Kamohelo Moleleki, also known as ‘Kamasutra’ or ‘Sutra,’ the founder of Sutra’s Kitchen, describes his work as an art to teach people about the passions of life through the embracement of food and gin.
What started off as a jolly experiment of food in his childhood, or rather, what seemed to be a playful experiment in his childhood when Kamohelo collaborated with his friends to start a sandwich business, making, and selling sandwiches to school children, actually became the building blocks of the start of his journey as an entrepreneur.
Kamohelo’s passionate love for food and beverage led him to what became his reality, Sutra’s Kitchen. The kitchen was meant to be “an experimental concept initially, with its own house offerings such as the specific products that the restaurant would offer besides the actual food. For example, the idea was to craft Sutra’s very own house beer, house wine, and other products that would characterize the feel of the experience at Sutra’s Kitchen – even though every other type of brand alcohol would be available, the idea was to also have a special characterizing concept that was deliberately specific to Sutra’s Kitchen.”
Unlike many business who experienced Covid as a true pandemic for their profits and popularity, Covid, for Kamohelo was his greenlight because that was when his house experiments became the ‘go-to’ for people and their entertainment – he was making food and pairing it with alcoholic beverage at a time when people needed the alternative plan for entertainment and food.
“It started off just as an experiment,” says Kamohelo, and “when a few friends started becoming drawn to it and urging me to make something of this concept, it became a journey, an inspiration, and a purpose. This was the beginning of Sutra’s Kitchen because I promised my friends that as soon as things ease down, I will host sessions and give them a true Sutra’s Kitchen experience.”
Entrepreneurship isn’t always so direct in the sense that, sometimes we tend to not realize that we have skills and ideas that often lie right before our eyes, that have the great potential to build something that can be transformative of our personal experiences of life. Sutra’s Kitchen for instance, was just an idea and an experiment that Kamohelo was playing around with. It took feedback from the people that he was open to sharing with for the experiment, for it to become a reality. It took the voice of others for him to notice everything that he already had at arm’s reach, “I noticed that I have the passion, the know-how, and not even by chance, the resources because back home in Botshabelo, in the Free State, we have business premises that were purposed to become a restaurant one day – one that has never operated. My father had planned to open up a restaurant after his retirement but unfortunately, uncontrollable circumstances came up and the restaurant was not opened as planned. However, the venue and the equipment is still there and is in perfect shape,” says Kamohelo. The question now became, “how do I go about such an idea and where do I start?”
“Perhaps a pop-up kitchen concept?” – Sutra’s Kitchen then became a platform for other food businesses to show up at Sutra’s events and showcase their food. Not only was this technique brilliant for marketing Sutra’s Kitchen, but it was also to a way to create relationships among like-minded entrepreneurs and their people. Becoming a platform for others to flourish also became a platform for Sutra’s Kitchen to become more popular within the business industry, the food industry, and the entertainment industry.
“The niche was to become a unique experience through my self-created chilli, the events, the pop-ups, and the gin,” says Kamohelo. The creation of the gin was through a friend who knew a friend – a friend who had his own wine club. This was the association that helped Kamohelo start his own gin brand.
There is power in building a strong network market as an entrepreneur because as most businesspeople can attest to, many ideas became a reality just by means of having a conversation with a like-minded person or a resourceful person. Additionally, Kamohelo can also attest that his networking, he was led to where he needed to be to make his gin ideas and concepts a reality.
“Only connect! Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human light will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer and only connect.” – E.M Forster.
It through connections that we are exposed to the best of our potentials because there is power in just having a conversation. There is also power in listening and in relation, there is power in building a network of diverse connections that all have something to teach and to offer.
Want to have a Sutra’s Kitchen experience? Follow the link @ https://instagram.com/sutraskitchen?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= to get in touch and to keep up with the kitchen’s next events and pop-ups.
#SutrasGin #Sutrasmuthi #GinOclock