Teenola Govender’s resumé reads like a roundup of some of Cape Town’s top restaurants: the original Test Kitchen, The Pot Luck Club, Chefs Warehouse at Beau Constantia (that’s where she met Geoffrey Abrahams, her co-head chef at COY Restaurant). Throughout our chat, she mentions an impressive roster of culinary talent: Ivor Jones, Ryan Cole (executive chef and owner of COY), Liam Tomlin and Luke Dale Roberts.

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During COVID, Teenola and Geoffrey side-hustled with a lockdown business, Better Together, a food delivery kitchen. “We put our all into it,” she says. When Liam opened Local at Heritage Square, he offered them the upstairs space, Mazza, a Middle Eastern-inspired tapas restaurant.

“That was our first shot as head chefs,” says Teenola. “It was a chance to show what we were made of, ready or not. And we did it. It was a really special place for us and something I’m still incredibly proud of.”

In the intervening years since The Test Kitchen – where they worked together, Teenola had stayed in touch with Ryan and maintained a good relationship with the chef, which led to him approaching her and Geoffrey to pitch COY. “He’s an incredible boss. He’s put so much trust and faith in us, and it’s meant the world,” she says.

This collaborative spirit runs deep with Teenola. For her, there is no disputing that a kitchen is a team, and she’s finding it hard to do this interview in the first-person singular. Throughout our conversation, she goes back again and again to the chefs she has worked with and those who have taken on the role of mentor in her food journey. Her message is clear: she didn’t get to where she is alone.

What she’s absorbed from each mentor is their distinctive approach to cooking – how they lean into the food they love. This philosophy has shaped her own personal cooking style.

“I need to drown out all the noise because it’s really easy – even just scrolling Instagram and seeing what other restaurants are doing – to compare yourself to that. There is much more strength and character in leaning into what you enjoy cooking and what you believe in.”

Take COY’s bread course as a prime example – a 48-hour fermented amadumbi sourdough. “At the time we were coming up with it, everyone was doing a style of Japanese milk bun or soft brioche bread just to enjoy the butter. I told Geoffrey I wanted to go the complete opposite – hard crust, something that has character, texture, flavour. I wanted to spend three days building that flavour for one single bread roll. I made a conscious decision to be different.”

Getting it right was a long process, but it is a COY signature that’s still on the menu, served with bokkom, kefir butter (made in-house), guava konfyt for a touch of sweetness, and a black onion salt (onions are done in the fire overnight) to finish.

 

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More than her experience and formal training, Teenola’s connection to her homeland, KwaZulu-Natal and to her mother, grandmother, and aunts – all fantastic cooks – has been the most important factor in shaping her into the chef she is today. “The way they layer and balance spice and flavours has always been something I am interested in and inherently taken on as a way I like to cook,” she says. “KZN is so beautiful and so diverse, so rich and really bountiful. I try to bring that into dishes at COY.”

Her journey hasn’t been without challenges. When Teenola was coming up in the ranks, there weren’t many female chefs, and she’d often be the only one in a team, or one of two. “I remember at Beau I said to Geoff, sometimes I feel so weak, because I’m the only girl here. He replied, ‘Tee, it’s not a weakness, it’s your strength. ”

She took that to heart. “I definitely know I’m tough – but I’m fair. I believe I lead with a lot of heart and a lot of calmness,” she says. “I know if things are busy and hectic and I’m the one standing on the pass, it’s on me – I’m the one who has to steer the ship through the storm. A lot of people are depending on my decision-making in that moment.”

Now the tables have turned. COY’s kitchen crew and front of house are predominantly female – “a fantastic thing to see,” says Teenola.