Hot stuff: Now the executive chef at the Radisson Red Hotel in Rosebank, Johannesburg, Keegan Maistry
learned about cooking curry from his grandfather and his mother.
It was love and curry that helped to keep up the morale of the political prisoners in the notorious Treason Trial of the 1950s.
The 156 trialists, including Nelson Mandela and other senior ANC leaders, were arrested and accused of treason by the apartheid state. The hearing started in the Drill Hall in Johannesburg in 1956.
The Indian-born diplomat ES Reddy, who was the director of the UN Centre Against Apartheid, tells in an article on South African History Online how the activist and medical doctor Zainab Asvat organised a team for cooking and delivering lunches for the accused.
The trial was later moved to the Old Synagogue in Pretoria. By then, it was down to 30 of the most prominent leaders in the dock for the trial which went on from August 1959 to March 1961.
For breakfast, the trialists were provided with coffee and sandwiches by Indian women organised by Thailema Pillay at the Good Shepherd Church around the corner from the court.
These women, from the Asiatic Bazaar, then made a healthy curry, which would be transported to the church in the green-and-cream station wagon belonging to Pillay’s brother-in-law, just in time for the 30 accused to have a delicious meal during their 30-minute lunch break.
Reddy quotes from the book Stories from the Asiatic Bazaar, by Muthal Naidoo, that Pillay organised a supply of vegetables and groceries from the people at the Asiatic Bazaar, who willingly dropped off contributions at her house.
“There was even a Mr Cohen from the city who sent in bulk amounts of oil and other groceries that lasted for several weeks at a time,” Naidoo wrote in the book.
This support and solidarity did not go unnoticed by the security police.
“On three or four occasions during these years, a harsh knocking on the door in the early hours of the morning woke the family,” Naidoo says.
“When the door was opened, two or three security policemen barged in to confront Thailema, demanding information about her suppliers and funders.
“Thailema, a tall, plump woman in her fifties, with black hair pulled back into a bun, always stayed calm. She gave vague answers: the money came from overseas; she didn’t know the people who sent supplies. Once or twice, they took her off to the police station, but Thailema remained unruffled.”
In the end, all the treason trialists were found not guilty.
Reddy writes that in many other apartheid-era trials, Indian women organised the delivery of food to prisoners, despite intimidation by the police.
“These women, who helped to keep up the morale of political prisoners,” he adds, “with love and curry, deserve to be remembered as fighters for freedom.”
I was thinking of them, these activists who used their culinary skills to help fight for the liberation of South Africa, when yet another mouthful of tender and spicy Durban lamb curry set off happy hormones in my brain.
Although those in the docks had to endure tough times, those lunches must have been so special and made them feel better — love and curry make a great combo indeed.
Across the table from me at a media tasting is the executive chef at the Radisson Red Hotel in Rosebank, Keegan Maistry, telling me about his Durban roots, his grandfather and love for curry.
“My granddad was a chef in Durban,” Maistry says over our table, which is chock-full of delicious curries — lamb, fish, chicken, veg — with rice and naan bread.
“Well, at that time, they were cooks … not knowing what chefs were.
“I decided to become a chef, after watching him cooking all the time.”
As the only one of 14 grandchildren who took this career path, Maistry has been a chef for 18 years.
He has worked in most of the major hotels in South Africa (including The Oyster Box in Umhlanga, Durban’s Elangeni and the Sandton Sun), as well as some in the US, before returning home.
Last month, the Radisson Red started what they call “the red spice route”, a Saturday night curry buffet in the hotel’s bar and dining area, with its massive, spectacular, colourful artworks by Zimbabwean artist Tega Tafadzwa adorning the walls.
We are welcomed with a bright pink Bombay crush, a rose-flavoured full-cream milk drink, which Maistry tells me has “memories come flashing back of my childhood”.
He specialises in five cuisines. “Curry is just one of them,” he smiles, “but because I am Indian, when I grew up, it’s obviously something that we ate every day.”
Maistry says his mom and dad still eat curry most days, “even if there’s a braai, there’s a small little curry pot there”.
“I’m, like, ‘No man guys, just cut it out for one day …’”
And the unbelievable lamb?
“Our local Durban lamb curry was created by indentured labourers who came to South Africa from India back in the day.
“My mom taught me how to cook it — also just by watching her when I was a little boy in the kitchen.”
As someone who lives in a mainly vegetarian home, I’m curious about options in addition to the superb dal makhani we are tasting.
“Firm vegetables, so we’re looking at something like a zucchini, a carrot, maybe some potato, some squash,” the chef tells me. “It wouldn’t be something like peppers and it releases more liquid — it actually makes the curry taste like pepper.”
The Radisson team use hake in their scrumptious fish curry. What about crab curry, like they make in his hometown of Durban? Maistry shakes his head ruefully.
“The thing is they get better, fresher crab because of the ocean there. I try not to do too much of seafood here in Johannesburg — the reason behind it? Because it’s going to be frozen most of the time.
“To be honest, there is a massive difference … if you’ve tasted the one fresh, you know the difference.”
Maistry says curry has become such a universally loved dish that their patrons extend beyond Indian families. And what about the person who first taught him to make curry: What would she say about this fantastic spread?
“She’d be quite happy,” Maistry says. “But, as a mom, you know, she’ll always say, ‘You could have added a bit of this or a bit of that.’”