Chef Keanon Michaels

Tuesday 27 September
 
Keanon Michaels’ love for food grew from a necessity to a passion.
 
“I was a very curious child, very greedy child actually!” As a boy, Keanon would constantly ask his mom to cook for him. “She eventually thought, ‘let me teach this boy the basics, and let him run with it’.”
 
“[My mom was] my original culinary mentor. She wasn’t formally trained, but she always had a natural talent for cooking,” he says.
 
Keanon worked as a chef for 18 years before becoming a private chef and starting his own business, Keanon’s Kitchen.
 
“Like most people, I don’t like taking instructions from bosses. I knew I had to learn my skillset.” Once he felt he’d mastered his craft, he decided to work for himself.
 
“Technique will come first, speed and everything else will come afterwards. Once you’ve got your skillset you can work anywhere. You can work on a plane, on a boat, in a resort in the Seychelles,” he says.
 
“Cooking is all the same language. There are no limitations, only your imagination and your drive. You’ve got to push it.”
 
Born and raised in Strandfontein, Keanon tells us about the close-knit surfing community there. “My local surf spot is called 9 Miles. Surfing has been a channel and a way out for a lot of us. For me, having learning disabilities and all that, surfing was always there, and it helped me focus.”
 
“The same passion and focus that I used in surfing, I applied to my cooking,” he says.
 
Keep up with Keanon on social media:
@keanonskitchen / Keanon’s Kitchen