The kitchen journal
The thinking behind the food.
Longer reads about how we cook, source and build our kitchen.
01
Why “made from scratch” actually means something — and how to tell the difference
Every food brand says “fresh.” Not every brand means it.
At Your Kitchen Co in Johannesburg, made from scratch means exactly that. No packet sauces. No pre-mixed seasoning blends loaded with additives. No bread that arrived on a truck three days ago. Every morning, our team arrives at 6am. By 8:30am, the salads are dressed, the pasta is cooked, and the poke bowls are packed and sealed.
The lunch delivered to your office was made that morning by people who care about getting it right. The teriyaki sauce on your bowl was made in our kitchen, not a factory in another province. The flour in your pasta was sourced from a premium Italian supplier — the same grade that Chef Regev has used throughout his 25-year career.
Johannesburg has no shortage of food delivery options. But truly scratch-made food — where someone has taken the time to grind the spices, roll the pasta, bake the bread, and balance the nutrition — is rarer than it should be. We think you deserve better. So we make it.
Order online 48 hours ahead. Delivered Monday to Friday.02
What 25 years in professional kitchens taught one Johannesburg chef about food that works
Regev Afek has cooked for presidents, kings, rugby captains and boardrooms.
He has fed 1,200 people a day from a single kitchen, run catering operations with over 150 staff, and built menus from scratch at some of Johannesburg’s most demanding corporate kitchens. The thing that has followed him through all of it is a refusal to use a packet when he can make it himself.
In one of Johannesburg’s most demanding corporate kitchens, where Regev served as Executive Chef for four years, everything was made in-house: no bought-in sauces, no factory spice blends, fresh pasta, daily bread, and dressings, marinades and rubs created in the kitchen.
His current kitchen operates on the same principle. Every morning, the team arrives at 6am. Salads are built fresh. Pasta is rolled. Bread is mixed, shaped and baked on-site. It takes more time and costs more to do it right. For Regev, the alternative is not really an alternative.
Order online 48 hours ahead. Delivered Monday to Friday.03
Why where you source your food matters as much as how you cook it
A kitchen is only as honest as its supply chain.
You can have a gifted chef and a beautiful menu — but if the flour is cheap, the vegetables have been sitting in a warehouse for two weeks, and the sauces came from a factory, the food tells the truth eventually.
Our flour comes from Italy. Our vegetables come first from local growers who harvest in small batches. Our spices are sourced whole from specialist suppliers and blended in-house. Our sauces, dressings and curry blends are made in our kitchen every day.
Our bread is baked from scratch in our ovens every morning. Our pasta is rolled on site. Nothing comes from a packet. This is not marketing. It is how we work, every day, because we believe the food you eat deserves it.
Order online 48 hours ahead. Delivered Monday to Friday.