Mr and Mrs. O are currently making waves in the South African Market with their delicious ranges of cook in sauces, and I am a huge fan of not only their chili sauce, but also the shesebo sauce, a great compliment to any stew or family dish.

Siphokazi and Frank Omoluwa are entrepreneurs after my own heart. Siphokazi was born and raised in Port Elizabeth and met Frank, originally from Nigeria,  one evening in 2005 at the Ocean Basket in Rosebank, and the rest, as they say, is history. After being retrenched from her job in 2014, Mrs. O set about creating her range, and today is cooking and marketing the business full time.

The business is borne from a love of African food, experienced by Siphokazi on her travels to Nigeria with her husband, where she experienced the fantastic exotic flavors that she then craved on her return to South Africa.

Wanting to recreate the flavors in the comfort of her home, with little effort, Mrs. O created the cook in sauce range which is enjoyed by others craving the flavors of our diverse and vibrant African continent, as well as those that are trying to spice up their cooking with new and interesting recipes and flavors.

Mrs. O’s products offers them the same authentic flavors with minimal preparation time and reduces the difficulty they might experience in obtaining some of the spices used in preparing the food.  Other clients may have tasted their products on their travels in Africa or in the several markets where they have a presence and would like to recreate the flavors themselves or add some different flavors to their meals.

Mr O was born in Warri in the Delta State of Nigeria. He grew up with a mother who although she was running her own business full time, enjoyed preparing fresh meals for her family.  Ingredients like Palm nut, Okra, Periwinkles, crabs, crayfish, coconut, yam and cassava were included in everyday meals.

Nigerian food has intense flavors and diverse textures, especially to a person who has not experienced it before. They also cook very differently from South Africans, such an example being that most meat dishes do not only include one type of meat, but can include fish, beef and tripe in one pot! That concept is very prevalent in all West African cooking and quite foreign to South Africans.

Mrs. O learnt to cook Nigerian food from her husband and spent some time in a friend’s kitchen that runs a small Nigerian restaurant. On her visits to Nigeria, she cooks frequently with her mother in law, including walking to the market with a bucket of tomato or corn to grind it at the local market grinding machine which everyone uses.

Mrs. O’s Foods currently manufacture their products from their workshop in Riversands, Fourways. They are in the process of growing the brand and creating awareness of the brand and flavors by tasting at different markets and food events. Future growth includes expanding the product range to cover other areas of Africa as they have had requests for East and Central African flavors

The business has great ambitions and would like to grow both in as well as outside of South Africa as well as to export to other countries. The cook-in-sauces concept is quite new in the African food market, and is more prolific in the European and Asian foods market.

Mrs. O’s Foods have a presence at several markets in Gauteng, giving new customers an opportunity to taste the sauces, but why not get in contact with them directly? Contact Mrs. O on info@mrsofoods.co.za and place your order directly.