Chef Sanza Sandile

Chef Sanza Sandile is the founder of the famed Johannesburg Yeoville Dinner Club, a space for tasting PanAfrikan futures while sharing a dinner table. Each night, he opens a carefully curated table in his spot on everbuzzing Rockey Street that serves as the temporary home for the stories his guests bring to it: Safe, savoury and clever.

Dubbed a gastronomic smuggler and the "El Bulli of Yeovillle", Sanza Sandile affirms the dignity of encounters by his unique twist to otherwise well-known African dishes, such as vegan Egusi or Okra-stews. His mixology of flavours, tastes and stories speak to his early career as a radio DJ and selector at YFM and other radio stations of crucial importance in the sonic history of South Africa.

His home, inspiration and utopia is Yeoville, the famed Johannesburg suburb called the "most diverse hood in Africa" in a recent feature in the Economist (2019). It is here in Yeoville that he gathers ideas for dishes based on stories of migration and belonging, and taps into the wealth of knowledge of the local, abundant food market and its protagonists. All comes together at the table of the Yeoville Dinner Club, which is both an archive of routes and stories, soon to be turned into a book.