Ep 16: Bao Down restaurant - Phillipa and Graham Oldfield

Food Tribe

Today’s episode is the last of the interviews I did while I was in Cape Town.

And it’s especially special because I got to interview 2 of my friends. Phillipa, or Phlop as her friends call her, is one of my oldest and best friends. Her and her husband Graham opened their restaurant Bao Down in Cape Town last year. They serve inventive, delicious Asian inspired dishes - think kimchi fried rice, a crazy spin on prawn toast, baos of course, and miso crack pie. People can’t get enough – it’s full every night.

The whole celebrity chef thing hasn’t really hit Cape Town the way it has in cities like New York and London. There’s not nearly as much glits and glam surrounding the industry. It's a completely different scene in South Africa. There’s something very pure and humble about what these two are doing - they’re just a young couple who own and run a small, busy, restaurant serving up great food. They’re there every day and every night (along with their Cocker Spaniel restaurant dog Rupert) and it’s a way for them to be together doing what they love most - cooking and making people happy with their food.

This is an open, honest conversation about the reality of owning and running your own restaurant. Even though this episode takes place in Cape Town, no matter where you are in the world there’ll be something for you to take away from it. It’s a story about a couple, about a restaurant, about food and having the courage to take a risk and go all in on something you care about…

I hope you enjoy this conversation with the dream team behind Bao Down, my friends Phlop and Graham…

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