Chef Bertus Basson and his team of restaurant and interior designers have transformed 10 restaurants in the Western Cape, each restaurant closed for three days for an instant make-over in its interior design, its kitchen design, its menu, and in some instances, its name.
The work that has gone into each restaurant transformation has been documented in ten ‘In die Sop: Restaurant Evolusie’ episodes on kykNET, with an eleventh episode summarising the series, and Chef Bertus revisiting some of the restaurants, to check on their progress.
The idea for the restaurant transformation series came from the realisation that it was not only the Lockdown that affected restaurants, but that their interior design, menu, and even restaurant name can impede their success!
It was my first road trip outside Cape Town in many months, I realised, not having left Cape Town in a year, other than a short business trip to Stellenbosch earlier during Lockdown. The reason for the trip was an opportunity to see the wild flowers of the West Coast, particularly spectacular this year due to the heavy winter rains, on the Waylands Farm private nature reserve outside Darling, owned by John and Jeanette Duckitt. It became a mini Huguenot High School Matric English class reunion, this being our 50th anniversary of leaving school, and celebrating 62 years of five of us having started school together in Wellington 62 years ago.