Jam Sessions at Oasis Life Constantia’s New Restaurant, The Townsend
Retirement Village Dining Reimagined at Oasis Life Constantia
Two chefs — and one shared philosophy — are changing the taste of retirement living.
Food Jams is best known for its interactive cooking events — joyful, well-run, and always rooted in connection. But behind the scenes, it’s a team of seasoned hospitality professionals with deep industry experience. Over the years, they’ve built a reputation for quality, warmth, and thoughtful execution — from curated private dining to large-scale hosted events.
Now, in a new collaboration with Oasis Life, Food Jams is bringing its unique brand of hospitality to the retirement space.
At the newly launched clubhouse restaurant, The Townsend, Food Jams takes on the full culinary direction, bringing together decades of experience in professional kitchens with their signature warmth and creativity. The offering is led by seasoned chef Jocelyn Myers-Adams, who oversees the kitchen and food strategy, backed by Food Jams co-founder Jade de Waal and a team committed to quality and care.
It’s a new kind of partnership — one rooted not in outsourcing, but in alignment. “We weren’t looking for a caterer,” says Oasis Life CEO Glyn Taylor. “We were looking for a team that understood what food means in a community — and who could deliver that with real integrity.”
For Food Jams, the move into residential estate dining wasn’t part of a plan — but it made immediate sense.
“We’ve always used food as a way to bring people together,” says de Waal. “This time, we’re not handing out aprons. We’re doing the cooking — but the goal is still the same: to create something joyful, thoughtful, and made to be shared.”
Menus at The Townsend shift with the seasons and are designed around comfort, freshness, and flavour. The focus isn’t on flair — it’s on doing things properly, with attention to ingredients and a kitchen culture built on professionalism and heart. From slow-roasted vegetables to plated lunches and freshly baked cakes, the food feels familiar — but never generic.
It’s early days, but the collaboration is already making its mark. Residents linger longer after meals. Visiting family members book tables. And more than a few guests have asked if The Townsend is open to the public — a good sign in any chef’s book.
For Oasis Life, it’s another step in reimagining what dining at retirement estates can feel like. For Food Jams, it’s a way to bring their inclusive philosophy to a more mature audience — without compromising on what they stand for.
“We’re still connecting people through food,” says de Waal. “We’ve just swapped the kitchen island for a restaurant pass.”
Menu Preview Sessions at The Townsend
In July, Oasis Life Constantia hosted a series of private menu preview sessions at The Townsend, inviting founding residents to experience the new dining offering firsthand. Groups were welcomed over the course of a week. Each group experienced a unique menu selection drawn from the full seasonal offering.
This staggered approach allowed residents to engage personally with the space and team — and provided the chefs and Oasis Life’s team with valuable insight into preferences, presentation, and portions. The sessions marked the first shared meals at The Townsend — and set the tone for daily dining at The Townsend, which is now formally open.
The People Behind the Plate
At the helm of The Townsend is a culinary duo whose backgrounds couldn’t be more different — and yet whose values align completely.
Chef Jocelyn Myers-Adams brings three decades of experience to the table, with a career that has taken her from the fine dining kitchens of Canada to private yachts in the Caribbean, the Whitsunday Islands, and Cape Town’s top-tier hospitality scene. A Stratford Chefs School alumna, she’s worked alongside names like Jamie Kennedy and Gordon Ramsay, and earned qualifications in advanced wine education and sommelier service.
But Myers-Adams isn’t interested in titles or ego. Her focus, always, is on quality — of ingredients, of process, of execution.
“I believe in setting high standards,” she says. “We support skills development and Food Jams naturally allows for accessible employment and a safe environment for learning about hospitality and the culinary industry.”
Since settling in Cape Town in 2006, Jocelyn has left her mark on food and beverage programmes across five-star hotels and executive kitchens, while simultaneously becoming a respected mentor in the industry. As chairperson of the International Stakeholder Relations Portfolio, she continues to champion gender equality and skills development, offering tailored mentorship to young chefs, hospitality operators, and food entrepreneurs.
At The Townsend, her approach is quietly exacting: meals are made from scratch, seasonal produce is prioritised, and nothing leaves the pass unless it’s done properly.
Her business partner, Jade de Waal, brings a complimentary energy to the collaboration. A proud Capetonian and trained jazz saxophonist, de Waal is known as the much-loved, standout contestant from the first season of MasterChef South Africa. Her culinary background is deeply personal — shaped by family meals, inherited recipes, and long hours in a kitchen where food was the focal point of connection. Jade’s aunt Sonia was a famous chef and her grandfather was legal counsel to the late President Nelson Mandela.
“Being Afrikaans, I grew up with food as the way we celebrated, communicated, and showed love,” says de Waal. “The kitchen was always the place where people came together.”
The concept for Food Jams came during her music studies, when she began hosting post-gig cooking nights for fellow musicians — sometimes strangers, often friends — and realised that food could be as improvisational and connective as jazz. That same spirit now shapes everything she builds.
Over the last decade, she’s grown Food Jams from a pop-up supper club to a nationally recognised hospitality brand. Her Salt River culinary studio, SOUTE, is part community kitchen, part creative lab — designed to host up to 80 people for cooking events that celebrate heritage ingredients, local producers, and collaborative learning.
“It’s never just about the food,” she says. “It’s about what happens because of the food.”
Together, de Waal and Myers-Adams bring complementary strengths to Oasis Life Constantia. Jocelyn leads the professional kitchen and team. Jade guides the ethos and long-term thinking behind the collaboration. Both are passionate about the cultural role of food and the idea that a meal can — and should — carry more meaning than just sustenance.
“Oasis Life Constantia is an incredible canvas for what we do,” says de Waal. “The residents are engaged. They know good food. They have stories of their own. It feels like the right place to build something enduring — something that can grow.”
And from the early reception to The Townsend, it’s clear the community agrees.
Inside SOUTE
Tucked into a converted industrial building in Salt River, Jade de Waal’s culinary studio, SOUTE — loosely translated from Afrikaans as “watch out, something’s coming” — has become the creative heart of Food Jams. It’s here that new recipes are tested, menus are refined, and ideas are workshopped before they ever reach the plate.
Part kitchen, part community hub, SOUTE is built for collaboration. With space to host up to 80 people cooking side by side, it’s where corporate teams, curious cooks, and food lovers of all kinds come together to learn, share, and create. The studio’s events centre on heritage ingredients, cultural storytelling, and a hands-on approach to food that’s both joyful and deeply intentional.
For de Waal, SOUTE is more than just a space — it’s a reflection of everything Food Jams stands for: openness, experimentation, and connection through food. And while the team now brings that same ethos into the kitchen at The Townsend, Salt River remains the pulse behind the scenes — a place where something new is always simmering.
For more information, email us at info@oasislife.co.za
