The Door Is Open

What do you get when you put a web developer and a graphic designer in the same room with a laptop and a few cuppas? You get Yuppiechef on your doorstep, that's what! And now – bringing you to theirs with the first walk-in, bricks and mortar store in Cape Town. We meet the faces, the founders, Andrew Smith and Shane Dryden, behind the brand that changed South African kitchens forever...

- Malu Lambert

The smell of freshly brewed espresso fills the air. It’s not just phones that are smart these days; the Nespresso Expert and Aeroccino Milk Frother bubbling away on the kitchen counter is an intuitive Bluetooth coffee machine – and it’s smartly doing its thing while we wait, seated around it. The coffee comes served in flame-coloured Le Creuset espresso cups, with just the right amount of crema on top.

Sitting just across from me are Yuppiechef’s co-founders, Andrew Smith (managing director) and Shane Dryden (director). It’s a cosy scene, but we’re not actually in a real kitchen; rather, the counter is in the centre of their new walk-in retail store at Willowbridge Mall in Tyger Valley, Cape Town. It’s Yuppiechef, come to life. The kitchen and homeware e-tailer is now in its eleventh year of trade – and it all began with a couple of laptops in a lounge in Plumstead.

“We’ve been friends for nearly 20 years,” says Andrew (37). Andrew is the slightly shorter and more clean-cut of the two. Shod in a dark suit, he wears his hair slicked back, while Shane (43) is a bit of a gentle giant and more casually dressed. Their personal styles are reflected in their skill sets too.

“Shane is more on the design side, while I’m more technical,” explains Andrew, coffee in hand. Both are originally from Pietermaritzburg and they independently moved down to Cape Town to pursue their professional careers. Even more serendipitously, they ended up as next-door neighbours. At the time, Andrew was involved in a web agency, while Shane worked in graphic design. They were both fed up with doing work that paid by the hour.