Bo-Kaap Kombuis

Yusuf Larney was still a child when he and his family were wrenched out of everything they knew and loved and deposited in a then barren place called Bonteheuwel because moving them suited the apartheid government.

“I’m a District Six boykie,” says Yusuf, 53, about the famously colourful, mixed-race area close to the heart of Cape Town’s city centre which was destroyed by racist diktat in the mid-1960s. Yet not much more than a decade after the evictions, still in his twenties, the District Six boykie was back; if not to the area that was still off-limits to coloured people like him, then at least close enough to the city centre; Cape Town’s celebrated Bo-Kaap.

In 1980 Yusuf bought a small house from a Scottish couple. For 26 years Yusuf beavered away at his job at the Department of Labour, eventually rising to a position of influence in which he helped move from the rigid apartheid days of separate toilets, separate forms and separate treatment to the democratic department of today.

Views to make an angel weep

Yusuf, aptly assisted by his loyal and long standing friend, Nazli Kasu ran a successful guesthouse from the property which commands views of Cape Town, Table Mountain and Table Bay so grand they would make an angel weep. Never a chef, Yusuf had been crazy about food since his childhood, particularly the traditional food of the Malays. Yusuf and Nazli knew that they should put up a restaurant on top of the  guesthouse – but how to capture that view? One night, walking on the concrete slab that was the roof of his guesthouse, he suddenly realised: steel and glass. That’s all he  needed, that and a clever architect. By November 2005 the clever architect had delivered on Yusuf’s dream and the Bo-Kaap Kombuis was opened.

“In Afrikaans kombuis means kitchen and we chose ‘kombuis’ for a particular reason,” says Yusuf. “In our houses, the kitchen was the centre, the heart of the family. That’s what we aim to achieve every day we’re open, from Tuesday to Sunday; to make our guests feel that they are not just getting home-cooked food but that they’re in a friend’s home.”

A friendly feeling is just one ingredient in the Bo-Kaap Kombuis’s recipe. The astonishing view from the slopes of Signal Hill comes without a cover charge and its food, traditional Malay/South African fare, is the toast of Cape Town. The curries, including lamb, chicken, suikerboontjie (sugar beans) and beef are legendary; the butter chicken can bear comparison with the best you will find in the Indian subcontinent. The denningvleis – a lamb dish marinated with tamarind – has to be tasted to be believed.

A cuisine franca

“You know, when all of these people arrived from so many places they spoke so many languages,” says Yusuf. “They eventually came up with a lingua franca, which contributed a lot to Afrikaans. They also brought with them their own recipes and came up with what I call a cuisine franca. This is the food we serve at Bo-Kaap Kombuis.”

It’s no wonder then that, as Yusuf says, the managers of several big Cape Town hotels refer guests to his restaurant. “If their guests want lunch or dinner, they send them to the V&A Waterfront. If they want an experience, they send them to us.”

Just down the road from the Kombuis are the offices of TEP, and Yusuf says he owes a substantial debt to this organisation. “I’m telling you, if it weren’t for TEP we wouldn’t have any brochures. But that’s only part of the debt we owe them. They’ve been fantastic partners with us, helping us in marketing, training and taking our business to the next level. The cluster that TEP is creating is another great opportunity for us. We’re very proud of the product we have but we’re always ready and willing to listen and learn.”