Maxine Wiehe always had her “little ice cream dream” in the back of her head somewhere, and after being retrenched because of COVID and the subsequent lockdown, it’s finally a reality!
Johannesburg, South Africa (05 January 2020) – Maxine Wiehe may have lost her job, but it seems it put her on a path towards her dream career.
Wiehe is a bubbly 26-year-old who loves to make and create all things pastry, but her absolute passion is ice cream and coming up with weird and wonderful flavours where peoples minds might say ‘no’, but their taste buds definitely say yes. Think of a coriander ice cream or a rum roasted pumpkin ice cream… the more veggies or fruits or ingredients people haven’t heard of… such as tonka bean, the better!
The talented chef started her tertiary education at the University of Pretoria studying Nutrition and food science but 1 year and 2 weeks in, she just knew in her heart that this wasn’t what she wanted.
“So I de-registered and did 8 months of work experience in 1 of the top 10 restaurants in Johannesburg – DW Eleven-13 – and then went to Prue Leith Chefs Academy which was one of the best years of my life!”
Wiehe walked out a year and a half later as the top overall student when she graduated her Grande diploma in Culinary Arts and Wine!
“Walking into a professional kitchen having never been in one in my life was the most nerve-wracking and exhilarating thing ever!! After my first day, I couldn’t feel my feet… I hadn’t stopped all day, but my word was I already in love with the adrenaline rush of service and plating artwork on a plate with food!! I was hooked, and I knew this was exactly what I wanted to do.”
But her ice cream dream came later down the line.
“After chef school, I went back to work at DW Eleven-13 as Head pastry chef. During my work experience there, I worked with the most outstanding pastry chef who made me fall in love with pastry. It was never on my radar at first, but once I had gotten into it, that was that.
My ice cream passion fell into place soon after that. I love that you can put almost any flavour profile into one base and come up with something epic. I remember coming up with awesome flavours with my team like coriander ice cream, black sesame ice cream, real maple syrup ice cream and burnt-hay ice cream.”
Yes, she said Hay… like as in what horses eat!
“But wow was it a flavour I can’t even explain and absolutely flipping delicious.”
Wiehe always had her little ice cream dream in the back of her head somewhere, and after being retrenched because of COVID and the subsequent lockdown, it’s finally a reality!
And even though right now, mmmMoo’s supplied many leading outlets (click here to see a list), the talented chef is hoping (and keeping her fingers crossed) that it will turn into its own amazing “mmmMOO’s Unique Creamery ice cream store” really soon.
For more information, click here.
by 