World-class, piping-hot local chefs

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They are Michelin-star award-winners, restaurateurs, authors and TV personalities and a familiar presence on global best lists. South African chefs are world-renowned for their innovative approach to cuisine and fine dining. 

Here are 10 award-winning chefs shaking up the industry, elevating the restaurant sector and changing the way we experience food. 

Wandile Mabaso: Soweto-born chef Mabaso was named 2022 Chef of the Year at the Luxe Restaurant Awards. 

His journey to becoming an award-winning chef wasn’t easy. After high school, he intended to pursue cooking as a career but his father disapproved and Mabaso ended up studying hotel management. 

He didn’t let that deter him. After securing an internship on board an Italian chartered boat, Mabaso enrolled in culinary school. His dedication led him to work in New York, and later Paris, with world-famous Alain Ducasse at his Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris, Ducasse. 

After returning home in 2018, the now classically French-trained chef opened Les Creatifs in Bryanston. 

Siba Mtongana: A multi-international award-winning chef, Harvard case study, author, entrepreneur and TV name, Mtongana is a powerhouse and a South African culinary icon. 

She launched her TV show Siba’s Table with the Food Network in 2013 and went on to have many award-winning shows across local and international networks — Cooking with Siba, Sibalicious and House of Chef. The celebrity chef has many awards — five US Film and Television Awards and four awards locally. 

SIBA — The Restaurant, at Sun International’s Table Bay Hotel, at the Waterfront in Cape Town, was acknowledged as one of South Africa’s Top 10 Best Restaurants at the 2022 Luxe 100 Best Awards. She was honoured as one of the Top 10 Best Chefs in SA at the ceremony. 

Mtongana also has a popular kitchenware line SIBA AT HOME which she launched in December last year.

Siba Mtongana: A multi-international award-winning chef.

Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen: South Africa’s first Michelin star winner fell in love with cooking in his childhood home on a Mpumalanga farm where he spent time baking to avoid working on the tractor. 

Van der Westhuizen, a tour de force in the food industry, owns a restaurant in Nice, France, and is an author and educator, offering courses through the Jan Innovation Academy in partnership with Checkers. 

You might also recognise him from the TV ads promoting his Forage & Feast collaboration with Checkers. 

He recently opened a new restaurant at the idyllic La Motte wine estate in Franschhoek. 

Mmabatho Molefe is the chef and owner of Emazulwini Restaurant at Makers Landing at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. Molefe made a name for herself through The Long Table Experience, a gourmet pop-up restaurant. From there she made her way into the kitchen at Salsify, under chef Ryan Cole. 

She is now making waves with her all-black, all-female team, celebrating traditional ingredients and recipes in her interpretation of modern Zulu cuisine. 

“What we are trying to achieve is inclusivity and it’s the perfect time for that. For a while, traditional African cuisine in South Africa was seen as something that couldn’t be fine dining but in the past two years, I have had the honour to meet a lot of young black creatives passionately sharing their food and stories”, she told the World’s 50 Best Restaurants website after ranking number 27 on the World’s 50 Next Class 2022. The list celebrates 50 people aged 35 and under who are shaping the worldwide gastronomy scene. 

Peter Tempelhoff’s restaurant FYN in Cape Town is the number one restaurant in Africa and number 37 worldwide according to the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Tempelhoff was also recognised earlier this year as one of only two South African chefs nominated for the top 200 Best Chefs Awards in Madrid, Spain. 

Beginning his chef training in Cape Town at the Institute of Culinary Arts, Tempelhoff studied at the Culinary Institute of America, in New York, and thereafter made his way through a series of Michelin-starred restaurants in London. 

After returning to South Africa in 2006, he accumulated multiple awards during his time at Grande Provence in Franschhoek and the Greenhouse in Constantia. 

Tempelhoff is culinary director at Ellerman House, where mentoring a new generation of amazing South African chefs is central to the job. 

Jean Delport: The second South African ever to be awarded a Michelin star, Delport was the chef at Benguela on Main in Somerset West before he left the Mother City to open his fine-dining restaurant, Interlude, in the UK. 

It was added to the Michelin guide just 10 months after it opened in 2018. The fine-dining establishment, with its primarily South African team, has retained its Michelin star three years in a row since it was first awarded in August 2019. 

Peter Tempelhoff’s restaurant FYN in Cape Town

Johannes Richter, and his wife Johanna Richter launched The LivingRoom on Summerhill Guest Estate in 2017. It is one of Kwa-Zulu Natal’s best dining destinations celebrating local ingredients with a strong focus on sustainability and ethical sourcing practices. 

Richter has international training from Michelin-star establishments and his style of cooking sees his classic French training meet his passion for Asian cuisine and its processes. 

On 20 November, The LivingRoom was not only named Restaurant of the Year at the 2022 Eat Out Awards but nabbed the coveted three stars. 

Candice Philip: is a quiet storm in the South African culinary industry. While some chefs seek out the spotlight, Philip prefers to let her accolades do the talking.

After completing her training at the HTA Culinary School, Philip landed an opportunity as a junior sous chef at the Saxon. She worked her way up through the ranks until she took over at GREI restaurant when it opened in April 2018. 

Philip quickly made her mark and won the Mercedes-Benz Eat Out Nederburg Rising Star award and the Young Chef of the Year at the Condé Nast House & Garden SA Gourmet Restaurant Awards, as well as the Haute Property award by Gourmet Guide, all in 2018.

Following the success of the Peech Hotel’s 2020 Guest Chef pop-up series, Philip took over as chef in residence at Basalt Restaurant at The Peech Hotel in Joburg. 

At the 2022 Luxe HOSCO Restaurant Awards Philip won the Culinary Innovation Award and the Peech Hotel took home the Service Excellence Award of 2022. 

Candice Philip: is a quiet storm in the South African culinary industry.

Ryan Cole: is co-owner of and chef at the award-winning restaurant Salsify at The Roundhouse, in Camps Bay, Cape Town, opened in 2018. 

The fine-dining restaurant recently made it onto the sought-after 50 Best Discovery List, one of 601 restaurants in the world. 

Last year, Cole launched his second solo project the Cabo Beach Club at the docks at the V&A Waterfront. 

Cole is one of the best chefs the country has to offer. We can’t wait to see what he has in store for next year.  

Bertus Basson: Unlike many of his colleagues, Basson didn’t attend a formal culinary school. He was trained by the industry, working at various restaurants in South Africa and overseas. 

At the age of 19, he ventured to London to work at Chez Bruce, a Michelin-star restaurant, where he gained a lot of experience. 

He is best known for his position as head chef and owner of Overture in Stellenbosch, which opened in 2007. 

Basson was awarded Eat Out S. Pellegrino & Acqua Panna Chef of the Year in 2019. He has gone on to open multiple successful restaurants — Eike, Spek & Bone, Geuwels, Clara’s Barn, Die Vrije Burger in Stellenbosch and The Deck on a farm at Hidden Valley. The latest addition to his stable of restaurants is CHORUS at Waterkloof Wine Estate which opened in October. 

He is also a TV personality — you might have even seen him on the Ultimate Braai Master on SABC3, where he was a judge.