Zimbabwean born, British raised: The influencer chef making Christmas dinner stretch further this year

Zimbabwean born, British raised – for influencer chef Caz Gundu, Christmas dinner involves the best of both. 

But from bulking out meat with added chicken wings to spatchcocking poultry so it cooks faster and uses less energy, she has also been faced with making her festive food stretch further this year.

With just days to go until Christmas – and many Britons heading to the shops in the next few days for their big festive food haul – international money transfer organisation WorldRemit found Britons are set to spend £905 on Christmas in 2022.

This includes £146 for food, £168 for decorations, and £591 for gifts.

Caz shares advice on how to save cash

Caz shares food tips with her followers under Cooking With Caz, giving advice on how to save money and still add flavour.

Having now lived in the UK for twenty years after moving from Zimbabwe, she said “there is a lot more British influence involved with our typical Christmas dinner, but I am part of the community so I know how different people jazz it up”.

A typical Christmas dinner, she said, “involves a lot of fried meats”, from chicken to steak to sausage.

One money-saving tip she gives is to butterfly your chicken, so it takes less time to cook. As well as needing less time in the oven, because the chicken lies flatter on the tray, it means more food can fit in the oven.

“It makes a big difference if you are turning your oven on for two hours rather than four,” she said.

If you are hosting children, she suggests bulking out your chicken with extra wings – they are normally cheaper than leg or breast meat.

“If you have got a big family, you don’t need to get multiple turkeys,” she said. “Get one and get chicken wings to supplement it.”

Similarly, thinner cuts of meat are also cheaper and involve less time in the oven. One switch she recommends is using chuck steak – a kilogram, which will feed about nine people, and can cost less than £10.

‘I am cooking with wine – what is going on?’

Caz got into cooking almost by accident.

“I was randomly entered into a cooking competition when I was 14 to fill a space for someone who had dropped out,” she said.

At this point, she was already a fairly seasoned cook: “I moved here when I was nine years old, and being a first-generation immigrant, my parents worked a lot and I found myself helping out in the kitchen a lot.”

But “a lot of the recipes they asked me to make were British recipes, and obviously, I had grown up in an African household, and now I’m cooking with wine, like what is going on”.

But she went on to come a close second and has been blending British and Zimbabwean food ever since.

‘Really important to explore’

One of her favourite parts of Christmas dinner is roast potatoes – “I think that’s the best British thing ever, beautifully roasted potatoes and some duck fat” – but she swaps out maris piper potatoes for African sweet potatoes.

“I think it’s really important to explore, and I think trying out other cuisines, seeing how other countries do Christmas could make Christmas more interesting,” she said.

“I think the focus has been so much on the cost of living, and it doesn’t need to be so much on Christmas day.”

She added: “It’s about creating this mindset of abundance, even though it is evident what is happening.

“Everything is expensive, but there is so much more to gain with being able to gather with family and friends and create an experience from that.”

Most importantly, for Caz, there is no such thing as too much seasoning: “[Keep going] until the ancestors tell you to stop!”