Patrick Williams grew up in Durban before moving to Cape Town, aged 17, to become a chef. His working life in South Africa included a long stint at La Colombe, one of South Africa’s most garlanded and well-loved restaurants, before he moved to London where he worked for acclaimed chef Robin Gill at The Dairy and Paradise Garage. And then, six years ago, he and his wife set up the Kudu Collective, a group of restaurants that includes Kudu Grill in Nunhead with its classic open-fire braai, and their flagship in Peckham, which serves modern European dishes with a South African twist. We talked to him about where to eat in and around his home country’s culinary capital.
Wolfgat is in a tiny little village on the west coast. The restaurant is also tiny – just 20 covers – with a rustic charm so it blends in well with the fishing village around it. The food is superb, hyper seasonal and super local; the owner and chef, Kobus van der Merwe, does a lot of foraging for coastal herbs and other veld food. And the setting is stunning: it’s an open restaurant, right on the beautifully blue sea and the feel of it is almost like being in Greece.
10 Sampson Street, Kliprug, Paternoster, 7381
Chefs Warehouse at Beau Constantia
Ivor Jones is a British chef who worked for many years in Europe and Southeast Asia before he moved to South Africa and started this new wave of Asian-influenced cooking. He currently cooks at a restaurant called Chefs Warehouse on a beautiful wine farm called Beau Constantia, not far from Hout Bay, which is easy to get to from Cape Town. The restaurant is a kind of glass cube and has amazing views over the whole of the Constantia wine valley. He does a four-course set menu and the food is phenomenal; very progressive and very tasty.
Beau Constantia Wine Farm, 1043 Constantia Main Road, Constantia Neck, Cape Town, 7806
For something a little more family-orientated that is particularly good for kids, head to the beautiful and sustainably run Spier wine farm. At its restaurant, Vadas, they do everything from baked goods to barbecue pizzas, and there’s not a bad thing on the menu; it’s all done to a high spec. In the summer, you can sit outside overlooking these massive lawns with enormous camphor and oak trees and it’s just a beautiful place to eat.
Spier Wine Farm, R310 Baden Powell Drive, Stellenbosch
There is an extremely picturesque coastal road that takes you from Hout Bay to Noordhoek. Halfway along it, you take a right and head straight down the cliff to this charming boutique hotel. The food at the restaurant is good but it is the setting that is phenomenal. The restaurant sits on stilts that go out into the sea and you can eat lunch over the water, listening to the crash of the waves and spotting seals. It’s west-facing and you get these glorious sunsets, and it is just the perfect place have a nice long, lazy lunch.
Chapmans Peak Drive, Hout Bay, Cape Town
Try Patrick’s food at Kudu, 119 Queen’s Road, London SE15 2EZ; kuducollective.com
Interview by David Annand, editorial director of Secret Trips
