From banking to cooking: Kim Bagley’s journey to culinary success

From chopping onions, peeling vegetables and cutting meat, Kim Bagley, a food content creator, owes much of her grounding in the kitchen to her mom, Beryl Bagley.

She was 11 years old when her mother used to call home from work and ask her to do the chopping, peeling and cutting.

"My mom used to say 'have it ready, so I can come home and cook'. As time went by, she used to say 'please braise the onions and meat and I'll finish off the pot when I get home'.

"Later, I ended up cooking the entire dinner and food was ready when my parents got home from work. I can still remember her saying 'Kim, I took out the chicken. Make what you want with it'. She gave me free range to explore and cook what I wanted."

Today, her social media page "Cooking with Kim Bagley" - where she shares recipes and cooking or baking videos - is rising in numbers. And this month, she released her first cookbook, Cooking with Kim Bagley: A South African Fusion of Flavours.

Bagley was born and raised in Cape Town and moved to Johannesburg at 17, where she later met her husband, Suneshan Adjina. They currently reside in Joburg with their three children - Talia, 20, Amelia, 16, and Kihanna, 11.

She initially worked in the banking industry for just over six years, and later moved into telecommunications.

"I worked so much but at the same time hubby and I were planning on baby number three. I knew I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom and wanted to be able to drive my kids around to their different activities, sit with homework, and attend sporting events. It was at this time that I decided to resign from the telecommunications field and stay at home to raise my babies.

"I have to admit that, as much as I loved being at home, I wanted more. I needed more, especially when the kids were at school. I started an online store called The BagLady, selling bags and clothes among other things. I travelled to China to visit factories and bought items to sell online. But with the launch of online shopping like Shein, which was just launched at the time, the business grew harder and I stopped with that little business."

Bagley ventured into other business opportunities but "nothing stuck", she said.

In 2020, she started posting my meals in cooking groups on Facebook.

"Before I knew it, people were loving my typed-out recipes, which prompted me to start my own cooking page called Home Cooking in SA, which later changed to Cooking with Kim Bagley. I started off posting a picture with the recipe in caption and I did that for three years, gaining more than 100 000 followers on Facebook.

"I then received a voice-note on Instagram from the late aunty Fatima Sydow, a cookbook author and TV personality. She told me how amazing my recipes were and that I should start doing video tutorials as it would open many doors for me.

"She thereafter video-called me and we spoke for an hour. She gave me so much advice that changed my life forever. I started doing video tutorials on TikTok, which blew up almost immediately. I now have almost 200 000 followers in just two years. It took just one public figure to help me get to where I am today. Fatima gave me the best advice I could ever need in just one hour.

"Today, I'm a published author thanks to her advice. She was standing on top and lowered her hand to me, pulled me up to her level, and said 'come join me up here, the air and view are great'. Fatima pulled me up even though she was fighting battles of her own and to that I will forever be grateful.

"Every day I live to help other content creators in my niche as I know what it's like when creators gate-keep opportunities, and I know how far I've come due to the help of an amazing person, who wanted nothing but success for the next person. I hope I'm half the person she was."

Bagley believed her followers were drawn to her content for her quick and simple recipes.

"The comment sections on social media are often filled with posts on how lovely and soothing my voice is; how easy the ingredients are to source; how I explain the method step-by-step; and how delicious my recipes are with simple ingredients. They relate as I show recipes from all cultures, provinces and ethnic groups. It's the diversity in my recipes that people can relate to."

The book is available at bookstores, including Exclusive Books and Bargain Books as well as Takealot, Amazon, Loot and Graffiti.

"The journey to completing this cookbook was absolutely amazing and I would do it all over again. The team I had the pleasure of working with were creative geniuses and couldn't ask for a better publishing team (NB Publishers) and publicist (Co-Lab Brand Management). This book is just one of many more to come."

You can find her on TikTok (cookingwithkimbagley) and Instagram (cooking_with_kim_bagley)

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