By the time he was ten years old, Devandra Narismulu was already at home in the kitchen. From the age of six, he had been standing on a chair beside his mother and grandmother, cooking from a much-loved children’s cookbook and learning instinctively that food was about care.

He always wanted to work with his hands and initially thought he’d become a mechanic. When that didn’t happen, becoming a chef was a natural second choice. Already working for catering companies after school and on weekends, Devandra was washing dishes, packing equipment, and mopping floors, slowly moving from waiter to cook. By 15, he knew the kitchen was more than a job – it was a calling.

“Back then, being a chef wasn’t seen as a big career. Around 2002 that changed. Schools were opening, the industry was growing, and I realised that this is what I wanted to do,” he recalls.

Read the full article in InBound SA here.