Pleasing the French

It is not easy to convince the French to enjoy a South African dish. Maybe if they visit our country they would be more open to experimenting with our flavours, but you can’t get away with trying to convince them in their backyard.

“The French grow up with a certain way of cooking and they don’t like experimenting with too many flavours. They don’t like cinnamon for example. They’re not huge on spicy foods. They don’t like combining sweet and savoury, and that is something we as South Africans are huge on,” Van der Westhuizen said.

“When I opened (Jan), it was trial and error. The French thought bobotie was an attempt on a dessert with baked custard and meat. The reviews were killing us. So we needed to reinvent the menu combining French methods with my heritage. Jan then established itself with a menu that is a combination of the two.”

I tried to get him to open a restaurant in Cape Town, and as much as I wanted the scoop on that angle, Van der Westhuizen says it is not happening any time soon.

His plans for the next 10 years is to come back to South Africa and explore more of his uncharted talents.

“South Africa is so fashionable. I miss the people a lot, especially my family. I want to come back home,” he said.

At the Good Food & Wine Show, local foodies will have the chance to interact with a line-up of exciting food personalities, including muso and restaurateur, J’Something from Micasa. As an added bonus, J’Something will take to the stage and perform.

Reza Mahammad, Jenny Morris, Lentswe Bhengu, Sarah Graham, Neill Anthony, Lisa Raleigh, Sherwyn Weaich and Vanessa Marx are also on this year’s Good Food and Wine menu.

To find out when to catch your favourite foodie, visit