Former prison kitchen converted to an inclusive space serving local dishes

Mpho Phalane, founder of conceptual restaurant Food, I Love You Kitchen, is plating up forgotten homegrown dishes and reviving their heritage.   

The popular eatery housed at the historic grounds of Constitution Hill is known for its deeply satisfying home-cooked meals. The restaurant occupies the former prison kitchen in the Old Fort courtyard behind the main prison.   

“We cook with plenty of SA indigenous foods and even some of those foods that don’t feature as frequently in our everyday lives any more. Take for example mielie rys (mealie rice), we have it as a salad in the restaurant. There is nothing wrong with it, we were shamed to believe that our foods are wrong,” says Phalane.

Phalane's food is a celebration of local ingredients with a fusion of beloved Sunday lunch table classics. Her holiday-themed dishes include creamy sorghum mushroom risotto, broad beans and avocado smash; feta cornbread, orange sweet potato and feta salad with a coriander and atchaar dressing and beetroot slaw.  

We meet a laid-back Mpho Phalane at her establishment and offers us a carrot, turmeric and ginger drink.

Charcoal-hued ceiling fans hovering beneath powder-white exposed trusses offer visitors a cooling relief from the balmy outdoors. The rustic eatery is housed with its original building features with plenty of seating; from the entryway you are greeted with long dining tables stretched into the space to accommodate large groups. Then intimate seating is tucked away into the corners of the interiors.   

“What was great about this place is that we couldn’t change anything,” Phalane says.

“I was permitted to add layers here and there which was difficult because in a normal world when you open a restaurant you want it to feel a particular way and I didn't have permission. It was then I realised that I’m working with such a beautiful site with many stories etched into its walls.” 

The simplistic décor design permits maximum natural light to flood in through the windows, bouncing off the emerald green and aureate kitchen tiles into the garden patio. Closest to the windows, a server table is furnished with coffee table reads, decorative root vegetables, towering jars of homemade delights and colourful kitchen ornaments.

At the end of the table sits a miniature harvest table with crockery and glassware stacked in shelving behind the table for seamless self-service.   

“My thinking was awakened that I had to create a space that was more inclusive and felt like home because that is unexpected in a prison,” says Phalane.

“Restaurants serve a functional purpose; to eat and take Instagram-worthy photographs. Ours had to have more depth. People come in feeling sad and they need a soft place to land.

“I took what we do here more seriously with my part being the guardian of the space making sure that I’m looking after it and preserving its story and space. Also being a black woman in a space that oppressed black people, you can't run away from that. So from the get-go when you walk in here you will be in a space that is unapologetically black and trying to rewrite history.”

The 37-year-old from Protea North, Soweto, recalls her early food journey being influenced by her mother.

“My mother in her travels introduced me to alternative foods. She was vegetarian, and by virtue I became semi-vegetarian. We would cook a lot of pulses, legumes and grains,” she says.

“I learnt there was so much more than just a barbecue spice; I learnt about coriander and using fresh herbs and oils. I had a wider palette and understanding of food.”

Phalane's passion for food was ignited during a season of frustration in her static career trajectory in advertising and food became her answer.   

“In 2013, Food, I Love You found me. I found myself mindful of how I spent my time on weekends to decompress. I was cooking a lot for my friends. I was known for being the one that would host dinners,” she says.

“One day I was cooking, then one person referred me to another and before I knew it there was another, and this person would refer me to someone else, and that’s how it began,” she says.

“I figured out my food early in the game. I want food that makes people happy, good real food. 

“Chakalaka was one of the first dishes I learned how to cook. I love it, it's one of my favourite things in the world – the spice combination, the vegetable ratios. There are so many technical aspects to it, it's simply amazing!”