Sanza Sandile isn’t an average chef. Which makes sense, because Yeoville isn’t an average suburb.
Actually I’m not even sure Sanza calls himself a chef – if you ask him he’ll probably say he’s a cook or a journalist or a philosopher or an entertainer. He’s all of those things and more. But above all, as I see it, this man is a chef.
Today I went to Yeoville and spent the afternoon at a place called Food.
Food (28 Rockey Street) is more than a stall but not quite a restaurant. Food is a kitchen with a glass counter and two benches, presided over by a man named Sanza.
Yeoville, much like Hillbrow and other inner-city suburbs in Jozi, has transformed over the last three decades. Once an artsy, mixed-race (but primarily white) neighborhood, similar to Melville, Yeoville is now a chaotic, pan-African cocktail-shaker. (I almost said “melting pot” but that’s too cliché for words.)
