This is us
For years we dreamt about a way of living out our passion for food and people.
Now we are living it.
Making delicious food and meeting interesting people are what make husband-and-wife team Reinée and Deon Brand tick. That, and laughing as much as possible along the way. So, to say that they’ve been living their dream running their own foodie business since 2011, is very much spot on.
For them relationships are at the forefront of everything they do, and you can taste that in their food. In 2011, Reinée took the plunge and left behind 14 years of owning and running a computer curriculum development and training business to pursue her passion for food full time. She started off small, hosting an intimate cooking class for six in the cosy kitchen of her and Deon’s home in Stellenbosch, where she’d share cooking techniques, recipes and whatever hilarious anecdotes happened to be front of mind while everyone huddled around the kitchen island, wine glass in hand. Soon, word got out about the fun, quirky food-and-wine gatherings and more and more classes were getting booked.
In 2013, Deon joined the business full time (although he’d been doing a stellar job as Reinée’s freelance kitchen assistant and wine-glass filler before then), bringing with him years of experience in the hotel-, restaurant- and product-development industries. As a qualified chef and hotel-school graduate, he went about setting up the catering side of the business, which provides its services to everything from private house parties and weddings to sports events and corporate functions.
Fast forward to the present. In 2023 they recalibrated their priorities and paused their ever popular cooking experiences to give attention to their family and a few other dreams – for Reinée specifically, writing a book! The catering side of the business continued to blossom, with Tamatiestraat becoming synonymous with quality and fun food installations.
Together with their team, they continue to dream about “what is next” for their culinary child – and also celebrate the wins on the road like releasing Reinée’s book Tussen-in-between in October 2026!
Reinée is the founder and CEO of Tamatiestraat, a catering company based in Stellenbosch. She completed her B.Prim (Mus) Ed degree at the University of Stellenbosch in 1996 and did a post graduate diploma in graphic design and multimedia at Hirt & Carter in 1997. Her career started as the franchise owner of Computers 4 Kids Boland through which she implemented and managed the Computers 4 Kids computer curriculum in various schools. After 12 years, she was looking for a new challenge and founded Tamatiestraat in 2011 as an outlet for her passion for cooking, teaching and sharing fabulous food. It started with weekly cooking classes to a few friends and grew into a blossoming business presenting 15 classes a month to more than 200+ eager attendants by 2022. Since then she has been working on a dream project which is her "first proper memoir recipe book", Tussen-in-between being released in October 2026.
REINÉE
Creative Police Officer
Deon joined the Naval Force in 1991 and completed his Chef's training as part of his time in Simon's Town. He then went on to obtain his Hotel Management diploma while working and managing a few high end restaurants in Cape Town. From 2001-2012 he worked alongside Marcel van der Merwe at Marcel's Frozen Yoghurt as the Product Developer and Operations Manager. He absolutely loved this season of his career, but decided to leave the company after it was sold to international investors. Their loss was our gain when Deon joined Tamatiestraat in 2012 to address the growing demand for classes and caterings. As the COO, he is in charge of the general day-to-day operations of the business, public relations & suppliers and heads up the Catering department of the business with enthusiasm. His unofficial title is: The Passionate Executer! No task or challenge scares him and he aims to ensure every function is the best possible experience for our clients. “The best part of my job is that I get to play with food and (get paid to!) engage with amazing people. I am truly in my element!”
DEON
Passionate Executer
Wilma
Prep QueenWilma has been part of the Tamatiestraat team since 2012. She started out as an incredible nanny to our son Ben-Daniël and a real-life cat whisperer. Since then, she has been trained in-house and promoted to the Tamatiestraat kitchen manager (and our prep queen!). She is an indispensable part of the “behind the scenes” operations: setting up and prepping for the cooking classes, arranging flowers, making coffee, calming nerves and singing in the kitchen; always with a “dis nie ‘n probleem nie” attitude. She is the proud mom of Courtney and 2 boys, and the grandmother of another 2 boys! Rich indeed.
COURTNEY
PR SpecialistDaughter to Wilma, a mother to 2 boys and officially part of the team since 2017. This one dreams big and knows what she wants! Her humour and honesty keeps us all on our toes and when it comes to making sure everything runs smoothly, I recommend you do not go against her. She has blended into all that we are so quickly that we can not even imagine how we have ever managed without her. She is a typical example of the Afrikaans saying: “Dinamiet kom in klein pakkies!” She loves singing, a spicy chicken burger and gives a mean foot massage.
