As conversations about South Africa's history and future continue to take center stage during Heritage Month, Cape Town is increasingly using food to engage both locals and tourists with its rich cultural heritage. The city, known for its stunning landscapes, vibrant arts scene, and diverse cultural heritage, is now embracing heritage food tours as a tool to make tourism more inclusive and connected to the community.

This initiative, led by Unexplored Cape Town, a local heritage food tour company, aims to bring cultural storytelling to the forefront, allowing visitors to engage with Cape Town's history and its diverse communities in a more authentic and meaningful way. The tours focus on showcasing the culinary traditions of the local and diaspora communities, making food an entry point for tourists to understand Cape Town's complex past and present.

Cape Town has become one of the most popular destinations in South Africa, attracting visitors from around the world who come to experience its beaches, vineyards, and culinary scene. However, for many locals, the city's increasingly exclusive tourism industry feels out of reach due to rising prices and gentrification. As fine dining establishments become more expensive and the culinary culture becomes more exclusive, many people feel disconnected from the tourism experience in their own city.

This is where Unexplored Cape Town steps in, offering a more inclusive approach to tourism that emphasizes cultural engagement and community collaboration. By focusing on the city's diverse food culture, the tours offer a chance for visitors to see Cape Town beyond the usual tourist hotspots, engaging deeply with the city's heritage and its modern challenges.

Unexplored Cape Town's approach is referred to as Tourism 2.0, which places communities and cultural storytelling at the core of the experience. The founder, Dennis Anees Molewa, emphasizes that tourism should either fuel exclusion or become a force for inclusion and positive change. With this mindset, Unexplored Cape Town aims to ensure that both locals and tourists can benefit from the city's tourism, creating shared experiences that help preserve cultural heritage and support local businesses.

The tours are not only about food; they are designed to celebrate Cape Town's complexity, reflecting its history of slavery, inequality, and resilience. Through food, heritage, and storytelling, the tours highlight the diverse cultural landscape of Cape Town, offering insights into the experiences of Cape Malay, Creole, and African-diaspora food entrepreneurs who shape the city's food culture today.

Unexplored Cape Town offers several food experiences designed to showcase the city's diverse food cultures. One of the most popular tours is a cooking class in Salt River, where participants can learn how to prepare traditional Cape Malay dishes, while exploring the history and culture behind each dish. The Bellville food tour highlights the vibrant African food culture in the city, while the Two Sides of Cape Town walking tour provides a unique perspective on both the formal and informal food economies.

This four-hour walking tour offers guests the chance to experience everything from small, heritage-rich eateries to artisanal spaces, showing how food is a direct reflection of Cape Town's past and present. The tour also explores how food can be a catalyst for social change, helping to bridge the gap between the city's formal and informal sectors.

One of the core goals of these tours is to support POC-owned businesses, especially those run by food entrepreneurs from Cape Malay, Creole, and African-diaspora communities. By partnering with these small businesses, Unexplored Cape Town ensures that the revenue generated from tourism stays within the community, providing a sustainable source of income for those who are often excluded from the benefits of mainstream tourism.

The company reinvests 5% of every booking into its African Food Business Fund, which helps small food businesses access necessary equipment and improve their operations. This initiative helps local entrepreneurs grow their businesses, ensuring that they remain competitive in a changing market while preserving the cultural heritage that defines Cape Town's food scene.

For Rifqah Van Schalkwyk, a participant in the Two Sides of Cape Town tour, the experience was deeply personal. She found that exploring her hometown with "fresh eyes and taste buds" was an empowering experience. While she was familiar with the cuisines of Cape Town, the tour offered a new narrative that was beautiful and authentic, without romanticizing the challenges the city faces.

This reflects the core philosophy behind Unexplored Cape Town's tours: to offer an honest, engaging, and empowering experience that highlights the complexity of Cape Town's culinary culture and its people. The tours are not just for tourists; they also offer locals the chance to reconnect with their own heritage and understand the history and culture that shapes their daily lives.

Dennis Anees Molewa, the founder of Unexplored Cape Town, believes that this type of tourism represents the future of travel. Every meal shared, every story told, and every partnership forged is a part of a bigger vision to make tourism a force for good -- one that not only benefits visitors but also empowers local communities and celebrates cultural heritage from a de-colonial perspective.

This Heritage Month, Unexplored Cape Town invites both locals and visitors to connect with the city in a new and more inclusive way. By embracing Cape Town's rich culinary heritage through the lens of history, culture, and community, the company hopes to create a more equitable and sustainable tourism industry in the region.

Cape Town's heritage food tours are a step toward making tourism more inclusive, accessible, and connected to the community. By focusing on culinary traditions and cultural storytelling, these tours offer a deeper, more meaningful way to explore the city. Visitors and locals alike are invited to celebrate Cape Town's complex history and its diverse food cultures, connecting through shared experiences that preserve heritage, support local businesses, and uplift communities.