Chef Donald
. . . as Chef Donald officially opens restaurant
Mohalenyane Phakela
AWARD-WINNING chef, Donald Moletsane, will on Friday officially launch his Thetsane Office Park-based restaurant with a glitzy event in which guests will be treated to traditional cuisine and live music.
Chef Donald told XpressPeople this past week, senior government officials and diplomats were among the expected guests at the Dona@Balos Restaurant official opening.
He said the restaurant offered a wide range of traditional food.
“I have attended a number of international food competitions and realised that chefs take pride in their traditional cuisine, yet we Basotho don’t even know how our tradition foods taste like,” he said.
“Traditional cuisine can promote Lesotho’s tourism, and to my knowledge, we don’t have any restaurant in Lesotho that offers Basotho dishes.”
Chef Donald said Basotho cuisine was on the decline as most young people were only told about it but did not get a chance to sample it.
“Many young people only know about Basotho cuisine from Sesotho lessons in school but never got the chance to taste any of the dishes,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it shows that our culture is slowly but surely fading because we don’t take pride in it. Most people from other countries only know about Basotho attire and nothing about the food.”
Chef Donald is also the founder of the Dona@Balos Chef School and Hospitality which last year scooped regional and continental culinary accolades during competitions held in South Africa and Namibia.
He said the restaurant served as a platform for his students to put into to practice what they learnt in class.
“I always urge my students to be entrepreneurs, so I offer them the opportunity to showcase their skills. My ultimate goal is for them to open their own restaurants, so they need to know how to operate one and how customers are treated.”
