There are many ways to gauge the temperature of a country’s restaurant culture. You can count awards and new openings, or look at the length of waiting lists. More revealing, perhaps, is to look at who is cooking, pouring, making and opening the doors.
South Africa is one of the most compelling places to eat in the world right now, in part due to the women who are challenging norms from the kitchen and further afield. It’s the winemakers waking up with the sun to break convention and harvest the grapes a little earlier; it’s the host bringing strangers together round a kitchen table; the chef pushing herself and her team to work with new ingredients or the cookbook author shifting perceptions around traditional dishes.
In celebration of Women’s Month, Dineplan spoke to the women writing the next chapter of South African hospitality: Upper Union Executive Chef Amori Burger, Hazendal Wine Estate winemaker Kiara Scott Farmer, chef and TAMU author Jane Nshuti, and Reverie founder Julia Hattingh. Their stories span restaurant kitchens, wine farms, and communal tables, but each offers a glimpse of where South African hospitality is heading, with plenty of reasons to book a table via Dineplan, order a bottle or a book, and experience it for yourself.
Amori Burger, Executive Chef at Upper Union
If you’ve visited Upper Union – loved for its leafy terrace complete with chequered tiles and even more so for its exploratory, ever-changing menus – you’ll have delighted in Amori Burger and her team’s approach to ingredients. Dishes move freely between the Middle East, India, North Africa and South Africa. Slow-cooked meats are sharpened with harissa and zhug; expect plenty of pickles and ferments, and the intoxicating push and pull of chilli, acidity, sweetness and spice.
“Every single menu we produce has to have a minimum of six condiments we’ve never heard of,” says Chef Amori. “We challenge ourselves, a lot of learning and training goes on in this kitchen.”
Amori knew she wanted to be a chef from the age of 13, when she would haul every cheese and condiment out of the fridge with her sisters to produce perfect bite-sized pieces of toast. Many years later, she went on to be a part of the team that started Van der Linden restaurant in Johannesburg, before becoming the Executive Chef at Lion Sands and Sabi Sands lodges.
“I joined the lodges in my 30s, and my team was 90% men in their late 40s. It was a struggle and took a year to win them over. Now they’re some of my favourite humans on the planet, but as a woman, you have to work twice as hard in this industry. As we grow, it’s also our duty as women to grow female chefs. We have a responsibility.”
When people walk away from a meal at Upper Union, Amori wants them to remember a moment, whether it’s the way they’re greeted at the door, the mains arriving, an engagement taking place or something the sommelier said. It’s this heartfelt approach to dining, coupled with an unparalleled level of technical precision that’s helped establish Upper Union as one of Cape Town’s unmissable culinary destinations, a spot that avid fans return to again and again.
“My favourite new feature on Dineplan is being able to see how many times a customer has come back,” she says. “There’s one guy who has visited 72 times in the last year.”
Upper Union has teamed up with The Reverie Social Table for an exclusive four-part Women’s Month Sunday lunch series that runs until 30 August. Book your table via Dineplan and join the final Sunday sitting – HERE.
Kiara Scott Farmer, Cellarmaster at Hazendal Wine Estate
“I didn’t grow up in a wine-drinking family or community,” says Hazendal Wine Estate Cellarmaster Kiara Scott Farmer. “I was raised on the Cape Flats and never exposed to fine wine, but I developed this curiosity around the science of it; the chemical reaction that takes place; how it makes people feel.”
At just 26, Kiara was appointed Head Winemaker at a wine estate in Paarl, with acclaimed winemaker Duncan Savage serving as her mentor. The appointment made her the youngest female Head Winemaker in the country at the time. She went on to win the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Award in 2024, becoming the first woman of colour to receive the prestigious accolade.
Kiara now heads up the cellar at Hazendal Wine Estate, where she experiments with everything from the fermentation process to the harvesting time of each varietal and even barrel size as she explores new blends. “I enjoy working with nature and with people out on the land. Sometimes there are moments where you question if you’re doing the right thing. You have to lean on your knowledge and have faith.” Hazendal Estate Collection Chenin Blanc – Kiara’s current favourite – is the perfect distillation of this faith.
“South Africa is currently making some of the best wines in the world,” adds Kiara. “We’ve got some fantastic producers. We’re understanding our terroir better and levelling up.” The countless awards Kiara has won for Hazendal Wine Estate wines are contributing to this trajectory, and while she’s ever humble, speaking instead to her passion, she hopes to be an inspiration to those looking to pursue a similar path. “Sometimes, women from a similar background will come up to me and ask me what I do. I’ll tell them I’m a winemaker and they’ll say, ‘I didn’t know we could do that’. If I’m able to affect some positive change for the people I work with or meet, that makes it all worth it.”
Head to Hazendal Wine Estate’s Wine Lounge to experience their Winter Special and taste your way through the estate’s range. Book your visit via Dineplan – HERE.
Jane Nshuti, Chef, Food Educator and Author of TAMU
Jane Nshuti’s journey to becoming a chef was neither conventional nor linear. After fleeing Rwanda in 1994 and losing both her parents, she found herself in a DRC refugee camp with her siblings. At nine- years-old, while her older siblings went out to work, Jane stayed behind to cook. “I didn’t enjoy it then; I did it from a sense of duty.” As the family moved on to Kenya and Uganda, places where she couldn’t speak the language, the kitchen became a constant, providing a safe space.
It wasn’t until she settled in Cape Town that Jane realised cooking could become a career. Today, she is a chef, food educator and author of TAMU, a plant-based cookbook that weaves recipes with stories from her Rwandan childhood and life across the continent. The book was rejected by countless publishers at first, who told her African food and personal storytelling wouldn’t sell. “So many no’s eventually turned into a yes,” she says. “When you have a vision, keep chasing it because you understand it better than everyone else.”
Much of Jane’s work now is about returning value to the food she once felt embarrassed by. She champions indigenous African ingredients such as sorghum and cassava, both for their comforting nostalgia and their affordability. “I’m a mother, and the first thing I think about when I cook for my family is not about how fancy it is but how nourishing it is. I focus on how it makes people feel. It’s instinct. Women’s kitchens are often calm and peaceful and nourishing to the people we work with or cook for. It’s something you feel in the food. My book is really about how a kitchen can bring a sense of home to wherever you are.”
Discover more of Jane and Livhuwani’s recipes, food stories and culinary inspiration on the Dineplan blog – HERE.
Julia Hattingh, Founder and Chef at Reverie Social Table
Julia Hattingh always knew she wanted her own restaurant, even if her parents spent years trying to persuade her towards a career in finance. After making her way up the fine-dining ranks at the likes of Le Quartier Français, where she worked under Margot Janse, she kept coming back to a different kind of dining: the dinner parties she hosted at home. “Those were always the happiest times in our house. The food mattered, but so did the ambience, the conversation and how you felt.”
That idea eventually became Reverie Social Table, the intimate Cape Town restaurant Julia opened in 2018. Guests gather around one communal table for a seasonal tasting menu built around produce sourced from local farmers and suppliers. For Julia, a successful night is often measured by what happens after the plates have been cleared. “When strangers chat into the night or keep in touch after dinner, that’s the sign of a successful evening.”
It’s an approach that feels particularly relevant as Cape Town’s restaurant scene grows. Julia worries that independent restaurants can get lost in a city increasingly filled with places that “could be anywhere in the world,” but sees a growing curiosity among diners too, especially with apps like Dineplan doing a lot of the legwork for you. “People are willing to dive a little deeper and search for something genuine and unique.”
The next shift she wants to see, a sentiment echoed by all four interviewees, is more women having the confidence and backing to build something of their own. “There are so many more women in the industry now, but they’re still often working under a male chef, even if a woman is running the show.” Her advice to the next generation is to cook what makes them happy, take the risk and find the women who will champion them. “There is such an amazing support network. There are women in this industry who want to see each other grow.”
Join Julia for an intimate dinner party experience designed around good food and great conversation. Book your seat via Dineplan – HERE.
Restaurants are usually remembered in fragments. A condiment you couldn’t stop thinking about. The name of a wine you wrote down and promptly forgot. A conversation with someone you hadn’t met before dinner or the way a plate of food left you feeling nurtured. In South Africa, some of the most talented people creating these memories are women, and they’re bringing a distinct sense of warmth and emotional depth to the plates and glasses they’re presenting to the world.
Consider this your invitation to experience their work for yourself and book a table via Dineplan today.
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