Tanya Visser is mostly known in town from the different restaurants she used to be Front of House Manager. Most of the people in the area would remember her from other food outlets but now she flabbergasts your taste buds with something new.
Since Tanya was a little girl, she loved cooking and was always in the kitchen with her mother. She kept an eye on her mother and constantly learnt and tried something new when she could find the chance.
After school she started to work at Graceland as a chef. She moved from Graceland to Dros, Boesies, Crawdaddy’s and Stoepstories into the position of Front of House Manager but her passion has always been food.
Tanya was the ghost running around in restaurants. Sometimes you will see her but she never stopped working, always ensuring customers are happy and enjoying their time out.
She has loved cooking channels since she could remember and was always in the kitchen trying something new and ensured that her family tasted her delicious concoctions for approval or a try again.
She smiled shyly and said: “The Guinea Pigs were always my family with all my cooking experiments. That’s how I figured out what worked and what didn’t work.”
She has been wanting to open her own place since she finished school and during lockdown, she saw an opportunity.
TAN’Z was born!
She decided on: “The stuff your face place!” as a slogan and it definitely lives up to the slogan.
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In the beginning business was slow but after a while it picked up. With the business that started booming and bigger orders started to come in from businesses, she realised that she could employ people and help them during a challenging time too.
Before she decided on her menu, Tanya did research to ensure that her place will be unique and also not a copy and a paste of something everyone can order from anywhere.
She is currently producing dishes that no one else has on their menu. Her Eisbein burger with kaiings is one of a kind, a best seller and a definite must try.
All the dishes on the menu can be explained as soul food. These dishes warm you up and knocks you for a six once you take a bite.
She also makes her own homemade mustard sauce that is a huge hit with her customers.
“Now that I have taken this opportunity to show the people what my talent is and what food I can put on the plate, I know I can only grow and learn from here!”
Tanya loves experimenting with different types of meats.
“The amount of dishes that can be cooked with meat is endless and different meats are prepared in different ways,” Tanya explained.
When asked if there are anything she does not like to work with, Tanya laughed and said:
“Seafood. Seafood is so easy to cook with but can be extremely dangerous. Your workstations have to be set up differently. To have seafood on your menu you have to ensure that there is a specific workstation and that workstation does not mix with the other workstations because people might be allergic to seafood.”
Currently TAN’Z has 10 dishes on the menu but every week she tries to add something new.
“Trial and error,” she said confidently.
She is currently working from home but her approach to hygiene is phenomenal. She is extremely strict when it comes to cleaning and hygiene.
Before starting anything in the kitchen, the kitchen is cleaned and sanitised (even though it was done the day before when the kitchen closed).
During the preparation and cooking, the kitchen is always being cleaned with the help from Ms Bibi Mthimunye.
After cooking and packing the food for delivery, the kitchen is sanitised again.
She does not take any chances and is very particular about how she runs her kitchen. She has colour coded cutting boards for each different food type to ensure zero contamination.
Each order is also packed with extreme love, care and pride.
The delivery car is also sanitised each and every time.
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What people do not know about Tanya is that she is an extremely vibrant person with a heart of gold.
It is during a pandemic like this that a young, strong woman inspires others to follow their dreams and not to be scared to go out there and do what they want to do.
Tanya’s attitude is truly inspirational, her never give up outlook on life and never stop fighting for your dreams spirit never ceases to amaze those around her.
