Port Elizabeth · Eastern Cape · South Africa
Professional Chef · NQF Level 4 · Capsicum Graduate
I became a chef to change the way we see food — not only to indulge the senses, but to set down something worth looking at.
01 — About
I trained at Capsicum Culinary Studio and came away with fifteen distinctions in seventeen modules — a number I'd rather let speak quietly than explain. Hospitality found me first at Mercantile Hospital, through my Work Integrated Learning: kitchens where the food has to be right long before it is beautiful.
I learn quickly, I work hard, and I don't shy away from a challenge. Bold, headstrong, and at peak physical health — because in this trade the body is part of the equipment, and mine is kept ready.
“When it comes to cooking, my body is also part of the equipment.”
Likolihle Moses
02 — Training
February 2024
Capsicum Culinary Studio
Fifteen distinctions in seventeen modules — not a flourish, a habit. Turn up, do the work, and send out something better than yesterday.
2024
City & Guilds — 8064-01
An international qualification taken alongside the NQF 4 programme — the same trade, recognised well beyond South Africa.
2013 — 2017
Dale College Boys' High School
Passed matric with outstanding results. Played rugby and a range of other sports, and regularly reached the academic top ten.
03 — Career
Balkan Burger
The line, every service: prep, fire, plate — to the highest quality the ticket allows. I take orders as they come and keep the stock honest.
Mercantile Hospital
Where the foundations were laid: stocks and sauces built from the bones up, meals to order, a kitchen kept clean enough to cook in. Every shift noted and photographed for the logbook the school set.
Sasko
Before the kitchen, the road. Shop to shop across Buffalo City, asking what Sasko's service was worth and reporting back on where it fell short.
04 — From the pass
Plated in service, photographed where it was cooked — food that had somewhere to be.
Layered, then held in the oven until the cheese blisters and the edges catch and go dark. Scattered with herbs and sent out while it is still murmuring.
Crumbed chicken under a lazy drizzle of mayo on one side; bacon, sweet peppers and oregano on the other. One plate, two minds — nobody has to choose.
05 — The book
Capsicum set a logbook; every service at Mercantile Hospital was cooked, plated and photographed for it. This is that record, in five chapters — shot on the pass, on a phone, between tickets.
Chapter 0126 plates
The bulk of the placement. Hot food plated to order against a service clock, in a kitchen where the meal has to be right long before it is beautiful.
Puff pastry lid, a dark jus, and carrots cut to one length.
Glazed until the sauce catches and holds a shine.
Crisp onion piled on for the texture the meat has not got.
Three sauces, three textures, nothing on the plate twice.
Bar marks on the chicken, herbs run through the couscous.
Apple cooked down until it sweetens the sauce itself.
Cheese taken to blistering; the beans kept squeaky.
Folded rather than rolled, so the filling stays put.
Pastry sealed round the filling; salad cut fine to match.
Cases filled at the last minute so they stay crisp.
A long braise, plated with pastry and three vegetables.
The egg goes on last, yolk unbroken until the table.
Sour cream to cut it, rösti for something to break.
Mango against the slaw — sweet where the wrap is savoury.
Cut into wedges and fanned so each piece shows its filling.
Fennel sliced thin enough to read a ticket through.
Salsa spooned beside, not over, so the wrap stays dry.
Two sauces drawn across in opposite directions.
Held in the oven until the edges catch and go dark.
Cut into squares for service rather than slices.
Cheese melted over the edge; chips cut and fried to order.
Relish soaked into the crumb, onion kept dry on top.
Sauce drawn over in a single pass.
The plate that repeats all week and must not slip.
Straight off the tray, still setting.
Carved and napped in the juices it cooked in.
Chapter 0213 plates
The cold section and the soups. Salads built in layers so nothing sinks, and soups finished at the pass rather than in the pot.
Cream drawn through in a single curl.
Chicken sliced warm, straight over cold leaves.
Built in layers so nothing sinks to the bottom.
Corn left on the cob — the plate has to look fed.
Dressing drawn over at the pass, not tossed through.
Finished dark, the way the mushrooms actually cooked.
Moulded, turned out, and topped with one flower.
A cold plate that still earns a garnish.
Fried to order, the salad kept sharp beside them.
Corn and tomato for colour against the tuna.
Salsa cut small enough to sit on the fritter.
A cold plate still gets arranged, not assembled.
An edible flower, on a hospital cold plate.
Chapter 0315 plates
Breakfast runs early and it repeats. The same dishes, plated the same way, every morning — which is the whole test of a section.
Caramel drawn round the plate, not just over the stack.
One flower, placed where the eye lands first.
Layered so every slice shows its cream.
Hollandaise made to order; the eggs wait for nothing.
Strawberries fanned, cream underneath to hold them.
Banana laid down the middle, caramel across it.
Fanned rather than stacked, so nothing is hidden.
Three components, arranged the same way every service.
Caramel let run where it wants to.
Cinnamon dusted last, from a height.
Dusted and drizzled on a bare white plate.
Tinned peach made to look like a decision.
The same dish again, the next morning.
A full breakfast arranged around a single flower.
Fruit fanned by colour, muffins baked that morning.
Chapter 0416 plates
Desserts in ones and in hundreds. Piped, flowered and finished by hand whether it was a single plate or a whole ward.
Piped, flowered, and lined up for a whole ward.
Volume work that still gets finished by hand.
Sitting in its custard, plated to order.
Mint on each, placed the same way twice.
A strawberry fanned and stood upright.
Cut to size, then finished one at a time.
Cocoa dusted last so it stays matte.
Crumble kept coarse, custard poured to meet it.
Two portions, identical, as they should be.
Covered and stacked, ready to go out cold.
Close on the pass, in the second before it goes.
A tray of them, each sitting level in its custard.
Baked until the top just takes colour.
The simplest thing on the menu, still plated.
Turned out and left to soak.
Shot from above, where the plating actually reads.
Chapter 057 plates
Function work, counted out in rows. Here consistency matters more than any single piece — every one has to look like the last.
Three shapes, set out in rows for a function.
Laid in a grid so service can count at a glance.
Dozens, identical, before anyone has touched them.
Fried in batches, held hot, plated together.
Straight from the oven onto the tray.
Savoury and sweet on one board, butter and all.
Scored on the diagonal before it went in.
06 — Skills
07 — Beyond the kitchen
My passion is cooking — for friends, for family, or for nobody in particular. When it isn't that, it's volunteering to clean up the environment for charity. I train, but never to the point of wrecking myself: the body is equipment, and equipment is kept sharp. I have some key knowledge in law, too, and would follow that road if it ever opened.
08 — Contact
References from Capsicum Culinary Studio, Mercantile Hospital and Balkan Burger are available on request, along with the full CV and copies of certificates.