Madiba's chef the secret ingredient at Sanctuary Mandela's restaurant

At the  recently opened boutique hotel Sanctuary Mandela, the Nelson Mandela Foundation has revamped and remodelled Nelson Mandela’s first Houghton home, where he lived soon after his release from prison, and created a venue with luxurious accommodation, a restaurant, bar and conference facilities.

Beyond experiencing the hotel and the food, my recent visit was an opportunity to catch up with Madiba’s personal and loyal chef of 22 years, the wonderful Xoliswa Ndoyiya, now the newly appointed chef de tournant at the hotel's Insights Restaurant.

I’d worked with Sis Xoli on her cookbook, Tastes From Nelson Mandela’s Kitchen, in 2011, and the best part of the collaboration was watching her conjure up Madiba’s favourite dishes with love and care while sharing the anecdotes behind each dish.

The real beauty of the food lay in its simplicity, like the memorable stiff maize-meal porridge with finely shredded curried cabbage (umqa wekhaphetshu), the turmeric in the curry powder offering a vibrant yellow colour to the dish rich with buttery flavour, bringing the two very different textures together so deliciously.

Today we find Xoliswa in a very different kitchen — brand new with gleaming stainless steel equipment and bright lights, to one side a large opening into the restaurant which allows diners to watch the team at work.

The menu is small with a selection of starters, mains and desserts, described as “a historical ‘food-print’ of the modest tastes of Nelson Mandela ... we’ve strived to refine and modernise these tastes”.