‘Every sunken soufflé is another opportunity for growth’ — Jan Hendrik

Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen wears many hats: he has a Michelin star for his Restaurant Jan in France Nice (and is South Africa’s first to be awarded a Michelin), a creative visionary, and an entrepreneur, with television shows, recipe books, an Innovation Studio, and a dinnerware collection to his name. 

Van der Westhuizen has many JANs to his name: There’s the “mother ship” in Nice, France; Klein JAN in the Kalahari; and JAN Franschhoek, which is set to reopen in September for its third season. The latter started out as a pop-up. Now, he’s not quite sure what it is but it isn’t temporary, he explains while snacking on onion rings at Cape Town International Airport’s Spur, while waiting to catch his flight home.

It’s a pilgrimage, and almost a religious departure point for him — Spur onion rings with pink sauce.

“Who knows what is in it; it’s probably just Marie Rose sauce, looking at it. It’s the memory that’s so magical for me.”

Van der Westhuizen says he has always been entrepreneurial, “heavy, heavy, heavy entrepreneurial”.

“For me, it’s the fun and the process of seeing something in reality. You know, when you dream up some idea, or you think of something, and how it actually becomes something real and legendary.”

Legendary status is what he can now claim back home in France, where, once your business has survived for a decade, it becomes a landmark and iconic. “JAN is now going for our 11th year. I love it.”

As a child, he was always enterprising: from setting up a tuckshop on the farm to creating flower vases from old exhaust pipes (his father was a mechanic but there was no way Jan was going to get on top of or under a tractor), which he sold to wealthy neighbours.

“I’ve always had a knack for business and it’s not necessarily been about money. I think it’s more the transactional issue that I get: somebody is interested in something you created.”

Jan’s “original” JAN was set up in a forest, with a Persian carpet and probably milk tarts for his parents, brother and sister. They hated it, he says. He was 10. At the time, he was obsessed with milk tart and “literally baked milk tarts from every recipe book in this country”.

South Africa focus

The obsession with food started at school, where he learnt French techniques and slowly realised the similarities with South African cuisine. After school, he studied cheffing, which he didn’t particularly enjoy.

“I wouldn’t want to say it was a waste of time. I just got so bored with the fact that we spent all this time on international cuisine and nothing related back to what we eat and do here.”

The business side was far more interesting for him than the actual cooking techniques. But his love of South African cuisine was a constant, encouraged by his friendships with culinary icons such as Peter Veldsman. He became a mentor: Jan recalls Peter’s koeksister ice cream, which was “weird or radical” at the time, and decided that was the way he wanted to go. 

“Nobody else is doing it. So many international chefs in South Africa focus on Asian, funny French and American mixtures of stuff. But I realised that it’s all literally right here in front of us.”

It’s what he is preaching to all the chefs now: don’t look for your style overseas, it’s right here. It’s in your backyard.

At home, he reverts to absolute minimalism and clean, one-ingredient type food: a piece of steak or fish with side vegetables or a salad. It’s typically Mediterranean and an absolute obsession with seasonality.

“I’m sad that people don’t realise we can’t and shouldn’t eat strawberries in the bloody middle of the winter. Yet we get confused by lighting and the beautiful packaging and this sticker that tells you it’s imported or special or whatever.”

Describing what is an incredible food moment, he says he can feel it gives him energy and clarity. “I eat when I’m really hungry. I’m enjoying this. It’s exactly what your system tells you that you need: you’re not overfed, you’re not tired, you’re not eating loads of rubbish.”

In France, his clients are a mixed bag: South Africans making pilgrimages to JAN, locals and tourists from all over the world.

The Saffas all come with gifts of chutney and droëwors. He now has over 100 bottles of Mrs Ball’s in his office. But the biggest clientele is French, followed by the English, Americans, Dutch and Germans. This year, it’s filling up very, very fast again. It is a pilgrimage. Sometimes people can’t afford to eat there but when they walk past the restaurant, they “check in”, take a picture, and post it on Facebook or Instagram.

He’s active on social media (where he finds the time!), which is where his comments on Instagram about failing business economics with 17% in Standard 8 resonated with thousands of parents, he says, because they recognise that one’s school results do not have to define your future. (This writer can concur: having failed typing in matric, it has ironically become one of my most useful school subjects in my profession.)

Every story he posted, has a beginning, middle, and end: “Business Economics, 17%. A printed declaration of irony!

“Luckily, a plot twist followed, and that’s the beauty of life. We aren’t defined by the outcome of a result. Every mistake, every setback, every curveball, and every sunken soufflé is another opportunity for growth.

“Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. I am grateful that my story, with a 17% footnote, is filled with fellow dreamers, creators, and makers. Because success isn’t something you can achieve alone. You grow through the experiences of others.”

That’s why, he explained, his JAN Academy website is entering a new phase and changing into a platform where culinary students can now enrol in internships and gain experience at his restaurants.

“So here’s to the lessons learned, knowledge gained and always remaining curious.” 

Read all about Jan Hendrik’s forthcoming Franschhoek Pop-up… again. DM