The Sauce Kitchen · a cozinha da família
From our family restaurant to a sauce empire
It began at the tables of Calisto’s Portuguese restaurant in Turffontein. The sauces people came back for became the bottles on your shelf — still made from Jorge Calisto’s original recipes and real ingredients.
Jorge’s signature peri-peri — a bold, fiery blend — drew hot sauce lovers from across Gauteng, and the restaurant grew into a culinary destination known for real taste and real tradition. To keep every bottle true as the brand expanded, The Sauce Kitchen was born: first bottling the famous recipes for each new location, then growing into the full-scale family facility that today sends over 50 sauces and spices to retailers across South Africa and beyond. The belief behind it all hasn’t changed since 1992 — great food brings people together.
1992
The original Calisto’s opens in Turffontein, where Jorge starts crafting his own peri-peri sauces, spices and marinades.
2010
The brand goes big. Calisto’s is franchised and The Sauce Kitchen is born to bottle the famous recipes.
2012
A house becomes a sauce facility — dedicated entirely to peri-peri production.
Today
50+ sauces and spices on shelves across South Africa — and delivered nationwide when you buy peri-peri sauce online.
