Marco grew up in Soweto with a chef for a father and cooking in his blood. After hotel school he quickly made his name in Johannesburg upmarket restaurants and hotels such as the famed Carlton Hotel, the Three Ships, Prima Donna and Caesar's Place. He moved to Cape Town and opened his first restaurant in 1989 in Sea Point, an act of defiance that broke the stereotype in the old apartheid days that a black person should stick to owning a shebeen in a township. Popularly regarded as one of the first black restaurateurs, Marco beat all the odds and opened his signature Marco’s African Place Restaurant - now an icon on the dining scene.


The restaurant is a truly African eatery which specializes in traditional African dishes such as umngqusho (samp and beans), tripe, iintloko (deliciously cooked sheep head), steamed bread, ox tail and much more - including game such as springbok, kudu and impala. Marco enjoys taking on dishes that are known by other chefs to be difficult, such as duck, and presents them with an African touch. He feels there is universality about food that connects all people - whether cooking traditional samp and tripe in Mediterranean culinary style or taking a more traditional African approach, he finds similarities in the way different cultures do things. The restaurant has become a good place to spot African celebrities too: not only is Marco’s African Place restaurant popular to such famous South African politicians and businessmen such as Tokyo Sexwale and Cyril Ramaphosa, but it's a home to soccer legends like Lucas Radebe, who rarely leaves the Mother City without dining at Marco's.

Another specialty you will find at Marco’s place is live entertainment every night of the week, and as the evening grows later, you can be sure that the dining area becomes a dance floor filled with people grooving to African rhythms from across the continent.


Located in the Bo Kaap area of Cape Town, literally midway between the Grand Parade Fan Park and the Green Point Stadium, Marco’s African Place restaurant is ideally positioned to benefit from the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. People from all over the world have been asking about what he'll be doing that's special, and you can be sure that football will feature in a big way - but Marco isn't giving away any secrets just yet. However, he has already installed some large plasma screens to create a fan-friendly football atmosphere in the restaurant.


“Bafana Bafana will definitely do us proud as they have done during the Confederation’s Cup when they gave such big opponents as Brazil and Spain a run for their money,” Marco says. "Teams that will be playing South Africa will really meet their match during the World Cup."