South African
cuisine history
info you can trust
South African
cuisine history
influences in brief
South African cuisine as we know it today evolved over many centuries.
Pre-European
Before the Europeans arrived, the main sources of food for the indigenous peoples were hunting and gathering, shellfish retrieving, and basic herding.
Dutch and French
In the 1650s, Dutch settlers created farms and infused their homeland's cooking traditions into the culinary pot. So did the French Huguenots about a generation later.
Cape Malays
In the late 1600s, the Cape Malays became another major culinary influence - and some say the biggest of all. They were slaves brought by the Europeans from the Malaysian peninsula area to toil on the farms. The Cape Malays introduced spicy foods to the previously bland South African diet.
British
In the early 1800s, the British wrenched control of the land and, to some degree, added their input to the culinary mix.
Indians
Soon thereafter, the British imported Indians as indentured workers to tend sugarcane plantations. Indian cooking - which is richly complex like the Malays' but even spicier - became one of the crown jewels of South African cuisine.
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