The story starts more than sixteen years ago. In Roodebloem Road, Woodstock. A quaint street in the ‘back streets’ of Cape Town. Peter Veldsman, on the doorstep of retiring from an almost twenty year career in food journalism, was approached by Mrs. Lorraine van Oudehoven de St. Gerry to start a back street café for a couple of dyslectic youngsters. The idea appealed. Emily’s Bistro was created. Short lived. The youngsters ran away.

If only I had one rand for every time I had to answer “who is Emily?” Truth be told; nobody! No romantic tale. Peter wanted a female name, multi-cultural, within the first five letters of the alphabet. Turned out not to be that easy. After quite a search, coming up empty, a friend of ours, Francois du Plessis, stenciling some silhouettes onto the walls of our first interior, asked casually “what about Emily”? That was it! Turned out later to be a good call, but that is another story. . .

Eight months on and Johan Odendaal returned from Oslo, Norway, where he was chef to the South African Ambassador. He joined Emily’s and then with a total staff of three we started building a business – Emily’s restaurant. Sylvia cleaned, Johan cooked and Peter served! We had a seating capacity of 24 and did what we knew best – South African food, with a twist. It was the time of the grunge movement manifesting in Europe as “trash”. We started Afro-Euro trash culture, at first simplified, but as we grew we realized the interest amongst visitors to experience the palette of local flavours. A year later, we had to employ more staff, but quickly saw that the standard of trained staff was not up to standard. We decided to formalize The South African Cookery Club that Peter started in the early eighties. A “train-your-own” philosophy led to the inception of the Culinary Art institute of Africa (CAIA) in 1994. We offer a three-year restaurant-training course, the first in South Africa, encapsulating both the kitchen as well as front of house. First students to complete the course, included Liezel Roos, Andrew Whelan (our current head chef, yes, he is almost nine years with us) and Leigh Denny. Those were the days! We were known as “the backstreet boys”, ran our funny little shop with merely a door on the street, a historic King Edward letterbox in the front wall, the building peeling paint, sun-burnt and aged. The interior decorated eclectically in seventeen different colours with modern interpretations of South African food on designer plates and good glassware, but the rest more bric-a-brac than couture. A was a destination. Celebrities liked to “slum it” with us and we were voted as one of South Africa’s best restaurants on numerous occasions.

During early 2000, the management of the V&A Waterfront approached us to “pick up and move” to this prime location. We opened our doors in the newly built Clock Tower Centre on the 1st of December 2001. The profile of the clientele changed somewhat. Added to our local following we now had to think tourist market as well. Once again we had to re-invent ourselves. High-profile groups, demanding international clients and a changed local society required a change in style. Emily’s became the premier destination in Cape Town for South African cuisine.

We also opened a Snack Bar at the Historic Clock Tower with a more informal “al fresco” approach. By this time we received international awards, recognizing our “proudly South African” roots and also received the Blazon of the Chaîne des Rotisseurs. More local awards followed and we were able to travel to the United States and Europe, visiting old friends and making new ones. We were well received at some of the world’s top eateries and built a warm friendship with among others Monsieur Jean-Claude Vrinat of Taillevent until his untimely death in January 2008. The great Pierre Gagnaire showed us a great deal of affection and invited us into his kitchen in Paris. His staff assisted us in many ways and we obtained addresses of suppliers we would never have found on our own. Indeed we realized anew that the brotherhood of great chefs stretches well beyond our shores.