TGIFOOD

KHATIJA MALL

A legacy, from her kitchen to ours

A legacy, from her kitchen to ours
(Edited from an original photo from Erica Platter’s book Durban Curry by Clinton Friedman)

The force behind KwaZulu-Natal’s beloved Gorima’s spice stores, Khatija Mall, has died after a brave battle with Covid-19 complications. There could be no fanfare, none of the celebrations with friends and family which she so enjoyed, flitting about like a bright butterfly.

 

Gorima: ‘a go-to aunt; an aunty who knows everything’

Below is the backstory Erica Platter wrote for Khatija’s cookbook, From My Kitchen To Yours, published as lockdown began. 

A very short history of Gorima’s

Khatija Mall is the diminutive dynamo who launched the innovative, high-profile spice chain Gorima’s in 1980, with just one product, their enduringly famous Magi Masala. There are now 20 stores and around 200 products and counting… A test kitchen and warehouse the size of an aircraft hangar. More than 250 employees, many of them family members, men and women, all defer to their pocket-sized, visionary boss, whose perseverance, hard work and vision launched this business.

Khatija, Aunty K, Mrs M, Ma K – she answers to all – is “eternally grateful” to her husband Junaid’s aunt Zuleikha Mayat, editor of best-selling cookbook Indian Delights. The couple had fallen on hard times – after “family issues”, they had been turned out of their own home. Mrs Mayat suggested they make a spice paste which would enable any cook, no matter how inexperienced, to whip up an authentic Durban curry. She gifted them the foundation recipe for Magi Masala, and her kitchen to test and tweak it in.

Khatija and her husband shopped at Clairwood Market at 5am, piling their old car with chillies, garlic and ginger, returning to the Mayat home to pound and grind, mix and stir, add curry leaves straight from a tree in the garden, and taste, taste, taste. “Not everybody has taste,” Khatija says. “But it is all about taste!” The formula for Magi Masala was found and endures, as brilliant as ever.

“For people who could not make a good Durban curry, this was magic in a bottle,” says Khatija. But beyond that, “I had a vision.”

She could see and taste a future in which “everybody could have the Gorima’s sparkle in the kitchen”. Completely undaunted by the hard facts – she and her husband had no money, no premises, no retail contacts, no equipment, no training – but certain she could make her dream a reality, Khatija convinced her two brothers and their wives to join her in building a new business.

It was not quite a case of “and the rest is history”. There were many challenges as production moved from a tiny home kitchen to a small factory, sales outlets expanded from flea markets to in-store demos in supermarkets, and the range of products grew. “We would travel up the North coast to Richards Bay and down the South coast to Uvongo in our little van, cook in the OK or Checkers, and have a picnic on the beach with the leftovers. We couldn’t afford to buy a meal at the end of the day.”

Khatija and her late mother-in-law were members of Durban’s formidable Women’s Cultural Group, a major sponsor of local educational initiatives, and contributors to best-selling Indian Delights. The group threw its weight behind Magi Masala, too, running stalls at flea markets and food fairs around the province.  

Gorima’s first tiny store was in the downtown Workshop centre near Durban’s railway station. Her three nephews enjoyed working there on their holidays. Today, they are integrally involved in expanding Gorima’s footprint, with proliferating stores, a booming online business, and foreign expansion on the table. They share their aunt’s – the whole family’s – passion for good food. It is at the heart of this talented and hardworking family.

Khatija is constantly developing new recipes and finding new products. Gorima’s range of pots and pans, for example, is a brilliant (and much lighter) alternative to heavy cast-iron. And her role as Challenger-in-Chief of staff and CEO – Chief Empowerment Officer – continues. She has inspired a new generation of young women in particular to be unafraid in their personal and business lives.

They pop in and out of her office with their latest triumphs – batches of a new biscuit, bags of crisp, ready-crushed onions for biryani, greetings and hugs for the tiny boss with a huge gift for talent-spotting. As one of her staff puts it: “A person with so much character, creativity and confidence; who could always see potential as if she had X-ray eyes that could pry into our minds”.

Many of Gorima’s suppliers and staff have been, as she was, struggling to make ends meet. Some living below the breadline. She and Gorima’s have made it a central part of their business to support people in need. Some of this support takes the form of affectionate but unsparing criticism: “More green chillies, less crushed jeera, too much salt!” The home cook soon learns what it takes to become a Gorima’s supplier…

She travels regularly and globally to taste, learn and pick up inspiration for new products, knows all the best markets, and was importing exotic ingredients like nori for sushi and obscure teas way ahead of even some of the biggest chain stores. She and her team have been quick to spot new trends in health and lifestyle, to pounce on products which need to become part of Gorima’s offerings.

Gorima’s signature dish and all the ingredients required for it may remain the curry in all its permutations. But this dynamic business, recently featured on CNN Inside Africa, now enables cooks and chefs to recreate dishes from around the world. Gorima’s has brought, continues to bring, global tastes and flavours back home.

And almost daily, Khatija dreams up new ideas in her latest role as head of Creative Production.

“Can you imagine, we didn’t have a Bunny Chow spice!” she exclaimed as she formulated, ground, mixed and tasted (over and over) one of her recent brainwaves. Three specific spice mixtures for this most famous of Durban dishes are now best-sellers in the group’s stores.

Farewell my inspirational and effervescent friend. I so admired you. DM/TGIFood

You can buy her book, and a flavour of this extraordinary person, from Gorima’s stores.

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