Imagine the future

Karen Dudley has moved on from The Kitchen and is looking onward to brighter, more delicious things. We peek into her kitchen and find out who Karen is outside the iconic restaurant she is known for

Talking to Karen is like talking to a mythical, food-obsessed wizard. It's in the extra-large hand gestures when she talks about toast and her sparkly eyes when discussing her lovely kitchen. You cannot sum her up in a nutshell, nor would anyone want to.

Stepping out of The Kitchen

I am never going to have another restaurant,' she says when asked about the closure of The Kitchen. Being at home more is wonderful and being with my family is amazing, but I'm also doing a lot of other fun and interesting stuff, and I'm embracing it and looking to the future.' The Kitchen powered through the first months of the pandemic and South Africa's strict lockdown, but Karen knew it couldn't continue. People were shocked! The Kitchen was such an establishment; it was all about conviviality, people hugging getting a sandwich over the counter, lots of people breathing on the food, and people fighting in the queue for the last honey mustard sausage. And it was all about contact with people. And I just knew the world would not be like that again, not for a while. It was incredibly traumatic; I felt I was losing my community.'

Karen started making short Instagram videos, inspiring her community to make her delicious dishes at home and has found a new sense of belonging among her followers.

Home

Karen and her husband, David, finished remodelling their house just before the world reached a standstill in 2020. Her vision was for it to be a display case for her beautiful fabrics and the vast amounts of crockery she had.

'In 2020, we were in this home capsule that we loved and wanted to be in, and it was such a sanctuary, and it was already perfectly done - we didn't need to set up anything - we could just start creating!