Andre Hill

The cracking team behind La Mouette is tackling Cape flavours in a new way at Upper Bloem in Green Point.

Head chef Andre Hill talks history, heritage and why cabbage bredie can be transformative Getting into cooking was completely accidental. After school, I signed up for a hotel management course because a friend was doing it. I started working at the Commodore

Hotel as a trainee. The first couple of months were hard. The chef was this big German guy who didn’t hold back. My first job was to clean the freezer with a blowtorch – they didn’t switch off the freezer – we had to scrape off the ice. But those things taught me discipline. After the first three months, I started enjoying it.

In 2003, I went to work in Swaziland. It was a good experience as a young chef because we had to run the kitchen. We had 20-hour days and didn’t leave the property for the first three months. But it was a good learning curve. We also got to work with local people, and I learnt the local customs. I also worked in the UK for a bit, and in New Zealand.

I started working at La Mouette as a junior sous chef. After a year, I was promoted to head chef, working with Henry Vigar. La Mouette reignited my passion to go a bit further. Chef Henry and I have good chemistry. I told him that I wanted to open my own place at some point and he, Mari and Gerrit [La Mouette’s partners] have been very supportive.

We wanted to open something local.

As young chefs, we all want to go and work in a Michelin-starred restaurant in France or the UK, or Australia. But it’s really good to cook food I grew up with and be proud of it. It’s been like a homecoming.

I remember eating mutton breyani as a kid. I listed what I remembered and looked at different recipes. Our version at Upper Bloem is quite textural – it’s got almonds, pistachios, pomegranate rubies, barley, lentils, brown rice and lamb neck. At the moment, I’m working on a cabbage bredie. I love creating something new out of something old and changing people’s perspectives. There’s been a hugely positive response to the local flavours we’re using.

I grew up in Upper Bloem Street in the Bo-Kaap. My gran lived on one side of the road and my parents on the opposite side. I also spent a lot of time with my uncle who is a snoek fisherman on the West Coast. We ate a lot of mussels; we’d cook them on the beach.

“WE HAVE AMAZING INGREDIENTS RIGHT HERE AND THERE’S HUGE POTENTIAL IN THE STUFF WE GREW UP WITH. IT NEEDS TO

BE EXPLORED”

It’s important for me to develop people. I was given the opportunity so I want to try and provide it for others. A lot of the kids who work in the kitchen come from quite disadvantaged backgrounds. It’s important for me to instil the belief that they can do anything. Seeing people grow and succeed – that’s bigger than any award.

Young chefs should be proud of their backgrounds, no matter where they come from. We have amazing ingredients right here and there’s huge potential in the stuff we grew up with. It needs to be explored. For young chefs the industry is quite hard – your family has to come second, to a degree – but we have the potential to do anything and I hope that people realise that and move forward. And I want to play my part in pushing them.