{"id":22401,"date":"2026-07-01T08:33:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T06:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitmagazine.co.za\/joburg-north\/?p=22401"},"modified":"2026-06-29T09:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T07:01:14","slug":"wholesomely-harry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getitmagazine.co.za\/joburg-north\/blog\/2026\/07\/01\/wholesomely-harry\/","title":{"rendered":"Wholesomely Harry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Sideropolous is a master of reinvention. The one-time radio presenter hung up his mic two decades ago, taking up a highly successful stage career before turning his attention to the table with the launch of his home dining experiences and cookbook.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

There are two things Harry loves. One of which is storytelling. That explains his fascination with the stage, where he has audiences either clutching their sides or swooning over his
\none-of-a-kind voice.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a caveat, though. He\u2019s not interested in the type of theatre where people sit and watch while he performs. Rather, he wants his audience to become part of the experience … to take them along for the journey. And one of the best ways he can do this, he says, is by immersing them in food. His upcoming production, Stuck in the Middle Ages, which will be staged next year, does just this. \u201cIt\u2019s like a kuier. I\u2019m there, cooking, and chatting all the while about what\u2019s on my mind, from dating to why I can no longer watch Norwegian art movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harry is especially excited about the venture because it brings something to Johannesburg that he feels is sorely lacking right now, and that\u2019s his second great love. Connection. \u201cI love that Joburgers have this enormous capacity to be warm and friendly (except when we\u2019re driving, then we become the devil incarnate) \u2013 but the problem is that so much within this city tends to be enclosed, so it\u2019s becoming difficult to find that connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not wrong. The typical night out usually centres around picking out a franchise restaurant in a mall. If we make it out at all that is, since it seems that, in our post-Covid world, many people have stopped making after-dark plans. Against that backdrop, Harry\u2019s goal is as simple as it is audacious. \u201cI want to be part of changing the perception and landscape of our city,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

One of the ways he\u2019s doing that is through his recently launched private dining experiences. Food has always been a big part of Harry\u2019s life, not only because he cherishes the flavours of his family\u2019s native Greece, but also because those flavours represent heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe older I get, the more I\u2019m aware of the tick-tocking of time. So many of my beloved family members have passed on, and when I cook their recipes and tell their stories, I feel connected to them.\u201d One of those people is his Thea, his mother\u2019s sister, who was known for her rendition of Imam Bayildi … a Greco-Turkish dish of stuffed aubergines, caramelised onions, mint and pine nuts. Harry had tried to replicate her recipe many times, never quite getting it right, until the day he went over every step with her on a long-distance call. \u201cShe told me, \u2018My boy, you have to caress the pot, not just stir. You have to give that dish your love.\u2019 So I did \u2013 and for the first time, my dish tasted just like hers.\u201d<\/p>\n

That same come-here-let me-hug-you warmth pervades Harry\u2019s events \u2013 which were launched rather serendipitously. \u201cI was asked to cater and host a friend\u2019s book club,\u201d he recalls. The evening was tremendous fun, but even so, he was slightly surprised when one of the guests called him the following day, asking him to host a similar evening for the executives in her office.<\/p>\n

When it became clear that the corporate market had an appetite for what Harry was dishing up, he decided to offer the same service for private guests. As he says, there\u2019s something rather wonderful about someone coming to your home and ladling up generous portions of a home cooked meal. \u201cA plate is shared humanity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

As much as he\u2019s loving the shift from the stage to souvlaki, he has no intentions to open a restaurant. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be able to work the same magic. I love sitting with my team, discussing what we\u2019re going to serve. I love watching them interact with the guests, and I love interacting with the guests myself. At one dinner, I took time out to teach everyone how to cook a spinach pie after I was asked for the recipe, at another, I got the kids involved in the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

He does, however, have plans for sharing his love of all things gourmet, inspired by his own outrageous collection of kitchenalia. \u201cI\u2019ve schlepped goodies home on the plane from Canada. I have balsamic crema in flavours you can\u2019t imagine. My sister is always asking me what I could possibly do with another salad bowl.\u201d It goes without saying, then, that his Little Black Book of suppliers is rather impressive, from the store in downtown Benoni where he buys nuts, to the Oriental Plaza, where he picks up interesting tableware. His next chapter sees him launching these and other gorgeous must-haves – \u201cthings that bring beauty and joy\u201d – as a range of artisanal gifting.<\/p>\n

And beyond that \u2013 who knows. \u201cI love that no two days are the same, that I go from the studio to the stage to a supper. But I\u2019m not interested in building empires. I\u2019m quite happy with cottages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look out for Harry\u2019s first cookbook, Every Taste a Memory, which will be launched later this year. Details: @harry_sideropoulos<\/a>, harry@harrysid.co.za<\/p>\n

Harry\u2019s secret ingredient<\/strong>
\nThe one addition that makes every Sideropoulos event one to remember? \u201cGenerosity.\u201d Greek tables are synonymous with abundance, which is why he believes that no dinner is successful unless the guests have piled the leftovers into Tupperwares to take home.<\/p>\n

Article by Lisa Witeski and photo by Kelvin Ndlovu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harry Sideropolous is a master of reinvention. The one-time radio presenter hung up his mic two decades ago, taking up a highly successful stage career before turning his attention to the table with the launch of his home dining experiences and cookbook. There are two things Harry loves. One of which is storytelling. That explains […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":22402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,20],"tags":[643,9773,9775,9774],"class_list":{"0":"post-22401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-people","8":"category-personalities","9":"tag-cookbook","10":"tag-every-taste-a-memory","11":"tag-harry-sideropolous","12":"tag-wholesomely-harry"},"yoast_head":"\nWholesomely Harry - Get it Joburg North<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/getitmagazine.co.za\/joburg-north\/blog\/2026\/07\/01\/wholesomely-harry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wholesomely Harry - Get it Joburg North\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harry Sideropolous is a master of reinvention. 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