Woolworths_Taste_July_2017

MY FAVOURITE TABLE
minutes with
Jan-Hendrik van der Westhuizen
It was go, go, go for SA’s own Michelin man when he was recently in Cape Town for the Good Food & Wine
Show. That’s why TASTE was stoked to tag along to the Olive Branch Deli where he stocked
up on homegrown goodies for Restaurant JAN
36
You’ve just come from visiting your
folks on their farm in Mpumalanga.
What did you eat?
We braaied every evening. Also, my Ouma
Hessie knows that everytime I visit she has
to make her green beans, so she made
that: beans with cream and white pepper.
I just wanted to eat beef during this trip,
good South African beef. France’s beef
doesn’t compare, and it’s really expensive.
What else … we ate preserved guavas
with Ideal milk. Just lekker plaaskos.
Nothing fancy.
You recently got married. Did you
do the menu?
No, Maranda Engelbrecht did. She sent
it through, I made some tweaks, but I
just felt that this is the one day I’m gonna
stand back and drink Champagne. The
highlight was definitely the suckling
spit-roasted pigs with pomegranates
in their mouths. She served it with
a kapokbos-and-apple sauce, the waiters
carried them around the tables and
carved as they went.
Do you remember, back in 2012, you
sent in a recipe for naartjie crêpes
with salted caramel sauce for the
TASTE reader’s issue?
I do! At that stage of my life I was working
on a yacht as a private chef, two years
before I opened JAN. I cooked for
a Swedish family. It’s actually thanks
to them that I opened the restaurant.
They constantly pushed me, saying
I really needed to share my food with
other people. Frederick and Jenny, nice
people. They were at our wedding.
So, JAN’s Michelin star has been
renewed. How did you celebrate
this time around?
All the chefs gathered on Monday, our
off-day, and we pretty much watched
the social feed. And then we just basically
all shouted and opened Graham Beck
bubbly and drank the whole day, just
having a really good time.
You’re in Cape Town for the Good
Food & Wine Show. What else is on
your to-do list, food wise?
There’s not really a lot of time outside the
show, but I’m trying to eat at as many
restaurants as I can. Tonight I’m going
to try Foxcroft, the other day we ate at
Thali, which was amazing, and where
else … Willoughby’s. It’s my one-stop
shop, in and out for a quick plate of
sushi. Sushi is really rare in France. And it’s
expensive. €70 for a couple of pieces.
Are you worried about not being
at your restaurant?
I usually am, but I’m getting better. You
have to learn to let go and trust. That
bunch is so geared up. There’s almost
150 steps in place just for the front
of house. Everyone knows exactly
what to do.
CATCH JAN-HENDRIK AT THE GOOD FOOD & WINE
SHOW IN JOHANNESBURG FROM 28–30 JULY;
GOODFOODANDWINESHOW.CO.ZA
What’s currently on the menu?
It’s spring over there, going slightly
into summer. We have artichoke with
mieliepap and sunflower seeds; a tuna
dish with chakalaka, onion panna cotta
and deep-fried onion rings, just like we
enjoy eating them in South Africa – I’m
actually going to dem that dish at the
show. Our amuse bouche is bobotie
inside an egg. Kind of like a Scotch egg,
but we fill it with guinea fowl bobotie,
and the custard sets in the egg. It’s kind
of conceptual, you see this egg coming
to the table and don’t really know what
you’re getting. There’s also an edible
candle of kaaiings and pork fat with our
famous mosbolletjies. The French love
them. For mains there’s a Bresse chicken
served with mustard-and-buchu jus,
with the foot still attached.
We actually saw that on Instagram…
Ja, the South Africans really had a go
at me for it. And I was quite surprised
because, come on, this is a runaway!
PHOTOGRAPH JAN RAS INTERVIEW ANNETTE KLINGER