🇿🇦 About Us 🇿🇦

As a husband & wife team, we left South Africa and moved to the Netherlands in 2022, with our 3 children and Jess's mom. Due to our combined Dutch & Italian roots, The Netherlands was the best place to raise our young family. Our plan from 2018 was always to move to a more stable & safer country; but when Jess' dad passed away in 2020, it was decided that the Netherlands was going to be our new home.

Background Story

Moving countries was not easy, with many challenges to face, as the way of life in the Netherlands is very different to South Africa; but we embraced our adopted country with 'echte' South African 'gees.'

Jess owned a children's day care centre for 20 years, which she successfully built from scratch, creating employment for so many people and a wonderful haven for children of all ages.


For 15 years, Emilio was a personal trainer, owning a Health and Supplement Store to assist those with fitness products in line with their training regime.

Going forward...

We quickly discovered when moving countries, and leaving all the things we were familiar with behind, that Food was, by far, the one thing we missed the most. With this in mind, along with our successful track record of entrepreneurial business in South Africa, we decided to buy into a Dutch Bakery & Lunchroom Franchise where we began combining both Dutch and South African products. Our intention was to cater to both the existing Dutch market; as well as the large South African community in The Netherlands. With our combined passion for food and curiosity to embrace the new, we wanted to share our love of all things South African with our fellow expats; and at the same time expose our Dutch customers to the South African smaak. We wanted to bring the two nations together through food and a shared history.

Along the journey, we crossed paths with many likeminded South African expats, that bake the tastiest South African pastries, desserts & treats. We introduced these lekker goodies into our store and found that the South African products outshone the Dutch foods massively. At this time, we realised that the South African expat market was growing fast as word of mouth spread; and that the Dutch people actually loved the South African foods we offered a lot more than anticipated. This sparked the separation from the Dutch Bakery Franchise and the creation of The Lekker Store. The demand grew bigger and bigger by both the Saffa’s and the Dutchies.

The Lekker Store which is situated within the Binnenstad of Utrecht aims to offer a diverse range of products from baked South African goods to items you would find in many South African kitchens and super markets. We have expanded and introduced a selection of Boerewors Braai Packs, Biltong, Droewors & prepacked Lekker Store Biltong which has become a customer Favourite.

Our mission is to create a South African establishment with a great atmosphere and a high level of service, offering both authentic soul food from South Africa. We want our store to be “that place that everyone comes to”, creating a “home away from home” feeling.


Not only will you be able to enjoy our food in store, we are also offering catering for both private events and business functions, giving you the opportunity to share your love for our products with others.
The Lekker Store is a welcoming place for everyone and we hope our customers feel like they are part of our family. A bit of Love, Kindness, Good Food and Great Company, paired with excellent service guarantees that you will have a memorable experience.

Want to try some of our Lekker options? Order now!

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