rule of every competition is that there must be a winner. Group A’s starter scored them 1st place, Group E took second place, and Group F, D, and A, came in a tie. Group C came 1st place for the main course, with Group D taking second place, and Group B taking third place. Group E took fourth place, Group F took fifth place and Group A came in last place. For Dessert, group A came in first place, Group C came in second place. The remaining groups were tied.
The overall champions were the House of Levi and the House of Gad. They won a well-deserved trophy and a cash voucher of R500
The ladies worked hard today. If I would compare this year’s and last year’s competition, I’d say this year, the ladies have outdone themselves. My favourite dish was the fish wrap,” states Mrs. Kupara.
“As much as all had fun today, I would really advise the ladies to take part in what is happening around them. As we were walking around while the ladies were cooking and we asked some members what they were cooking, but they could not answer. I think it’s because they were not taking charge, they were waiting to be told what to do. I’d really advise them to get involved. The reason for this competition was to get everyone involved; hopefully, they will be more hands-on next year. We are here to help them,” says Mrs. Gwinyayi.
As much as this day was all about cooking, the core message was women building women. Today, Women’s Day in South Africa is celebrated by shining a light on core issues that women in South Africa, and across the globe, still face. These issues will not go away in one day and the more women stick together, stand up for each other and build each, the more the core issues will start to dissolve.
