A Houghton restaurant that’s ‘rizz’ and rising in the foodie consciousness

Chef Michaela told me it was all vegan, even the sponge. (Photo: Talented Mr Will)

By Marie-Lais Emond

15 Dec 2023

In this new series, we take you on a journey into some of the excellent Joburg restaurants that exemplify the exciting cuisine that is coming out of the Golden City. First up – Séjour.

There’s a wondrous dish in Jozi. Of course, there are wonderful dishes all over Johannesburg, a food capital more than twice the size of New York City. There are many culinary enclaves – almost 1,000 restaurants can be found the length and breadth of the city – but this particular dish, in Houghton, comes with a special magic of its own.

I’m at Séjour. Sunshine drenches an expansive view from the wraparound balcony. I sigh with rapture as I lay down my cutlery. Head chef Brandon Ray nods and smiles at me. He knows.

Séjour was awarded a single star in 2023 (and in 2022) by the annual Eat Out awards. It also got a one-plate rating from the Cape-based JHP Gourmet Restaurant Awards.

On this visit, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a chat with Séjour’s owner-chef Freddie Dias and head chef, Brandon Ray.

The sensible thing to do on a late and cool crimson afternoon, I realise, is to have a glittering glass of champagne – local, of course – and sample Séjour’s unusual samoosas. They come flecked with mielie dust, which certainly adds an extra sparkle.

The ultimately unusual samoosas, seemingly glittering with mielie dust, to be lavished with lime. (Photo: Talented Mr Will)

Prawn and corn samoosas, with angel-hair chilli and a squirt of lime, are the fine food version of this treat.

At that stage, I had no idea how satisfying the next dish would be – Jozi’s wonderful dish.

Freddie Dias is of Portuguese origin. After qualifying as a chef in his home country of South Africa, he travelled the world, cooking in several Michelin-starred establishments. He also worked with the great Nuno Mendes, London’s most famous Portuguese chef.

Returning to South Africa, Freddie worked at The PotLuck Club in Cape Town for a couple of years before his mother became ill and he moved back to Joburg.

Her lack of appetite and Freddie’s determination to get her to eat the most nourishing food gave rise to a dish born of the greatest love in an international chef’s world.

He would use 10 fresh foods, mostly vegetables, to create an appetising and nutritious meal. The name, Ten-A-Day Risotto, is still attached to it.

I won’t forget how I felt eating it.

This marvellous dish includes two kinds of mushrooms – the king mushrooms prepared like sizzled steaks scored in umami strips and the shimeji mushrooms done in tempura fashion.

Nestled among the mushrooms were tissue-thin rounds of celeriac – crunchy, baked parmigiano crisps. All of this lay on a bed of perfect, buttery risotto. The broth in which it had cooked, apart from the classic stock vegetables, was artichoke and chorizo-based.

There are words like “solace”, “comfort” and “care” floating around this meal rather blissfully. Another word that recently came to my attention is “rizz”, Oxford’s Word of the Year for 2023. “Authentic”, on the other hand, is Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year.

“Rizz” and “authentic” could both be bent to food purposes; the first is for inspiring followers of certain food styles and the second applies more to true food.

Freddie wanted Séjour to provide a relaxed experience in a fine dining situation. His new restaurant at Melrose Arch is called “Sebule” – it’s about the feeling of being in the living area of a house.

Duck worth pausing for, in three culinary states, including exceptionally well-cured duck ‘ham’. (Photo: Talented Mr Will)

The dish that brought me to Séjour in the first place is duck done in different ways; their Three Ways of Duck.

The cured duck rasher, or “ham”, is served with duck confit and is of the classic crispy sort.

The duck ham here tastes nothing like the pre-packaged rashers – what a difference fine culinary care makes.

I detect chorizo among my favourite black beans that come with the duck. I know Freddie doesn’t necessarily cook Portuguese food, and in any case, this chorizo is done Spanish-style.

The sourdough ice cream that had to pass me by. (Photo: Talented Mr Will)

I cannot possibly eat dessert after all that, though I was curious about the sourdough that’s used in the making of ice cream and served with coffee mousse and French chocolate.

Another dessert friends have recommended features star anise and pear sorbet, with Gewurztraminer-poached pear, an orange blossom meringue and olive oil brioche – another Séjour-baked triumph.

Another Séjour-baked triumph, within a pear composition. All I could do was admire it. Photo: Talented Mr Will

Freddie and chef Brandon Ray have had very different backgrounds and opportunities. Brandon brings outright delicious joy to a world that might once have bet against him succeeding in this competitive field.

“I had to succeed. For me there was no plan B… nothing at all to fall back on,” he said.

“I am the only person in my family to have succeeded at something,” he says with a broad smile.

A few weeks later, I pause on the step leading into Freddie’s new restaurant, Sebule. It’s very different, with flame light fittings hanging in clusters. It looks quite businesslike, as do those having lunch.

South Africa’s most wonderful wines are part of the décor. The kitchen opens out into the restaurant too.

Here the emphasis is on charcoal open-grilling. There has been an expectation that it would only be about steaks, but for Freddie, it’s more often about the smokiness of dishes designed to bring out the different flavours.

Sebule’s been open for barely a month and there was no time to even have an opening. It’s already full of tourists and locals, especially in the evenings.

Before lunch, part of Sebule’s interior shows the kitchen opening into the restaurant. (Photo: Talented Mr Will)

I pounce on a chorizo dish as a starter. It must be chef Freddie’s favourite, and it includes his own matured black garlic in aioli and a chickpea ragu.

The menu, after the To Begin section, is divided into Earth, Air, Water and Fire before reaching the puds section. Two other favourite vegetables of his feature – asparagus in an Earth dish of smoked gnocchi, and artichokes in a salad of black olives with Freddie’s own sundried tomatoes.

Naturally, this chorizo is for roasting on a grill, nicely blackened at the edges and oozing flavour right onto my chickpeas, themselves earthily smoky in a stew with tomatoes and more veggies.

A natch for roasting on a grill, oozing flavour right onto my chickpeas. (Photo: Talented Mr Will)

Demand has begun dictating that there be prawns on the Sebule menu. Freddie waves his arm helplessly towards the square outside, where Parreirinha, Jozi’s friendly Portuguese restaurant moved a while back, having made its name in the south.

“It specialises in LM prawns and per-peri. That’s what they do perfectly well – I don’t want to be competing.”

From the Sea section, I am going to have the swordfish.

In my favourite firefood restaurants of Jozi, like Marble and And Then There Was Fire, pelagic fish and octopus are more desirable to me than steaks. I know I should be eating tilapia and trout in Gauteng, even though we have no sea.

Mightily fragrant, slow-cooked bourride is poured around the swordfish. (Photo: Talented Mr Will)

I love the melting quality of the swordfish within its fired skin. Mightily fragrant, slow-cooked bourride is poured around the fish as well as the chokka – local, delicious, delicate real stuff, not Falklands-treated calamari. There are bright green shelled edamame beans on the plate.

The atmosphere at Sebule is light, the chefs ribbing each other and chatting and laughing while working. Pastry chef Michaela Subjee is one of them.

This time I’ll certainly have dessert. Sourish textured raspberries appeal right now and there is one with the raspberries both fresh and jelly-preserved with matcha ice cream on vanilla sponge.

On the plate are matcha shards, little elderflowers and berries, a light crumble of the bitterest darkest chocolate to offset everything, the sweet and the sour. Chef Michaela told me it was all vegan, even the sponge.

Chef Michaela told me it was all vegan, even the sponge. (Photo: Talented Mr Will)

And so Jozi gets another restaurant, already filled with visitors from around the world trying South Africa’s real fire finesse, the utter “rizz” of it. DM

Séjour | 011 032 5535 | The Houghton Hotel | Lloys Ellis Ave, Houghton Estate

Sebule | 072 456 1367 | in African Pride Hotel Melrose Square, Melrose Arch

The writer supports Nosh Food Rescue, an NGO that helps Jozi feeding schemes with food ‘rescued’ from the food chain. Please support them here.

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