The Faves

My sweet spot is somewhere between a good meal, great company, and a story worth retelling.

Not the last sunset, or the last supper - just the last episode of The Private Chef, shot at Camp Space.
Food has the most amazing transformative power. You can bring a mismatch of people together, strangers, different cultures, different walks of life and if you put them at a table with food and good wine, it blurs all lines.
Dining table at sunset

Camps Bay. Last episode. The sun was nearly down, the whisky definitely wasn’t.

Two men smiling

That’s not my beret (we swapped). Long story. Short market trip in Toulouse.

I'm anti class - unless it's business class.

Interior warm lighting

The best parking spot on earth.

SUV on the coast

Fire gives crayfish a sweetness you can’t find in a pan. landroiver.

Lobster on grill
Chefs standing outside

Miami. Private island. The house next to the one from Scarface. The three of us, pretending we owned the place.

Clockwise:
Pork Fillet Gorgonzola Fig
Anthony Brown's Dhal Roast Kingklip
Chicken of the Woods with Sweetcorn Sage
Carrot Fennel Pine Nuts

Quesdailla

A few favourites from my recipe book - Private Chef. The quesadilla (above) is part of an ‘Express’ series which is all about packing a massive amount of flavor in a ‘fast dish’.

Asparagus panko & orange

True to the ‘express’ way, this dish is simnple, dynamic and far from boring. With omnly a few, very familiar ingredients on the plate, this crowd pleaser is a quarenteed hit.
Shop the book

Fire

Real fire leaves its signature on the food – a little smoke, a little char, a lot of honesty.

A few faves from The Show

Polenta, Pesto, Parma Ham
(S2E9)

Try it

Above:
Chocolate Mallow S’mores
(S2E13)
Below:
Cheesecake, Caramel
Popcorn, Blackcurrant Sorbet
(S3E7)

In memory of Sam Elliot - he was my butcher in Cape Town for like 10 years.

Horst Dombrok, manager of the Mokhoa's Club Hotel. Hard as nails. He gave me my first job as a chef.

Arno Carstens house in Noordhoek. Arno is behind me with a kid on his shoulders. Jenny Dee's the one with her leg in the air. Newark, Huxley, Alastair King. Art Matthews. And then I don't know who the woman is next to me.

People will forget almost everything about you, like what you said and did. But they'll never forget how the food tasted.
I feel blessed (or maybe the right word is lucky) to be able to come into these people's homes, cook for them and meet amazing people along the way.
Discovering places you never knew existed is one of life's greatest pleasures. And one of it's best teacher. So, make the most of what you've got ... and even more of where you happen to be.

The beauty of cooking over fire is how the fat drips down and the smoke comes back up, licking the meat. It’s a kind of caramelisation lame-kissed flavor running right through it.

Nothing beats the energy of a morning market and produce this fresh

Discovering places you never knew existed is one of life’s greatest pleasures. And one of it’s best teacher. So, make the most of what you’ve got … and even more of where you happen to be.

Sometimes the best ingredient is the setting