An African Bite celebrates the simplicity and authenticity of African food for a contemporary cook. Chef Daniel Mbombi has a deep connection to his Xitsonga culture and heritage, yet he is also a modern man living an urban lifestyle. Recognizing that if we don’t keep cooking ‘heritage’ dishes, there is a risk of them being lost forever, he set out to create a cookbook that celebrates the food he was raised on.

An African Bite is Chef Mbombi’s tribute to the women who taught him to cook, from his grandmother and mother to the high-school economics teachers who made him realize how much he loved being in the kitchen, and that he could turn his passion into a career. The recipes include tripe, ox heart, goat meat stew, amathambo (meaty beef bones with pasta) and umleqwa, popular street foods like shisanyama, and chicken heads, feet and gizzards, vegetable sides like imifino (leafy greens), muboora (pumpkin leaves), umngqusho and jollof rice, and traditional drinks like umqombothi and amahewu.