Scot Kirton – the driving force behind the La Colombe Group

The head chefs from the Constantia wine strip and the V&A Waterfront: Roxy Mudie of Waterside; John Norris-Rodgers of Pier, and James Gaag of La Colombe, right. (Photos: Supplied)

By Tony Jackman

26 Jul 2024

It’s not just a meal – eating at La Colombe is an experience, says Scot Kirton, who turned the single restaurant he inherited from Franck Dangereux into an empire that now dominates the SA awards scene and even, in some cases, beats the world. And that was the intention all along.

When Franck Dangereux left the original La Colombe restaurant, on Constantia Uitsig farm, and his replacement Luke Dale Roberts went off on his own only three years later, many in the industry thought this must surely be the end of the extraordinary La Colombe journey.

But they weren’t counting on Scot Kirton who, out of the blue, found himself head honcho. He was just 27. It was, and nobody knew it then, the start of an even bigger journey for La Colombe, which was to become a “brand” and conquer the fine-dining world.

This is the La Colombe Group story. Read about the early La Colombe days here.

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Brought up on a Paarl smallholding, Scot Kirton used to deliver produce from the family farm to restaurants.

“I had always enjoyed cooking at home and my dad said ‘why not try cooking in a restaurant?’,” Kirton says. “At the time, I was delivering produce from our farm to the restaurants and my dad managed to get me a trial at Haute Cabrière under Matthew Gordon. I loved it and learnt so much here.”

Kirton was just 19. Meanwhile, in Constantia, Franck Dangereux was the chef to beat.

“During those days as a young chef, Franck was at the helm of La Colombe. I always dreamed of working for him there as he was constantly winning awards for La Colombe. After five years at Haute Cabrière, I decided to travel to London to get some international experience. I landed up at the Savoy Grill; it was part of the Gordon Ramsay restaurant group. Working there for two years was the start of my first dreams of one day having my own empire of restaurants, like Gordon.”

And therein lies the reveal: it was not chance that made Kirton the restaurant empire boss he is today. But, though he did have big ambitions, he had humility too. And he was as gobsmacked as anyone at what was soon to transpire.

He wasted no time. When his work visa expired, he headed south to Cape Town. In short order, he applied for work at La Colombe. And got it. But by then, Franck was already gone. In his place, a young English firebrand called Luke Dale Roberts.

“I was originally worried about applying for a job there, as often when chefs leave, things fall apart quite a bit,” Kirton says, looking back. “But Luke convinced me this was the right place to be and La Colombe would once again be the best restaurant in the country.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“Most of the staff working there were still from Franck’s days and all shared this incredible passion to be the best in the country. This was something I loved; everyone on the same page with the same goal, to take La Colombe back to the top. I fell in love with the brand, we all did, and after our first full year under Luke we were back at number one on the Eat Out restaurant list and the following year on the World’s 50 Best list. We were living the dream, or so I thought.”

Then, out of the blue, blindsided…

‘How could I fill Franck or Luke’s shoes?’

“After three years Luke decided to leave and I was very disappointed – I wanted to keep fighting to be the best. I couldn’t believe it when I was offered the position to replace him as executive chef. I had never been at the helm of my own kitchen before and now I was being asked to lead what was one of the most awarded restaurants in South Africa.

“I was young… 27 at the time. It was a dream come true, but I was scared, as the two chefs before me had achieved so much. How could I possibly fill the shoes of Franck or Luke?”

This was when I first met Scot Kirton, driving out to Constantia Uitsig to meet the new young chef. It had seemed like no time at all since I had driven out to meet the then-new chef, Luke Dale Roberts, three years earlier. And we all know where that story went.

I had known Franck since the very first day of operations at the original La Colombe. That full story is here. This, then, is the continuation of that story, from the point where Franck moved on to make a new life in Noordhoek – one that he is still happily enjoying today.

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The newbie, Scot Kirton, was sharp and eager. I did think at the time: could the new boy make it a hat trick? How could one restaurant keep getting so lucky, hiring young chefs who soar and soar?

“A few chefs followed Luke to open his new restaurant and I was left with a young, inexperienced team,” Kirton recalls. “One thing I knew for sure was that if I was going to succeed at La Colombe, I needed to build a team that was second to none. I needed to create a great environment where people wanted to work. Staff needed to share the same mindset that we would do whatever it took to keep the La Colombe name on the awards sheet.”

Kitchen behaviour was turning to theatrics

Chasing awards was already coming to mean one thing: the world’s big restaurant awards had already attained a clear bent towards high-end dining. Kitchen behaviour was turning to theatrics. Foams and gels and spheres and other strangenesses came to be expected. The art of plating became as important, sometimes even more important, than the texture and flavour of the food on your plate.

“Those first two years were tough, I was making so many mistakes, but learning from them at the same time. I had started to build the team I had dreamed of. I had Glen Foxcroft Williams as my pastry chef; for me, the most talented pastry chef in the country, now the head chef of Foxcroft restaurant.

La Colombe’s stellar culinary hero, James Gaag. (Photos: Supplied)

“James Gaag was my junior sous chef, now leading the current team at La Colombe kitchen. Jess van Dyk, who recently left the group to open Post and Pepper in Stellenbosch. John Norris Rodgers was just starting out; now head chef at Pier [V&A Waterfront].”

Success did not come easily.

“I often felt we were constantly on the back foot; funds had started to dry up on the Constantia Uitsig farm and new creative ideas were hard to finance. We were dreaming so much about where we wanted the restaurant to go, but with little finance available for progression, it was tough.

“Eventually, Constantia Uitsig was put up for sale and we thought this was the end – when it was sold we were told all the restaurants would be closed permanently. After meeting the new owner, Pieter Erasmus, it was clear he was a great businessman but had little interest in owning restaurants he knew little about. He knew La Colombe was a household name in the food industry and told me that if I wanted to keep the dream alive with this incredible team I was slowly building, I would have to find a new site.

“He said I was welcome to take all the kitchen equipment and restaurant furniture with me to help get started. He allowed me to trade a few months longer on the farm to raise some funds and buy myself time to find a new location for La Colombe. I felt my La Colombe dream was not yet fulfilled and this is what I needed to do. If I had just left and found a new job, La Colombe would have closed and only been a memory.

This was the point where the Franck Dangereux story and the Scot Kirton story intersected again. During this scary period of hoping for a new life for La Colombe, he called Franck, who gave his approval for the continued use of the name he had invented.

“It was at the time when it was still uncertain of where our next location would be… he was very supportive.”

Kirton set out to find a new location with help from new partners, the Constandakis family, “who knew the restaurant business”.

“We found an incredible location at Silvermist Wine Estate. It was a very rustic tin-roof building with an incredible view. I took all the staff up to the site to share what I believed the restaurant could become in its new home. We all shared the same belief that we were doing the right thing.

That was 2014. I was there, just days ago, after a thriving 10 years, to write this review. LINK.

‘They helped bring the dream to life’

“Ninety percent of the staff decided they wanted to be part of the moving of La Colombe; it took us six months, and with very few funds available to pay them, they all helped bring the dream back to life.

“We moved all the equipment and tables and chairs on the back of one of the staff’s parents’ delivery vans and spent six months painting and designing menus for what was to be the future of La Colombe at Silvermist Wine Estate.”

And this is where loyalty kicks in and starts paying off. It becomes clear to me, scrolling through Kirton’s replies to my questions, that he has the loyalty of his staff because of his early loyalty shown to them. And, boy, has it paid off. Pretty much every one of them is a stellar chef in their own right today.

“James [Gaag] and Glen [Foxcroft Williams] were paramount in the development of this dream. James was my right-hand man in all the planning; we are like-minded and share the same philosophies. Today, I still believe the key to making this work was keeping the team together, and I was so fortunate to have a group of super-talented and motivated individuals who shared my love for La Colombe.”

My favourite front-of-house manager-cum-sommelier, Jennifer Hugé (now at FYN with Peter Tempelhoff), was running front-of-house for Kirton at the time. She had been there on that first day in 1996 when the original La Colombe opened.

“Having her on board was key, as she was the face of the front-of-house at the time and had such good relationships with all the guests. We were almost forced to open before the building was fully ready.”

‘I couldn’t help thinking this was a mistake’

“For our first service, our bar was a trestle table covered with tablecloths. There were terrible draughts gusting through the restaurant from unsealed gaps in walls. I couldn’t help thinking this was a mistake.”

Within months, business picked up.

“The restaurant started getting busier and busier – we were fully booked a few months in advance. The whole team was together and we were just enjoying cooking. The awards slowly started to come in and we were in a great place. Happy staff, happy customers… what more could one want?

Let’s build an empire — but how?

Chef Glen Foxcroft Williams at work. (Photo: Supplied)

The dream born in London, at the Savoy Grill, had not died; it was merely shelved for a while. Now it was awakened.

“I still had ambitions of creating a restaurant empire. I had experienced this working in London, and Luke and I had always talked about the empire ‘one day’. I saw Luke starting to build his small empire, and I have to admit I was slightly jealous – being the competitive person I am. I thought to myself, I have all these incredible chefs working for me, they’re not going to work under me for the rest of my life, how was I going to keep them?

“That’s when I decided to open our second restaurant, with my pastry chef, Glen. He was one of the most talented chefs I had ever worked with; he had such great ideas. All the staff looked up to him and he was the perfect candidate for a restaurant site I had found down the road.

“At this stage, La Colombe was getting so many applications for chefs to work there – it was easy for me to move seven or eight of my staff with Glen to open Foxcroft (Glen’s middle name).

“Foxcroft was an immediate hit with the locals and started winning awards of its own, winning best new restaurant in that year’s Eat Out awards. Currently, Foxcroft holds two Eat Out stars.”

A year later, the owners of Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek approached them to take over the then world-famous Tasting Room, which had been the love-child of chef Margot Janse.

“I had started my career in Franschhoek and had such fond memories of my time here that I thought, why not? I had never worked at the Tasting Room so didn’t feel I could do it justice by keeping that name. You couldn’t get a booking at La Colombe at the time so we thought, why not open a second one in Franschhoek? And so, La Petite Colombe was born.

“Our sous chef at the time, John Norris Rodgers, had been with us for a few years and was the perfect candidate. He was a perfectionist and would never accept second best. Once again we moved some key personnel from La Colombe to help John start up, and again it filled up very quickly. Awards started flowing soon after opening, taking best new restaurant in South Africa in its first year and then taking 5th place on the Eat Out top 10 the next.”

Taking a step back

The Franschhoek crew: Zane Soutar, left, is head chef at Protegé; centre, Charné Sampson of Epice; Peter Duncan, right, is head chef at La Petite Colombe. (Photos: Supplied)

The building of an empire had taken firm root. But Kirton felt it was time to take a step back and let the chefs move forward.

“I was loving opening new restaurants, but felt it was time for me to take a step back from La Colombe at Silvermist if we were to continue to grow. James (who had been with me from the beginning and played such an important role in making La Colombe what it is today) was the perfect candidate to take over as executive chef so that I could focus more on the restaurants as a group.

“Over the last few years, James has taken the restaurant from strength to strength, winning award after award. And I couldn’t be more proud of his achievements. A year after La Petite Colombe opened, we took over the more casual eatery at Le Quartier Francais and named it Protégé. Only chefs who have worked with us for a number of years get the opportunity to be head chefs here.

“A year later, due to the success of restaurants in Franschhoek, the Leeu Collection, which owns Le Quartier Francais, asked us to take over one of their other properties. This was originally set up as an Indian restaurant, and we had an incredibly talented young girl who always loved playing with spices in the kitchen. Her name is Charné Sampson.”

Kirton may not know this, but Sampson is one of my favourite chefs at the Cape. She has an astonishing way with Cape spices. She is underrated in this milieu.

Having started at La Colombe at Silvermist, she became head chef at Epice, when it opened in 2019, and currently holds two stars on the Eat Out awards list.

Lockdown in the form of ‘Adjusted Alert Level 1’ (remember that?) was lifted on 5 April 2022. With a sense of freedom blowing in our hair, we climbed into the car and set off on holiday, and on 14 April, after returning home, I published this piece about our adventure.

During the same holiday, I also dined with Pieter Toerien at the Waterside at the V&A Waterfront; it had opened in 2021. He told me he’d been asked to pay a R500 deposit; this was new to me but at this level has become common practice. Anyway, that wouldn’t come near the eventual bill, even for one, let alone two. And even now, only three years later, there’s no doubt prices will have risen greatly, as has everything else.

The pivot on which change turned

The chefs from the Constantia wine strip and the V&A Waterfront: Roxy Mudie of Waterside; John Norris-Rodgers of Pier, and James Gaag of La Colombe, right. (Photos: Supplied)

These were heights first climbed by the likes of Luke Dale Roberts, who must be given credit for opening the door wider to this approach to ‘fine dining’, a moniker I dislike. But it was on its way before he came on the scene, and Dangereux was the pivot on which this change in the Mother City’s high-end culinary status turned.

Since then, and despite Dale Roberts’ big wins and those of his chefs, the La Colombe Group somehow manages to have bolted down a central place in the firmament. Perhaps we should be going down the LDR rabbit hole soon to track the story of that dynasty as it runs parallel to the LCG journey.

By opening two restaurants at Pier Head at the Waterfront, the LCG was breaking into prime Cape Town restaurant real estate. This had for years been home to the final incarnation of Hildebrand, for more than a century the oldest eatery in the city, though it had had at least two earlier locations in the CBD. Before Hildebrand claimed the spot, which they did at my suggestion after having been nervous about a Waterfront location, it had been Peers, with the legendary Bill Stafford at the helm.

In the early 90s, a young David Higgs learnt under his wing, at the start of a journey that would eventually grow into another restaurant empire. Higgs’ iteration of his fabulous Marble in Joburg opens at the Waterfront later this year.

Nothing is left to chance

It’s powerful stuff, this restaurant business, and at this high end it is heady and dangerous. Empires can fall. That all of the restaurants and restaurateurs mentioned in this story have weathered the storms that Covid threw our way says something about their tenacity.

And rumours that the group has a central kitchen are true. In fact, there are two.

“We have a development kitchen at a building outside La Colombe. Here, we have a few chefs who have worked here. Having it outside of the restaurant space where there are no distractions makes it easier to create new things; we have weekly meetings with the chefs here with ideas we wish for them to work on… all the head chefs also feed ideas to these chefs to try things for them they may not have time to.

“We also have production kitchens at La Colombe and the Waterfront, where all the basics are done, from prepping meat, to stocks, petit fours and breads etc. It was needed to help relieve some of the pressure in the kitchen so we could continue to move forward.”

And nothing is left to chance. Says Kirton: “I have always steered the restaurant towards the high end and in the direction of awards; these awards help motivate us and keep us moving forward. It keeps us on our toes, and it has almost become expected of the chefs to ensure they win awards while being a part of this group.”

No pressure, then. And yes, their restaurants are aimed at the well-heeled – there’s no getting away from it.

“Our restaurants are definitely set up to cater for the high-end clientele, locally and internationally,” says Kirton, who graciously invited me to dine there as his guest, doubtless knowing that the Fourth Estate is not exactly flush.

“This is needed because of the massive cost of running these sorts of restaurants; last month we had 415 staff on our payroll between the restaurants. This number moves closer to 500 in peak season. So to keep the wheels turning comes at a great cost.”

Let’s step back to James Gaag before we wrap up. Kirton says: “James has been my right-hand man from the early days at Uitsig. James and I shared the same vision for La Colombe and creating a restaurant group. James was made a partner in some of the restaurants in 2017; when I needed something done, he was always the go-to man.

“Without James on board, I don’t believe this group would have grown so quickly. He took over the running of the La Colombe kitchen in 2018, and I couldn’t be prouder of the way he has run it.”

Kirton agrees that the La Colombe formula of kick-ass food and eye-popping theatre is “not for everyone, but it’s what we like and I believe we find the right balance between flavour and theatre”.

He adds: “We have never allowed ourselves to become so carried away with theatre that the food suffers. I find this is key for us and it’s what the majority of customers want. I always say it’s not just a meal, it’s an experience that you will remember for years to come.” DM

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