Where do you take a chef for lunch? It is a tricky one. I am always meeting Mpho Phalane at events and places where her food is front and centre — a crucial aspect of some heavily curated experience elevated to the next level by her creative, honest and delicious food.
A few days ago we were chatting in the kitchen at the Stevenson gallery in Joburg, which has been transformed into a ridiculously cool clubhouse until August 11. They have rounded up a seriously heavy-hitting group representing super-talented Joburg for a series of marvellous events to bring the clubhouse to life. The talent is represented on the walls, in the design, in talks and DJ sets. A feast for every one of the senses, and at the Soho House-Table Talk lunch event I was invited to, Mpho’s food was the glue that held together this universe of cool.
I decide to take her to I Love The Dough. The fabulously pink pizza shop on Bree Street in Cape Town has opened an outpost on 4th Avenue in Parkhurst. I figure everyone needs a pizza break, and frankly who doesn’t love the dough? Even Tim Noakes I suspect secretly loves it. Also, her business is called Food I Love You — so there is a kind of glorious symmetry.
I think so many of us are storytellers, and food is the one thing that can bring us to the table
Mpho grew up in Protea North in Soweto, where her single mother raised her and her older sister on an eclectic diet.
“My mom used to travel a lot as a social worker and through her spiritual work. She travelled to America, India, meditated, walked on coals, which was unusual for moms in that time ... At some stage we were vegetarian. We were always exposed to different foods because of that, and most of it used to embarrass me because it was different. It was also a money thing, but she was like, lets make it cute — a vegetarian vegan thing.
“She is 72 now, but then it was like, why aren’t you like every other mom, on a Sunday cooking the typical, the beetroot? She was always, always health conscious.”
She says her work in brand marketing and advertising was fine but her passion and happy place was in bringing people together.
“I guess the boredom set in at some point where I felt like OK, cool, we get a brief in, we are high stress, we are doing these amazing campaigns and then what? I spent a lot of my weekends cooking. We moved into this amazing apartment in town, this really, really nice art deco building and we were 'why go out when we have such a nice space?'
“So we were hosting a lot of dinners and lunches and that is where my love for cooking got reignited. People were like 'do you mind catering for my boyfriend’s 30th', and then another friend was launching a fashion brand. And word got out and I was chasing this dog that was leaping forward. I started in my kitchen. I remember my first big client was the Arts and Culture Trust for over 100 people, prepping from my kitchen. And I have been running organically ever since.”
Her menus are like an abundant reflection of herself. For example, at Nirox for the Phenomenal Women Concert she created an experiential feast — mielie bread served with whipped sculpted butter, cabbage-wrapped millet parcels, coconut poached sea bass, slow cooked lamb shoulder, coriander chutney, naartjie pudding, cardamom crumb cake. It’s food that speaks to the name of her business.
“Food I Love You, it was just honest, coming from a very true and honest space.”
Her food philosophy, other than loving food, is “connecting people”.
“I didn’t know how to articulate it back then, but I think food is just such a strong connector and the conversations that would come about from bringing people together at a table, getting to understand people’s views, thoughts on certain things. Having the arguments, adopting some of their thinking, and then ... connecting on a deeper level with human beings.
“But what is even greater is simplifying it, just really finding simple foods and things that people know, that are familiar, and instead of it being a big moment, or flamboyant, just playing around with people's taste buds, starting from a place of familiarity and bringing back some of the foods that you've been eating, rethinking ways of keeping it interesting.”
While she is the embodiment of that old chestnut about following your passion, she says she has worked very hard most days, despite what the adage says.
She seems to be a kind of cultural lightning rod, if you follow Mpho's physical trajectory of where she has set up shop over the years.
“My first commercial kitchen was at the UJ art centre in Auckland Park.” She had a space in Victoria Yards and was a huge support to the surrounding community during Covid. Now she has opened up a magnificent space at Constitution Hill. She paid off her loans from her mother and the bank in her first few months of business, had two children while running these logistical nightmares and is a constant innovator.
“The whole concept of the space is that I just wanted it to be as open as possible, to allow a lot of storytelling, to host other people to take over the restaurant, not even exclusively chefs. I think so many of us are storytellers, and food is the one thing that can bring us to the table.
“I think Con Hill needs a space that can really, truly unpack the constitution in a different way. I want to have the judges come and tell stories. Like judge Edwin Cameron — he is absolutely insane (as in wonderful). I’ve had him at the table a couple of times and he is so truthful, and not trying to sugarcoat certain things. He is not there to please.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.