Portia Esau
Portia Estau, is a Chef, Baker, Restaurateur, Community Developer, and Owner of Portia’s 1 Stop. She is also a current board member of Mashup.
Portia Esau, Portia, or Porsche for short, was born and raised in Westbury with the ultimate childhood dream of becoming a lawyer but it turns out that her Creator had other plans in store for her.
Before her Chef, Baking and Restaurateur career, Portia made a career for herself spanning over fifteen years in the Banking, Retail, and Insurance industry.
After years of subtle nurturing of her passion for catering to people’s pallets, Portia decided to venture into the entrepreneurial space by hosting and catering for family events which quickly grew into a side hustle.
In 2012, her passion for catering and baking gradually grew and after much deliberation with God, she ventured into her business, Portia’s 1 Stop on a full-time basis.
A key connection between her time in the corporate world and then as an Entrepreneur was that both spoke about servicing people’s needs and working in spaces with other people towards a common goal. With this in mind, Portia decided to volunteer at the Westbury Youth Centre, a few months after it had opened. She got in through a comment on a motivational post through which Regi Botha invited her for an official interview, or at least that’s what she thought it would be. Long story, short, Portia ended up sitting in on the Make It Better class and thinking what a waste! The class concluded to which Regi, concluded with “you belong here.”
When asked about the impact that the Westbury Youth Centre has made in her life, Portia said: “The WYC brought about networking opportunities with individuals and companies alike, which I never dreamt of ever networking with someday or any day. The exposure and networking aided in the growth of Portia’s 1 Stop and has allowed my confidence to grow likewise. Portia’s 1 Stop has serviced major corporates like Investec, Standard Bank, Absa, Fnb, Edgars, SAA, Makro, Comair, Asupol, and Liberty Life, to name but a few. The honor of catering for Private and intimate events like weddings, funerals, parties, and numerous family celebrations around the country, brings me joy.”
Portia’s highlights include hosting a group of exchange students from Finland, consecutive year-end Christmas lunch’s for the SAA staff, a wedding in Cape Town for a couple from Germany and Cameroon, catering for the intimate unveiling luncheon of the late Hugh Masekela, numerous community catering events hosted by the Department of Social Development, being flown to Durban by Absa & RAK Events to co-host an entrepreneurial event and being one of the keynote speakers at the event, sharing snippets of my journey with a group of orphaned young boys, being flown to Zambia by SAIS and Mashup to participate in an Inclusive Innovation Program, representing the Westbury Youth Centre and having the opportunity to pitch as a business for future and ongoing investment, catering for numerous CSI events big and small alike, for Investec, across the country and being one of the last few people to be interviewed by John Robbie – on radio 702 just before his retirement.
In 2020, while tirelessly working on taking not only Portia’s business but restaurant to a whole new level, COVID 19 came along and interfered with her journey but that didn’t deter her persistence in wanting better for herself and not being afraid to work towards everything that she wanted.
Some of Portia’s accolades over the years from an entrepreneurial background include: A nomination in the annual Sage and 702 small business awards in 2016 – and receiving an award as a top 30 finalists. Top 15 Countrywide, finalist in the 2017 annual “Huletts Koeksister Champion” Competition as the first person of color to make it that far in the leg of the competition. Venturing into the Restaurant space in 2017 and becoming the owner of her restaurant, namely “The Furnace” Exploring the beautiful suburb of Melville, through a bold and daunting move, but ever so worth it- which in the same year got named as one of the Top 50 suburbs in the World and last but certainly not least being able to transfer her skills to both women and men between the ages of 18 and 35 with a passion for baking and cooking.
Portia’s currently working around her new way of life with the new normal and she boasts as a recipient of a Bursary from Investec which gave her an entry to Investec’s Start-up School where Portia’s furthering her knowledge on successfully managing and growing her business.
See the original posts of the success stories on WYC Facebook page:
Learn more:
Mashup/WYC Success Stories Series
