Chef Marijke Makomba (formerly Duminy), co-founded Four and Twenty Cafe in Cape Town, in 2013 (www.fourandtwentycafe.co.za). As Executive Head Chef, she was personally responsible for designing the iconic breakfast and lunch menu, still one of the most celebrated part of the café's ongoing success. Since its opening, it has consistently been on the Eat Out Top 500 restaurants list, has remained voted in the top 10 Cafes of the Western Cape (Eat Out Magazine), and listed in the renowned international food guide, “Where the Chefs Eat - a guide to chefs’ favourite restaurants” (2015), nominated by SA’s Top Chef Luke Dale Roberts.

How it began

After its opening in April 2013, Four and Twenty Cafe was an instant, raging success with queues forming around the block in rain or shine, all year round. Chef Marijke was Head Chef in the hot kitchen and personally responsible for developing the iconic Four & Twenty breakfast and lunch menu

• with the signature dishes and fresh flavour combinations that made them famous (and still keep the cafe booming today). Marijke’s B.Com Economics and Law degree, (completed before pursuing her Cordon Blues Grande Diploma training) only deepened her understanding of the business of food, and how to succeed in such a competitive industry.

IMAGE_PLACEHOLDER

The Future

Having sold her share in the restaurant in 2017 she moved to vibrant Jozi with a new dream, to launch her own niche consultancy, exploring the soul and stories of Johannesburg’s most interesting eateries. Combining her award-winning culinary talents and her relentless fascination with flavour innovation, she is also an enthusiastic and engaging teacher, who loves to share and unlock the potential within others. She believes that creative sharing breeds inspiration, and that the concept of a “secret recipe” is self-defeating and misplaced: the secret ingredient is always the spirit of the cook.

“Having run my own restaurant for five years, in which it felt like a piece of my soul on every plate, I know intimately what it feels like to live passionately for your business. Variety and change drive my existence however, and being given the opportunity to work with other business identities, and to be able to channel their vision into food that speaks volumes, to apply my culinary craft and creative obsession in new ways, to inspire other cooks to become even more enthralled by the magic of what they do - that is what feeds my soul!”

— Marijke Founder & Chef, Mak and Chops

Media coverage

Online Acclaim

LINKS_PLACEHOLDER