It’s been eighteen years since celebrity chef Reuben Riffel opened up his first restaurant, Reuben’s, in Franschhoek. Now, with four restaurants and four cookbooks under his belt, Riffel reflects on family, leadership and his food philosophy in a conversation with MatieMedia’s Jessica Hillier.
Had cooking not been the path he was steered towards by his mother’s desperate attempts to find him some kind of job, Reuben Riffel says he might have been involved in construction work, like his father was. Today, however, the world knows him as Reuben Riffel, the chef from Franschhoek (and the Robertsons spice guy).
Riffel says that he hated construction work. He knew that he wanted something else from life.
“I’m really interested in the fast-food space,” says chef Reuben Riffel when asked about his new restaurant, Let’s Frite, which opened in 2021. “I think it’s always nice to say, ‘What’s going to be our focus?’ My focus was: Let’s make the best chips we can find. Let’s not buy frozen stuff. Let’s see if we can figure out what the science is behind making the best chip. I don’t want to make it sound like we’re intellectualising it too much, but there ended up being a little bit of that kind of work, and I think we can even do more.” PHOTO: Jessica Hillier
Riffel is passionate about his family, and speaks fondly of his children. His speech is riddled with anecdotes about his “fussy kids”. He recounts his wife’s love of mushrooms and cheese, his daughter’s (13) latest interest in all things Asian cuisine, and his son’s (9) need to separate his foods and make sure nothing touches or mixes with anything else on his plate.
“It’s not like I can just make anything. I’ve gotta come up with something really… like it’s got to sound good,” says Riffel, adding that his kids are interested in foods that they’ve seen on tv, or read about.
“You know how kids are! You’ve got to keep it interesting,” he says.
Riffel’s outlook on life is reflected in the way he treats his food. His food philosophy emphasises simplicity, authenticity and full, good flavour. More than anything else: cooking with good quality, local ingredients, mostly inexpensive and certainly not flashy.
(As a self-proclaimed car enthusiast, he says his favourite car would have to be a Porsche 911 GT3, which, “is pretty flashy, by the way, but it’s not like a lambo, that’s way too flashy”.)
“Why are we cooking with super expensive oil that loses its properties as soon as you heat it up? That you’ve paid for? I don’t understand that,” says Riffel. “If you pour a good quality olive oil or drizzle it around a piece of grilled fish or a fresh tomato that’s freshly seasoned, then you can really taste why olive oil is so beautiful and delicious. […] It’s still happening today; nobody listens to me.”
“The newer generation, the millennials, whenever they’re going to have kids, they’re going to ask the question: ‘What are my kids eating?’ I’m like that. I don’t want my kids to eat just anything. I think that’s going to become more and more like that, and so we have to be mindful of it,” says chef Reuben Riffel. PHOTO: Jessica Hillier
He reckons that the need to continue to simplify things comes with age.
“The important thing is still to find the best ingredients that you can. But you don’t need to go too far to go find them, because a lot of them are around you. And work around what you can find around you. […] For me, authenticity is king, and I like to keep things sort of separated. And I feed off that…off the authenticity of food.”
For me, authenticity is king.
Riffel likes to use local ingredients in his own restaurants. “It’s so nice when there’s a week that I can serve tomatoes from the garden, basically,” he says. “Where it’s just sliced up, with nice olive oil, mozzarella… simple things. Or just as a side for something. And people can just be like, ‘Wow, look at that tomato. That’s a lovely tomato.’”
‘He wants to hear what you think’
Claudious Zinhanga, who works as the front of house at Reuben’s in Franschhoek, explains that working for Riffel is as exciting as it is challenging. When he previously worked as a bartender, Zinhanga says that Riffel tested his skills with a daily challenge. This could include creating something new for the menu, oftentimes due the very next day.
Pictured from left to right are four members of the staff who work at Reuben’s in Franschhoek: Mike Mubata, a waiter, Claudious Zinhanga, the front of house, Sam Baul, a bartender, and Tapiwa Sam, who is also a waiter. PHOTO: Jessica Hillier
“The more he challenged me, the more inspired I felt to learn, and the more I was able to feel like I was part of something much greater than just being a barman,” Zinhanga says.
I was able to feel like I was part of something much greater.
Sam Baul, Riffel’s bartender at Reuben’s, highlights Riffel’s kindness and his active efforts in involving every restaurant employee in the intricate decision-making processes that pertain to the restaurant. Baul says new items on the menu must be taste-tested and approved; by the waiting staff.
When speaking about the experience of working for Riffel, Zinhanga speaks with child-like delight and describes Riffel’s emphasis on granting the staff agency.
“Chef Reuben makes everyone feel like they are part of the business,” he says. “He wants to hear what you think. He sees us. He makes it known that our opinions really matter.”
Knowing your roots (or where your tomatoes come from)
Riffel explains that he lists the names of everyone who works with him on his menus; from those who are visible, all the managers and the waiters, to the chefs tucked away in the kitchens, and the farmers who provide the local produce he uses to make the food.
Chef Reuben Riffel says that his least favourite thing to eat is South African style Greek food. “I feel actually bad that I say this, because whoever is going to read this is going to say ‘Well you’ve just never tasted the proper thing!’” he says. And although he admits he loves Greek roasted lamb, “dolmades, and things like that” have never really done that much for him. PHOTO: Jessica Hillier
“There’s something quite heart-warming and genuine about it,” says Riffel about this subtle paying of homage. “It’s easy to take things for granted if you see the same format all over the place. You just come, they put a menu in front of you, you see a list of stuff, and then there you go.”
Riffel approaches people and all life’s endeavours with both an earnestness and a rare humility.
And, for interest’s sake, he says he’s always got a tin of tuna in the cupboard for “that tuna melt that hits the spot when nobody’s had the time to cook dinner”.
Looking towards the future
The endeavours of up-and-coming South African chefs, as well as the vibrancy, opportunities and freedoms presented by the social media food-scene, bring him boundless inspiration, says Riffel. When asked about his current foodie inspirations, Riffel is very conscious about whose names and whose work he gives the spotlight to.
“I’m not going to sit here and name the old chefs. I’m tired of putting their names out there. It’s the new generation now, and I’m more for them than the boys who have been around forever,” he says.
Chef Reuben Riffel’s arsenal of inspirational foodie anecdotes is abundant. “There was a Japanese chef that I followed from Australia called Tetsuya, and he had a dish that I copied, because I wanted to really taste what it was like – tuna, ginger, goat’s cheese, garlic and soya sauce, and olive oil. I mean, how do you put goat’s cheese together with raw tuna? Works like a bomb,” he says. Riffel was later invited to do a competition amongst chefs, where he made the dish. “And people were like ‘Wow! Where did you come up with this thing?’ And I said, don’t worry, I’ll tell you later.” PHOTO: Jessica Hillier
Riffel refers to them as “the new guys”; local chefs who truly inspire him at the moment. He gives particular mention to chefs Jessica van Dyk, from Post & Pepper restaurant in Stellenbosch, as well as Richard Carstens, who he works with, and Lucas Carstens, from Cavalli.
Known to many as a result of his television appearances, such as in Robertsons ads and as a judge on MasterChef South Africa, Riffel reckons he’ll “still do a lot of TV things,” but says that YouTube is still a relatively untapped gem for SA chefs.
He explains that he has a goal of starting his own channel. He believes that social media provides the opportunity to tell a different story.
“When you start combining that – food with people – and when we’re talking to a much bigger audience, I’ve got a massive interest in that. I just need to find the right people to do it with me.”
Throughout the interview, chef Reuben Riffel speaks about his love for vegetables. He says that he and his family are “trying to get to the veggie-only thing”. He believes that with vegetarian food, the aim should be “to create a satisfying flavour that completely coats your mouth, and makes you forget that you’re only eating veggies”. GRAPHIC: Jessica Hillier