JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s trailblazing Black food writer Dorah Sitole’s latest cookbook was widely hailed in December as a moving chronicle of her journey from humble township cook to famous, well-traveled author.
The country’s new Black celebrity chefs lined up to praise her as a mentor who encouraged them to succeed by highlighting what they knew best: tasty African food.
Now they are mourning Sitole’s death this month from COVID-19. She was 65.
In “40 Years of Iconic Food,” Sitole engagingly described how she quietly battled South Africa’s racist apartheid system to find appreciation, and a market, for African