It took a second-generation South African-born Chinese man, Gordon Zheung, to invent an automatic pap machine and no surprise, as he shared with me, it all started with a simple problem.
“It was a Saturday afternoon back in 2016. I was struggling to make pap and as a mechanical engineer it bothered me that something so central to the majority of South Africans’ daily lives required someone to stand alongside the pot in which they were making the pap, having to stir constantly, hoping it wouldn’t burn. When I discovered there wasn’t a single automatic pap maker available commercially anywhere in the world, it was my light bulb moment,” he said.
And why is it difficult to make perfect pot of pap? Without being too technical, Zheung explained how the traditional way of making pap is based on feel and judgment. “Cooking by hand one needs to agitate the mixture to crush all the lumps, breaking down the starch particles so they can absorb the water, a process that requires super-strong arms and shoulders,” said the inventor. “It’s a time-sensitive process and there’s a window of opportunity for getting it just right,” he cautioned.
“The knack of getting it just right takes a lot of experience and a cook who is familiar with their tools. That’s until the size of the pot and the spoon changes and then it’s like starting all over again.”
Developing the Appetite for Zheung was “my passion project” as it took on a life on its own. Soon after his light bulb moment he said he had his first prototype, “Essentially a hand-held drill over a pot”, he laughed. “Between the crude prototype and our first sale five years later lay an enormous amount of work,” said the inventor.
I learnt about the hundreds of pots of pap he made in the process and how irritated his wife became with the familiar scene of a kitchen piled high with dirty pots of pap. “I spent countless hours researching different varieties of pap across cultures, in the process teaching myself each type of pap, and through this process developed the ‘Smart Cooking System’, which enables the Appetite automatic pap maker to cook different types of pap with varying degrees of stiffness — soft pap, stiff pap, krummel pap.”
It wasn’t an easy journey — the technical process was long and inventing the product was only half the battle said Zheung. ” The business journey was way more challenging as, having launched Appetite in 2021, the business people we approached didn’t believe automatic pap-making was possible.”
Pivoting their business model to online shopping channels was the secret to their success and sales of their patented Appetite automatic pap maker continue to grow, with close to 2,000 sold. Today he heads a team of eight, including him, who ensure that perfect pap can be made in just 20 minutes. And, lest I forget a seriously important feature of the automatic pap maker: it’s self cleaning too.
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In Box
Pap or rice? Pap since I have it more times than rice during the week.
How many pots of pap do you estimate you made in inventing the Appetite Pap Maker? I’d say close to 500 including soft pap, stiff pap, porridge and phutu/krummel pap. It was not only to learn how to cook the maize meal but to determine the parameters that ultimately ended up in the Appetite pap maker.
White or yellow maize meal? White
From start to finish how quickly can you have a bowl of pap on the table made in the Appetite Pap maker? 20 minutes.
Does the Appetite change the taste of pap cooked this way? No, the taste remains the same.
What’s your earliest memory of eating pap? It was during school break sharing lunch with my friends.
Do you enjoy pap on its own or with a sauce? With a sauce, unless it’s my secret Parmesan cheese infused pap.
And braai pap? The perfect pap to have with a braai should be silky smooth, fluffy and well cooked stiff pap. It should also have texture when it is in your hand and a bounce when you bite into it, the sauce of choice is chakalaka.
What’s the most unusual ingredient you’ve ever added to pap? It’s not an ingredient as such, but I’ve tried pap sushi which is surprisingly delicious
Why the colour red for your Appetite pap maker? It’s a homage of the first unit that was ever made — and wanted to differentiate it from the other appliances.
Beyond pap, what else can you make in the Appetite pap maker? All the major staples — sorghum, rice, samp and beans and automatically. It also can be used as a multi cooker, so any water based food — stew, soup, vegetables, meats.
Why do you think pap has remained such an important part of South African food culture? In Italy, they have pasta, in France thee baguette and in SA, we have our pap, it’s important to us because its’ ours.
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