Durban foodies, restaurant owners and chefs have paid tribute to acclaimed restaurateur Marco Nico, who died on Thursday from complications arising from Covid-19.
Nico, who has owned and run numerous top city restaurants and consulted with many more, has trained and mentored generations of chefs. He started his first restaurant with Martin Lombard, who died after a motorcycle accident a few years ago, El Cubano in Florida Road in the early 90s “before it was Florida Road”.
Jose Gonsalves of Havana and Little Havana said he was devastated and recalled how he and Nico, Lombard and Andre Schubert first opened the Suncoast landmark in 2002.
Luis Ferreira, who opened Mozambik in Ballito, told of a “good friend who loved people, loved good food and loved other people’s good food.
“We shared a lot of food and shared a lot of vision and insight into humanity. Besides the restaurant, he was curious about life, philosophical, seeking answers to life. He took the opportunity to enjoy the natural good things of life, and loved foraging the ocean, catching mussels and octopus.”
The two met when Nico was a still a chef for Spiga d’Oro in town and Ferreira had a distribution company supplying restaurants and hotels. “We were housemates in Umdloti. He had La Buca di Bacco in uMhlanga and I had Restaurant Gallo in Umdloti before it became the Bush tavern.”
Nico stepped in when Ferreira set up Mozambik in Ballito after returning from the country. “He was my financial partner. It wouldn’t have existed if he hadn’t helped.
“He was more private than many believe, but incredibly hospitable and wanted people around him. He lived for his two sons, Sebastian and Alessandro,” said Ferreira.
Former partner in Havana, Andre Schubert of Poison City Brewing, described Nico’s death as a big blow blow for Durban. “If you close your eyes after a conversation with him, you’d imagine him to be 6 foot 10 and weigh 500kg. He was always there to help and consult. He loved catching octopus on the beach in the mornings. He had a much bigger place in your heart, such was his intense love for life and cooking and food.”
Food critic and blogger Ingrid Shevlin said she was heartbroken. “Marco was a towering force in the restaurant industry, and had made his presence felt in so many positive ways for absolute decades. He was a man passionate not only about food, but about the ethics of food production, and about seeing food as a source of healing. He started growing his own vegetables and herbs and turned foraging into a kind of religion.
“There was nothing remotely average or ordinary about Marco. He was a one-of-a-kind-man with strong passions, a soft heart, and a no-nonsense attitude to life. A loss to the industry, his family and friends.”
Hundreds of Durban diners, chefs and people Nico had mentored posted moving tributes on his Facebook page yesterday. See https://www.facebook.com/marco.e.nico
The Independent on Saturday