Zola Nene speaks food and journey on Wedding Bashers

Chef Zola Nene has replaced chef Siba Mtongana on M-Net’s Wedding Bashers. She has now joined Denise Zimba, Zavion Kotze and Bernelee Daniell.

At first, Zola was worried about what people would think of her coming into a group that already existed.

“Are they going to be, ‘She wasn’t as fun as Siba.’”
“But I’m proud to say we gelled from the first day. We laughed every single day. We literally just attend weddings. Who can say [that’s] their job?
“As a chef and a food stylist my biggest challenge is that I have a gag reflex like nobody’s business,” she added. “Just the smell of something gets me going, it’s a problem.”

Journey so far

She even went ahead to warn sensitive viewers to beware. “Good luck if you’re squeamish, I’m probably going to make you vomit sometimes. I gag a lot and it’s not because something’s disgusting, it’s a memory thing. I remember my mom boiling chicken feet and the smell stays with me, you know what I mean?
“So when I see a chicken foot I just smell that. It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t smell of that, I just smell [the boiling]. So I gag a lot and that’s a lot to overcome, but I’ve gotten better. Bear with me, I do get better,” she joked.
Zola praised the new version of the show. “It’s nice to come in on a positive note because we do bash weddings. I think it’s difficult for people, who sometimes say ‘Can you do better?’ So we show them what we can do and we’re like, ‘Ja, we can!’”
Wedding Bashers Specials: With Love premieres Sunday 29 April at 6pm on M-Net.