Taste ‘rizz’ and authenticity in these Jozi restaurants
Two excellent eateries, Séjour and the brand-new Sebule, exemplify the exciting cuisine that is coming out of the City of Gold. By
I’m at Séjour in Houghton, Johannesburg. Sunshine drenches an expansive view from the wraparound balcony. I sigh with rapture as I lay down my cutlery. Séjour was awarded a single star in 2023 (and 2022) by the annual Eat Out Awards. It also got a one-plate rating from the Capebased JHP Gourmet Restaurant Awards.
On this visit, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a chat with Séjour’s owner-chef Freddie Dias and head chef Brandon Ray.
The sensible thing to do on a late and cool crimson afternoon, I realise, is to have a glittering glass of champagne – local, of course – and sample Séjour’s unusual samoosas. They come flecked with mielie dust, which certainly adds an extra sparkle.
Prawn and corn samoosas, with angelhair chilli and a squirt of lime, are the fine food version of this treat. At that stage, I have no idea how satisfying the next dish is going to be – Jozi’s wonderful dish.
Dias is of Portuguese origin. After qualifying as a chef in his home country of South Africa, he travelled the world, cooking in several Michelin-starred establishments. He also worked with the great Nuno Mendes, London’s most famous Portuguese chef.
Returning to South Africa, Dias worked at The Potluck Club in Cape Town for a few years before his mother became ill and he moved back to Joburg. Her lack of appetite and Dias’s determination to get her to eat the most nourishing food gave rise to a dish born of the greatest love in an international chef’s world.
He would use 10 fresh foods, mostly vegetables, to create an appetising and nutritious meal. The name, ten-a-day risotto, is still attached to it. I won’t forget how I felt eating it.
This marvellous dish includes two kinds of mushrooms – the king mushrooms prepared like sizzled steaks scored in umami strips and the shimeji mushrooms done in tempura fashion.
Nestled among the mushrooms are tissue-thin rounds of celeriac – crunchy, baked parmigiano crisps. All of this rests on a bed of perfect, buttery risotto. The broth in which it has cooked, apart from the classic stock vegetables, is artichoke- and chorizo-based.
There are words like “solace”, “comfort” and “care” floating around this meal rather blissfully. Another word that recently came to my attention is “rizz”, Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2023.
“Authentic”, on the other hand, is Merriam-webster’s Word of the Year.
“Rizz” and “authentic” could both be bent to food purposes; the first is for inspiring followers of certain food styles and the second applies more to true food.
Dias wanted Séjour to provide a relaxed experience in a fine dining situation. His new restaurant at Melrose Arch is called Sebule – it’s about the feeling of being in the living area of a house.
The dish that brought me to Séjour in the first place is its three ways of duck. The cured duck rasher, or “ham”, is served with duck confit and is of the classic crispy sort. It tastes nothing like the pre-packaged rashers – what a difference fine culinary care makes.
I detect chorizo among my favourite black beans that come with the duck. I know Dias doesn’t necessarily cook Portuguese food, and in any case, this chorizo is done Spanish-style.
I cannot possibly eat dessert after all that, though I am curious about the sourdough that’s used in making ice cream and served with coffee mousse and French chocolate.
Head chef Ray brings outright delicious joy to a world that might once have bet against him succeeding in this competitive field. “I had to succeed. For me there was no plan B, nothing at all to fall back on,” he says. “I am the only person in my family to have succeeded at something.”
A few weeks later, I pause on the step leading into Dias’s new restaurant, Sebule. It’s very different, with flame light fittings hanging in clusters. It looks quite businesslike, as do those having lunch.
South Africa’s most wonderful wines are part of the décor. The kitchen opens out into the restaurant too. Here the emphasis is on charcoal open-grilling.
There has been an expectation that it would only be about steaks, but for Dias, it’s more often about the smokiness of dishes designed to bring out the different flavours.
The menu, after the To Begin section, is divided into Earth, Air, Water and Fire before reaching the puds section. Two other favourite vegetables of his feature – asparagus in an Earth dish of smoked gnocchi, and artichokes in a salad of black olives with Dias’s own sundried tomatoes.
I pounce on a chorizo dish as a starter. It must be Dias’s favourite, and it includes his own matured black garlic in aioli and a chickpea ragu. Naturally, this chorizo is for roasting on a grill, nicely blackened at the edges and oozing flavour right onto my chickpeas, themselves earthily smoky in a stew with tomatoes and more veggies.
From the Sea section, I am going to have the swordfish. In my favourite firefood restaurants of Jozi, like Marble and And Then There Was Fire, pelagic fish and octopus are more desirable to me than steaks. I know I should be eating tilapia and trout in Gauteng, even though we have no sea.
I love the melting quality of the swordfish within its fired skin. Mightily fragrant, slow-cooked bourride is poured around the fish as well as the chokka – local, delicious, delicate real stuff, not Falklands-treated calamari. There are bright green shelled edamame beans on the plate.
The atmosphere at Sebule is light, the chefs ribbing each other and chatting and laughing while working. Pastry chef Michaela Subjee is one of them.
This time I’ll certainly have dessert. Sourish textured raspberries appeal right now and there is one with the raspberries both fresh and jelly-preserved with matcha ice cream on vanilla sponge.
On the plate are matcha shards, little elderflowers and berries, a light crumble of the bitterest darkest chocolate to offset everything, the sweet and the sour. Chef Subjee told me it was all vegan, even the sponge.
And so Jozi gets another restaurant, already filled with visitors from around the world trying South Africa’s real fire finesse, the utter “rizz” of it.
Nestled among the mushrooms are tissue-thin rounds of celeriac – crunchy, baked parmigiano crisps.
All of this rests on a bed of perfect, buttery risotto
Séjour | 011 032 5535 | The Houghton Hotel | Lloys Ellis Ave, Houghton Estate