JAN Hendrik van der Westhuizen South Africa's 1st Michelin Star

A friend told me that I will Platz about the new JAN series on Showmax. I was subscribed in seconds and spent every free minute for days marathon watching and replaying. Sensational!

The creativity, authenticity, music, perfectly poetic scenes and narrative often had me in tears of joy and reminiscence of Europe and the Kalahari! #JustDoIt. Your Soul wants to experience JAN’s world.

A huge unexpected bonus for me was to reconnect with my dear impressive friend Kobus Duvenhage who was “the builder of my dream”, as Jan put it. Visit KLEIN JAN.

View the trailer of JAN

Jan will be in Stellenbosch from the end of this month at the garden festival.

Interviews with JAN

My radar hit the universe of JAN in 2016 ~ First posts below

The first of 5 Recipes from the book A Breath of French Air by Michelin Star Chef JAN Hendrik van der Westhuizen

ROAST LAMB WITH stuffed PUMPKIN FLOWERS.
Extracted from JAN – A Breath of French Air by Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen (Struik Lifestyle)

I will endeavour to enlighten you how deeply I admire JAN Hendrik van der Westhuizen as our first South African Michelin Star chef. Also see Restaurant JAN and read JAN Hendrik van der Westhuizen’s newsletters.

It is said that the National Sport of Belgium is Eating…it rains a LOT. I lived in beautiful Belgium for four years, frequently travelled to all neighboring countries, learned a little French, drank copious amounts of fantastical monk-made beers and local wines and ate a lot of really, really superbly prepared food! Memories of “Les routes gastronomiquese” around Brussels, Strasbourg, Alsace, Paris etc. are painfully wonderful. The type of meals that make one close your teary eyes, listen to the subtle flavour-music, smear whatever is on your tongue against your pallet, hold it, breathe over it, swallow a morsel at a time and laugh and weep with wonder and joy. Indescribable!

During my stay I used to buy the Michelin Restaurant Guides every year and became obsessed with Michelin Star awarded restaurants. For a Chef to earn a star is a million times bigger than becoming the Captain of the Springboks Rugby team (sorry – I am a little at a loss as to what to compare the enormous fame and importance of a Michelin star in Europe with.) It is bigger than the success of our beloved Oscar winning Charlise Theron. It is more important than winning an election. It is the biggest seal of approval on the planet – and it has to be maintained – unlike winning a Nobel Prize for past efforts. Our JAN is a true Superhero!