Authentic African
About Us
UMKULU Kitchen (Umkulu means kitchen in Zulu/ Ndebele and other languages of Southern Africa). The name is inspired by our African common origin, emphasizing the Kitchen as the centre of family living. Our styles of cooking and eating, especially in the Southern part of Africa, is now blended with culinary from foreign settlers in the late 1800s. Umkulu Kitchen, as a business, was first crafted back in Zimbabwe where freshly cooked food was sold from a truck, locally referred to as a Caravan. Soon after its inception, the business was heavily impacted, positively and negatively, by HIV/AIDs, a devastating pandemic that left millions undernourished for one reason or another.
Therefore instead of selling food at Umkulu Kitchen, we stated to operate the business as a charity where we gave away fresh meals to those who needed it. With no funding, the business ran out of resources and shut down, and the dream appeared to die. Then we moved to Canada.
In Canada, I used to cook and have friends over, and when they enjoyed my cooking, I enjoyed knowing that they liked the food. In 2008-09, first with a friend as a partner, we cooked and sold food at the Local famous Annual Sun Festival and then I went solo the following year where I discovered that I could not meet demand.
The line-up always seemed long and some customers did not get to taste our food. There was and still is, a healthy general curiosity and interest in our food and style of cooking. In 2010, I was asked by Ailsa Craig Village (just north west of London) to cook at their Annual Quilt Festival and again noticed a healthy interest in the food.
The COVID period also impacted our trying to move on and establish Umkulu Kitchen . However, in 2024, we had to "force open" Umkulu Kitchen at the Annual Sun Festival. Today, we are operating from one of my favourite markets; The Western Fair District Market, we are growing and are grateful to the customers who love our food and support us!.
What Inspires Us
We are inspired by patronage of friendly customers to our events and seeing people enjoy the food is both satisfying and invigorating! We are convinced that we make scrumptious African and excellent Southern African Cuisine.
We are also inspired by other African and Ethnic minority food-makers and restaurants in the area, not to mention the vibrant food producers and the farming community in Ontario!
As we grow, we hope to bring you a variety of other African cuisine tastes.
About the Owner
My passion for cooking began in my family of origin, where I grew up. My mother, a South African, her mother was from Botswana, and having grown up close to family and friends from other countries such as Zambia, Namibia, and Mozambique, I was always exposed hence fascinated by the similarities and differences of Southern Africans Cuisine! Afterall, my family consisted of various Southern African ethnicities!
I grew up poor, the kind of poverty that other poor people laugh at. My parents worked in other people’s houses, my mum as a nanny or housemaid, and my dad as a gardener. Actually, that is how my parents met; my mother on the inside of the house cleaning windows and looking outside and my dad looking inside through the cleaned windows!
On my parents' weekends off, they took turns bringing to us kids left over foods from their employer's kitchen. My grandmother and my mother were a geniuses at taking the scraps of leftover food, recreating it to produce a taste that did not appear likely for a poverty stricken family!
My grandmother's cooking was even better than my mother's. However, she slow cooked almost everything! I remember when she slow cooked iceberg lettuce and reduced it barely to a teaspoonful, not enough for my siblings and I!
My mother was always trying something new; she would mix sweet things with sour things, bitter things with spicy things, the list goes on. She was the first and last person I ever saw extracting bone marrow from the bone to cook with! She also made chutney with any fruit she could get hold of, she grew plants and vegetables that average Zimbabweans knew nothing about at that time.
My grandmother on the other hand, cooked authentic African food; slowly, systematic, nothing was rushed.
Although my friends and customers consider my cooking good, I know I might not cook African cuisine the way it was cooked in my family - my Kitchen is dedicated to my mother, Selina Khumalo-Dube and my grandmother Jane Mkwena.
Serving African Dishes to the Community
Order food for your Groups, Corporate Offices or family/friends dinners. Email thecook@umkulukitchen.ca, OR...
Get in Touch
Thank you for your interest in our dishes at Umkulu Kitchen. Contact us to order African dishes for your family and friends. These are always served fresh from our kitchen. Feel free to share your enquiries and concerns as well!
Contact Information
Umkulu Kitchen
Currently Operating from -
The Grove Harvesting Innovation, Incubator Kitchen,
900 King Street, London, ON N5W 5K3
Phone/Text:226-219-6154
Email: thecook@umkulukitchen.ca
AND
from the Western Fair Market, 2nd level, 900 King street https://themarketwfd.com/
Service Areas
London, Ontario and Other Areas
Hours of Operation
Saturdays 8:00 a.m. to 3:00p.m
Sundays 10:00 to 2:00p.m.
We currently operate from the Western Fair Market
900 King Street https://themarketwfd.com/
Orders are fulfilled Fridays from 3:00 - 7:00p.m pick-up from The Grove @ the Western District 900 King Street
Let us know when you are on your way for a pick-up text 226-219-6154
orders $50 and more attracts a 10% discount.