FOOD & WINE

Juan Andres Vais left Argentina over two decades ago, but Argentina never left him.
 

Now firmly rooted in Cape Town, Juan has spent 22 years doing one thing with singular obsession — cooking over fire. Not just grilling, but the full gaucho ritual: the patience, the smoke, the heat that builds slowly and rewards those willing to wait. At African Gaucho, he's taken that obsession and shaped it into one of South Africa's most distinctive culinary experiences, one where every event feels less like a catering job and more like a performance.

His philosophy is simple and uncompromising — everything goes over the fire. Starters, mains, desserts, all of it cooked with flame and intention, because for Juan, the fire isn't a technique, it's a language he's spent a lifetime learning to speak fluently.
 

That commitment was put to its most extreme test when he was commissioned to roast a whole Ankole cow — one of Africa's most prized and rarely eaten animals — over live fire for 170 guests. He trucked a custom rotisserie from Cape Town, worked through three days with barely any sleep, and delivered a feast that had never been done before at that scale in South Africa. The kind of feat that leaves no doubt about who you're dealing with.