Neil Roake epitomises the term ‘entrepreneur’. This Durban-based executive has spent the last 20 years in advertising, with a focus on retail. He runs the retail brand The Space and its nine countrywide stores, as well as the 12-roomed boutique hotel The Concierge Hotel Boutique Bungalows and the restaurant Freedom Café. Neil is passionate about food and is always on the lookout for a chef who is able to deliver a dish that makes him want to shout with happiness.

Your profile describes you as a ‘jack of all trades’ – you are involved in advertising, design, communications, food and the restaurant industry. Which title do you feel describes you best?

I’m a do-er!

Where did you discover your love of food?

My mother taught me how to make a béchamel sauce and the rest is history. My parents owned small, family restaurants so I was invariably in a kitchen after school.

What motivated you to open the Freedom Café and is there any special meaning behind the name?

I left the corporate world, saying goodbye to the hierarchy and manipulation, and found my freedom. The café is the first of many planned for the future, under our hospitality group TUTTI Design Driven Hospitality.

The café has a unique design – it’s housed in a red shipping container, which has been extended with glass. What inspired this design?

Greg Dry of Egg Designs gave me the idea. I loved the idea of a recycled container getting a new lease on life! The café is totally design-driven and aims to please with aesthetics, fresh flavour and a chilled atmosphere.

Tell us more about the food.

Our new chef, Tim Lee (he starts in January), has just returned from a two-year stint at Bill’s Café in Sydney, which is owned by renowned chef Bill Granger. Our new menus will be fresh and exciting; international and local flavours are important. Recently, the fresh Saldanha Bay mussels have been very popular, as has the Cambodian Beef Lok Lak.  

What is your current favourite meal on the Freedom Café menu?

The mushroom tart – made with shimji, shiitake and portabellini mushrooms, with a dash of truffle oil – is sensational.

What are your favourite restaurants?

My local Chinese in Glenashley, Ton Hoi, delivers fantastic langoustine sashimi, cucumber and jellyfish salad, and Japanese mushrooms with broccoli. I also love Al Firenze Italian in Glenashley, the whole baked rock cod is fantastic. Wodka at the Docklands Hotel makes a fantastic baklava and spun-sugar dessert. I also love Freedom Café’s pumpkin-filled cappalletti with sage butter.

You have also written a number of cookbooks. Which is your favourite?

I have written five cookbooks and my favourite is always the next one that I’m working on!

Are there any new cookbooks in the pipeline?

Yes, I’m working on one called The Italian Club. It features recipes from my new restaurant, Craft, a modern Italian ristorante, which is opening in March.

We are finally heading into summer in South Africa. What are your favourite summer ingredients?

Fior di lattemozzarella, vine-ripened tomatoes, watermelon, nectarines, pea shoots, broad beans, pomegranates, blackberries, raspberries, radishes and blood oranges.

How will you be celebrating this Christmas?

We will be with my best friends, Greg and Roche Dry from Egg Designs, on their smallholding in Drummond – eating Roche’s home-cured chuck and Bob’s charcuterie and gammons.