What do South Africa, Dubai; Sebring and Gordon Ramsay have in common; The Vault of Sebring’s latest Executive Chef Tichafa Chingombe, also known as Chef Ticha’.
Early morning, a local patron, Raymond Medina, enters The Vault of Sebring located at the historic downtown Sebring Circle. He orders, what is considered by most in the culinary industry to be a true test of a chef’s cooking skill —the classic omelet. A culinary philosophy that the new chef follows is to prepare everything from scratch using fresh ingredients and make the food to order.
Moment’s later Chef Ticha’ enters the restaurant and serves a nicely plated omelet with potatoes.
“It’s quality food, really good and fresh,” Medina said about his meal.
Beginnings of a chef
Born in Zimbabwe, Africa, as a teenager, a national financial crisis forced his parents to seek work and move to South Africa. They left Chef Ticha’ with the responsibility of taking care of his three siblings. This is when he, “faced the realities of life” and “fell in love with cooking,” he reminisced. Receiving money from his parents to purchase food gave him the opportunity to go out to the market and buy the items needed to cook for his siblings.
After high school, he followed his parents to Cape Town, Africa. With a suggestion from a friend he attended a culinary school where he heard about a top executive chef at the Fountains Hotel in Cape Town offering a training program. Without a plan, a young Chef Ticha’ walked into the restaurant, wide-eyed and ambitious and interviewed with Executive Chef Alan West, a highly regarded chef in the industry.
Chef Ticha’ recalls with a smile, “I never got paid. I did that for free because I wanted the job.”
After a six-month mentorship, West contacted Executive Chef Craig Patterson at The Beluga Restaurant in Cape Town to recommend Chef Ticha’. Upon introduction he was hired immediately and began gaining experience in an la carte, cook to order, restaurant. It was the opportunity he needed to further advance in the industry and to gain mastery in his craft.
Introduction to fine dining Only a couple of years later he began working at La Mouette Restaurant in Sea Point, South Africa.
“I was very, very, fortunate to be hired at the restaurant La Mouette,” Chef Ticha’ exclaimed.
The chef and owner, Henry Vigar, trained under Gordon Ramsay as a sous chef and later head chef in England for one of Ramsay’s restaurants. Vigar passed on his expertise to Chef Ticha’, skills that would further fine-tune his craft. At La Mouette he also learned the business end of being an executive chef.
“He played a vital role in my life. He introduced me to the modern world (of fine dining),” Chef Ticha’ said about Vigar.
The chef introduced him to monthly menu changes and tasting menus. Working as a chef de partie, a station chef, his part was that of a saucier, “I was in-charge of sauces, prepping the meats and cooking them during service.”
A palace of experienceWith a solid work ethic, advanced culinary knowledge and after several other career moves and at the height of his culinary pursuits, he was approached with an offer in Dubai, Saudi Arabia to work at the palace. To the chef’s surprise, “It was actually a ruler’s palace. I thought it was ‘The Palace hotel,’” he laughed.
Before making any strategic career move he always made sure to first receive the blessings of the chefs he worked for.
“I know what all these chefs did for me, what they sacrificed for me. Now that I’m an executive chef, I’m now getting to understand the amount of love they put on me,” he said gratefully.
Chef Ticha’ worked at the Al Qassimi Palace in United Arab Emirates for a year; gaining experiences in a highly secured kitchen. He also learned international cuisines, as meals had to be prepared for important visiting guests from around the world.
“We had (visiting) chefs from all the continents. Let’s say we had someone from Bangladesh, we can all jump in and help to create the menu,” he said.
After a year he had another opportunity to work with other stellar chefs at the London Project in Dubai. It was hard to leave the palace, “I was living under riches, you live like a king,” he said. The London Project was, “an eye opener, as far as opening, pre-opening,” he said about the restaurant. With forward progress and the need to continue excelling and gaining knowledge, he was given the opportunity to head over to the United States.
“If you want to be the best, you have to learn from the best,” he exclaimed.
Arriving in the USAHe then arrived in Savannah, Ga. to work at the Bohemian Hotel where he met his future wife, Olivia. While working at the Bohemian Hotel the COVID pandemic began. He made a life changing decision to stay in Savannah through the pandemic shutdowns with the support of his wife’s family.
As restaurants began to open again, he moved to Florida. He worked in Port Charlotte starting over as a line cook. After getting married and with his new life, he found his way back to fine dining.
“All you want as a chef is to work for the best possible restaurant you can ever get,” he exclaimed. He then got a job as a sous chef in Pine Islands and later to run a French restaurant in Boca Raton working with celebrity Chef Fabio Viviani as an executive chef at the Riviera on Fort Lauderdale Beach. This is where he met restaurateur Zachary Bello, owner of The Vault of Sebring. Bello immediately saw the talent of Chef Ticha’ and started to persuade him to move to Sebring.
“Fabio took care of me 100 percent, but you are limited to what you want to do, to try to do,” Chef Ticha’ explained as one of the reasons he had to make the next move. “I didn’t want limitations as far as creating menus, especially when I was thinking about Sebring, Florida. I wanted to create a restaurant that can provide a diverse menu. I can target profitable dishes, marketable dishes, dishes that make sense.”
Starting on a new venture, Chef Ticha’ learned from other chef’s experiences and from his mentors heeding their advice and decided to not open his own upscale restaurant.
“I decided to move out on my own, it is never an easy decision. You get these great chefs who tried it and then didn’t work for some of them. The way a lot of people get lost is they start big. It is not about the food anymore,” he said.
After making the decision, with Olivia, they agreed to work at The Vault of Sebring.
“Start small and outgrow without overlooking ourselves. That way we ended up sitting at this table,” he nodded after taking a sip of his coffee. “You don’t just want to make a salary, you want to make a difference and that is why I decided to part ways with Chef Fabio Viviani; with his blessing.”
With a world of experience and a group of top mentors he can call on, Chef Ticha’ brings his life experience and mastery of cuisine to the table.
As he looked out the window of The Vault of Sebring toward the historic Sebring Circle he said, “What will excite them the most is the quality of service and the quality of food and a diversity in culture.”
