I have had to impose a rule when taking Hot Lunch restaurant suggestions from the subjects of this column. If someone suggests Tortellino d’Oro, I have to say no. Not because I don’t love it — my frequent visitations prove my loyalty — but because half of Johannesburg seems to want to eat there and there are only so many times one can revisit a favourite restaurant in print.
Yet here I am again, this time at the Bollini family’s gleaming new Sandton Gate outpost, watching the familiar faces of the waiters from the original Oaklands restaurant weave between tables while Caterina Bollini and her son Lorenzo attempt to explain how a tiny Italian deli became one of Johannesburg’s most beloved food destinations.
The glossy new restaurant that is giving St Tropez-meets-Capri vibes has barely opened, and already it feels as though all of Johannesburg has arrived. Lorenzo is counting covers while Caterina is discussing service, menus and bookings in her usual brusque style. They are already fully booked.
This success story is more than 40 years in the making. When I ask Caterina what has kept customers returning for four decades, she doesn’t launch into a speech about trends or innovation.
“I think we’ve never changed the food,” she says. “We’ve added a couple of things over the years, but not really. The food is always the same. When you make the same food every day, year after year, you eventually reach excellence. We have people who have worked with us for decades. Some of them were taught by my grandmother. They do the same thing every day and that repetition creates consistency.”
Consistency sounds deceptively simple, but in a city obsessed with the next opening, the next chef and the next trend, consistency may be the rarest luxury of all.
The Bollini story begins long before the first restaurant opened its doors in 1986. Caterina’s parents, Dante and Valeria, arrived from Bologna in the late 1960s, bringing with them recipes, traditions and what Italians call mal d’Africa — a longing for Africa that never quite leaves you.
My father was determined to recreate Italy wherever he could. He started raising pigs because he wanted to make Parma ham
— Caterina Bollini
“There was nothing here,” Caterina recalls with a laugh. “No food culture. No television. No cellphones. My father was determined to recreate Italy wherever he could. He started raising pigs because he wanted to make Parma ham. He made salamis. He was always dreaming up something new. Dante was in a wheelchair, but his mind travelled at 2,000km/h. He always dreamed of opening a second shop. We have fulfilled his dream.”
The name Tortellino d’Oro itself came from a letter sent by her grandfather in Italy.
“My grandfather wrote to my father and said: ‘Maybe one day you should open a tortellino d’oro.’ It was just a sentence in a letter, but somehow it stayed with him.”
The dream remained just that until tragedy struck. After the death of their young son Filippo, Dante and Valeria decided life was too short to postpone what they really wanted to do.
“My parents were accountants and neither of them really loved it,” says Caterina. “After Filippo died they said, ‘No. We’re finally going to do what we’ve always wanted to do.’ They opened a tiny little shop and started making tortellini and tagliatelle. We weren’t trained restaurateurs. We just knew food.”
The original deli measured only 35m². Yet from those modest beginnings grew one of Johannesburg’s most beloved culinary institutions.
Food, however, was never simply a business in the Bollini family.
“La tavola, the table, is not just a table,” says Caterina. “It is where life happens. It is where you discuss the dramas, the celebrations, the disappointments. When I was growing up in Bologna, my grandmother set the table three times a day. We came home from school, and lunch was ready. Everything happened around food. We met around the table. We still do.”
Across the table, Lorenzo nods. At 20-something, he represents the third generation of the family’s story and the driving force behind the new restaurant. His mother had other plans for him.
“Before I went to university she told me, ‘Become a lawyer. Don’t do what I do. This is a hard life.’ I tried. I lasted about a month and a half. Then I realised I was never going to survive behind a desk.”
After he graduated, he returned to the family business. “Food has given me everything. It sent me to great schools. It created opportunities. It shaped my entire life. Food means everything to me because it has provided everything for me.”
While Caterina protects the traditions, Lorenzo is helping to shape the future. He has curated an ambitious wine programme, assembled an impressive whisky collection and developed signature cocktails inspired by family stories and Italian heritage.
One cocktail is named after his grandmother. Others draw on memories of immigration, family holidays and the culture that shaped them.
“I think everything should have meaning,” he says. “People connect to stories. If you can give them a story, they understand what they’re drinking and why.”
Dining and Cooking