Sandile Kali destined to be South Africa’s next world great baker

Story  by Makobedi Mofokeng

Master baker Sandile creates another delicious cake 

Sandile Kalisa is a Benoni boy through and through. His parents were surely overjoyed when they brought home a bouncing baby boy, full of life and character. Sandile and his family lived in Daveyton for the first seven years of his life and they then moved to Crystal Park in 2000 and have been living there ever since.

As a young boy Sandile had his sights set on a career as a fireman. All it took was just a single episode of Jamie Oliver’s cooking show for him to fall in love with the idea becoming a professional cook. Before that he had always seen it as a career for women.

At just the age of 21 he already has not one, and not two,  but three qualifications. He has a diploma in Food Preparation, from the highly acclaimed International Hotel School. A further certificate in electrical engineering which he obtained from the Ekhurhuleni East College, and a diploma in Patisserie from Capsicum Culinary Studio, which he says is his 'favourite' and is passionate about.

At high school his favourite subject was business studies, which makes perfect sense. it has come in handy because he his very own business at present, Hashtag Cakes, a bakery which specialises in all sorts of delicious, decadent pastries. The name says it all, cakes from Hashtag Cakes are modern, trendy, and absolutely gorgeous, not forgetting delicious.

The Cake boss, Buddy Valastro, is his role model because of his love for pastry and his family. Sandile hopes that one day he will run a family bakery with his ever supportive parents but in the meantime his bakery, Hashtag Cakes, is run from his family home in Crystal Park.

But before all that happens Sandile has his top five dreams (in this exact order) he wants to realize in his life:

1.    To be a private chef

2.    To work on a cruise ship

3.    To work overseas, preferably Brazil and Florida

4.    To formally establish his own chain of bakeries and

5.    To own his very own yacht.

This young man clearly has big plans for his life and he is ready to live it wholeheartedly. He is very active on social media and has mouth-watering Facebook pages. To contact him you can search Hashtag Cakes or Sandile Chef Kalisa on Facebook. 

Sandile is on the left in the picture