A Table in the Corner

I first met Dion Vengatass in Chef Rudi Liebenberg's kitchen at the Mount Nelson Hotel. He barely looked up from his prep, just kept chopping and sorting at pace. He was the solid, do-it-all chef running all the sections that needed to operate smoothly while the complexities of the pastry section and fine dining were building a reputation for the hotel's cuisine. When Covid ripped the he...

This is the second time I've had Lance Littlefield on the show. Back on Episode 77 he was an absolute mine of information on the craft of baking sourdough bread. We were introduced to 'Alfonsina' his starter, and the wonders of Motherdough Bakery. Almost a year later, he and partner Willem van Schalkwyk have had their Stellenbosch store running for 6 months, and there are plans for...

I've known Christophe Dehosse for over a decade. The incredible bistro, deli and butchery he runs with his wife Susan is just round the corner from the site of my first Winelands restaurant. He was always good for a loooooong natter about the industry when I rocked up at Klein Joostenberg looking for ingredients, and some of the chefs I hold in high regard (like George Jardine and Rudi Lieben...

In this episode I speak to Melanie Stewart who is the farm manager of Oranjezicht City Farm (OZCF). The farm and her Tea With A Farmer farm tours are part of the two week programme for the Food Indaba happening in Cape Town from 7th to 20th of July, 2025. The Food Indaba explores the possible impacts and benefits of AI on African food systems. We spoke about this and about the use of AI in an app...

Bertus Basson is an absolute biscuit. He has an uncanny instinct for opening places you love to visit and feeding you things you love to eat. He's also been a tremendous source of advice and support since we first met in 2008. Ongetem is his new restaurant - his first sit-down eatery in Cape Town, and he's opened it in Park Road, Gardens in the new Hilton Canopy Hotel. It's brand ne...

With a vague idea of generating a passive income using a bunch of catering stuff he had in storage, Will Hobson has built an iconic hangout in Sea Point with business partner Stephanie Anastasopoulos. ' Arthur's Mini Super' is many things to many people. (It's not a passive income for anyone though.) It's a place to chill after a walk on the promenade or a yoga session, a...

Well curated markets are fantastic places to discover new products. I found the most delicious roast pork belly croissant at the Candor market a while back. It was delicious and unexpected and the story behind the baker so interesting that I immediately invited her to chat to me on the show. Based on the idea of a circular economy, Candor is predominantly a vintage clothing and repurposed or up-cy...

Geoffrey Abrahams and Teenola Govender are joint-head chefs at Coy Restaurant in the V&A Waterfront. They are affectionately known as G&T in the kitchens were they've worked, and these include Chefs Warehouse and Mazza. Having first met in the kitchen at Chefs Warehouse Beau Constantia, they are an inseparable, creative kitchen team who blew me away with Mazza at Heritage Square and h...

A while back, when we lived in the Swartland town of Darling, one of our regular delights was the drive to Yzerfontein to collect bread. Against a pretty large proportion of 'the odds', Yzerfontein is home to one of the best bakeries in the Western Cape - Rosemead Bakery. Run by Brett Nortjé, Rosemead was an absolute legend of a place: chilled, friendly, all about locals and Brett can ba...

Tunde Akintan has taken his love of chillies and hot food and turned it into an urban farming project near Gordon's Bay. We chatted about how the new product stand at OZCF Market has introduced Tunde and his 42 varieties of chillies to a broader market, with an introduction to Silwood Cookery School where he recently chatted to 1st year students about Yellow Wheelbarrow. This was a fantastic...

Huge supporters of this show, the team from Zuney Burger has brought an entirely fresh perspective to both livestock farming, and the farm-to-table movement. Their pasture-reared Wagyu beef makes it's way direct to consumers in the form of an astonishingly good burger. Henk Klopper and Denys Wells farm the cattle on lush pasture in the Eastern Cape, their sons Henk and Devon handle the sales...

It is a bird? Is it a plane? No! It's Brad Armitage. Not for lack of trying, but it's taken 120 episodes to convince an operator I admire tremendously to pop in for a chat on the show. Not one to blow his own trumpet, along with Rui Esteves, Brad created Vida e Caffè and followed it with Brewers & Union, the craft beer legend. There have been other bangers, but we confined our chat t...

I snatched a rare chance to connect with Kobus van der Merwe of Wolfgat and sit down for a chat. He was taking a break in Yzerfontein - halfway from Paternoster to Cape Town, and we met at Rosmead Bakery to record a show. I long ago joined the legion of his fans, when my wife and I enjoyed the tasting menu at his parents’ general dealer store 'Oep ve Koep' around the time we were running...

This is possibly the most fascinating episode I've recorded to date. Tapiwa Guzha was on my first ever list of guest. There were 10 or 12 people on that list, and had I spoken to Tapiwa way back then, it may well have changed the shape of the show. He is an incredibly engaging person, and to say he 'thinks out of the box' is to misunderstand him completely. He was never in a box, no...

I'm following my curiosity about people who make a living from food outside of formal restaurants again. This time I'm chatting to Dean Roux who owns and operates a food truck called Truck Norris. Apart from the fact that his truck has a legendary name, he's a really good operator who understands the landscape in which he operates and offers a straightforward product. Truck Norris d...

The FOOD INDABA is an annual programme of talks and events that focus on the local food system. Running from 7-20 July this year, it brings together a wide range of speakers involved in shaping the food system, providing an opportunity for food growers, academics, activists, writers, nutritionists, policy makers, food lovers and anyone interested in sustainable approaches, to engage in key issues...

A short while back, I discovered Stereo Eats through my friend Gillian Key. This concept eatery is based on a dark kitchen and an app which offers the best of 6 different fast- or convenience-food brands. It’s now a firm favorite with my daughter and I reached out to one of the directors, Max King to find out more. Interesting concept which I think totally gets the challenges of single-brand franc...

Nic Charalambous, the driving force, creator and voice behind the wildly popular Ouzeri restaurant in Wale Street, was my fourth guest on the show. Way back on Episode 4 he'd been open a year and found his easygoing eatery - which celebrates his Cypriot heritage and its culinary traditions as well as those of Greece - awarded a star at the Eat Out Awards. In year three, in late March 2025, Ou...

Veld & Sea has one of my favourite Instagram pages, and the mission of its founder - to teach people about the land and the ocean of Cape Town's south peninsula through foraging and flavour - has long fascinated me. I finally got to meet Roushanna Grey and we had an engrossing conversation. As always it was too short and there was so much more we could have explored. Links to her website...

Week after week I see the menus for Egg & Shoulders ready meals. They are seasonal, interesting and depart from the norm of the home delivery or frozen meal services. Of course there are the standards - the lasagne, the ravioli - but there are always interesting things. While I've been tempted to order many times, I sometime wonder who else is ordering terrines or wild leaf salads. Curiou...

Matthew Gordon has been there since the beginning. He is one of the architects of the explosion of restaurants in the previously sleepy Western Cape village of Franschhoek. Haute Cabriere put him firmly on the map, but the little restaurant he operated out of his family guesthouse, Balon Rouge is where it all began. Today he is the chef/operator of French Connection which has been a popular eatery...

Chef Peter Ayub runs the excellent Sense of Taste Cooking school with his wife Deb, teaching young hopefuls the trade of being a chef. He reached out, concerned about how some of his students are treated when they go out into the industry to do their pracs and learn about how kitchens work. We share the view that these young chefs are there to absorb new skills and be taught by the chefs under who...

It's taken a while to get the timing and travel right to sit down with South African culinary icon, Chef Reuben Riffel, to explore his incredible journey from a simple start in Franschhoek kitchens, to becoming a household name. In this episode we dive into his early mentorship under Chef Christophe Dehosse, his pivotal partnership with Chef Richard Carstens, and his evolution through fine di...

Hilde-Lee Olivier left cooking school and quickly climbed the ranks in local kitchens. By the time she was 26 Hilde-Lee was running the Kitchen at Terroir and went on to be head chef for George Jardine at Jardine Restaurant in Stellenbosch. After a brief stint and a huge learning curve running her own place - Toebroodjie, she pitched it all in and went sailing. We spoke about her journey and about...

For some time now I've been wanting to talk to someone on the show who manages the marketing - and the profiles - of restaurants. I'm interested in how eateries, especially the top shops, market themselves. This is particularly tricky in a world where everyone seems to be a critic and even the very best operators can find themselves at the mercy of 'keyboard warriors'. While pe...