Secret Joburg

Award-winning restaurateur Michel Morand bypasses the CBD and shows us his secret Joburg

It’s almost twenty years to the day that Michel Morand (of Auberge Michel fame) has lived in Johannesburg, and a very long time since he has called France home. If any city represents the rainbow nation for Morand, it’s Johannesburg, and this is clearly where his love affair with the City of Gold first took root.

“I keep discovering Joburg,” Morand tells me, as we take a sharp shot right out of Sandton and head towards some of his favourite haunts. “From jazz in Yeoville to eating and drinking in shabeens in Soweto and Alexandra, I love that interaction. That cross cultural thing is what Joburg is, we are a cosmopolitan city.”

Ask Morand to take you on a tour of his secret Joburg; to those favourite places that he loves to frequent, especially when half of Gauteng has migrated towards the ocean for their December holidays; and he refreshingly foregoes all of the usual suspects. Armed with only his iPad and an impeccable internal GPS of the city, it’s towards the no-nonsense streets of Alexandra that we commence our afternoon.

Deli delights

Being the inspiration behind the renowned restaurant Auberge Michel (which closed its doors in August) and now most recently behind the sensational new a la carte restaurant at Emoyeni heritage site in Parktown, it’s no surprise that my tour of Morand’s Joburg is essentially a culinary one. We get to Corne Delicatessen Cape, and within minutes Morand and esteemed food supplier Thierry van den Bosch are talking “product” – what’s fresh, what’s seasonal, what wine they would pair that with, and whatever else they can squeeze into the strict schedule of the itinerary that Morand has lined up for me.

The way that they first met is a delightfully French cliché – Morand met Thierry and his father searching out a good foie gras supplier in Joburg many moons ago – but their thoughts about food and the restaurant industry in Johannesburg are just the opposite.

“We are nothing without our products,” Morand tells me sternly in the midst of a conversation with van den Bosch about how so many Joburg restaurants fall prey to putting aesthetics and decor trends above good quality ingredients and real food.

“Our suppliers are our partners, we are bringing in partners to make sure we can grow and satisfy our clients, and I will never compromise on the quality.”

Cyrildene secret

In a city which is built on good relationships and networking, Morand has worked very hard to source only the best suppliers across the country. It’s no surprise that he has become firm friends with them too, and again, not surprisingly, it’s a friendship that first brought him to the next stop on our tour: Sai Thai thai restaurant in Cyrildene.

Morand first met Micky when he was at a function which was serving such delicious food that he insisted on tracking down the chef responsible for the catering. He found out that Micky and her husband Dennis owned a restaurant in Cyrildene, and Sai Thai has since become a regular feature in the Morand family’s weekend outings.

“I enjoy that they serve real food,” he says, telling me that should I visit Sai Thai over the weekend, I would likely see many a well known local chef enjoying Dennis and Micky’s food. “They use great products, and the products are prepared in a different way to what we are used to. When I go out, I don’t want to eat French cuisine, I can prepare that at home.”

The congestion building up on the roads outside of Sai Thai is indicative that although we have really only conquered two of his favourite places, it’s time to make our way home or suffer the wrath of a typical traffic ridden Joburg afternoon. Morand laments that he also wanted to take me to Wandies Place in Soweto, even though it’s possibly less off the beaten path than Corne and Sai Thai, and a few other names of places that he rattles off in a hurry.

Although I get the sense that there’s a much longer list to his “secret Joburg” than what any afternoon could possibly encompass, perhaps there are some hard earned and eagerly discovered eateries that are best kept secret. Half their charm lies in their anonymity and lack of pretention, and half the fun for Joburgers lies in their own discovery of them. 

Details: Corne Delicatessen Cape cc is situated at 64 5th Street, Marlboro, Sandton, tel: 011 444 7391. Sai Thai Thai Restaurant is situated at Shop 1, Cyrildene Centre, corner Marcia Street and Derrick Avenue in Cyrildene, tel: 011 615 1339.

* Article first published in the December issue of Sandton magazine. Photos of Michel Morand and Emoyeni's Nonhlanhla Mavie and Emoyeni Estate courtesy Debbie Yazbek.