Salt Restaurant & Bar appoints new chef, Jacques De Jager

Salt Restaurant & Bar at the re-styled Ambassador Hotel in Bantry Bay is proud to announce the appointment of executive chef, Jacques de Jager. Driven by an overwhelming ambition to ‘get things right’, Jacques comes from a successful two-year stint at the Restaurant at Grande Provence in Franschhoek, which was awarded sixth place in the 2009 Prudential Eat Out Top 10 Awards. For Jacques, who was praised by the judges for his sophisticated menu emphasizing local ingredients, it was an admirable achievement.

Jacques is excited about swopping the vineyards for the ocean and is brimming with energy and innovative ideas for reinventing the food and service culture at Salt Restaurant & Bar and putting the newly opened Salt Deli and soon-to-launch Salt Vodka Bar on the map.

At Salt Deli, on the opposite side of Victoria Road from the Ambassador Hotel, he has already introduced a blackboard menu of fresh, daily specials, including classic, much-requested breakfast treats like creamy scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on a croissant.

Jacques is supported by a young but formidable team of chefs, including two talented sous chefs that followed him from the Restaurant at Grande Provence. Asked about the challenges of cooking to a city audience, Jacques says: ‘I think lunch in the city is a completely different challenge, compared to the leisurely pace of dining out in the winelands. At Salt, customers will demand a faster pace, slicker service and exciting food and wine pairings.’ The plan is to introduce a new lunch menu with easy going, bistro-style flavours that will allow customers to enjoy a three-course meal in an hour.

De Jager’s style is modern French with a definite South African influence. What’s on the plate is evidence of his passionate commitment to sourcing the best local and seasonal ingredients. ‘It’s fantastic to have over 75 wines wines on our list, all of them available by the glass. From a chef’s perspective, it gives me scope to get hugely creative with food and wine pairings!’

While lunchtimes at Salt Restaurant will be about keeping things simple and relaxed, dinner is Jacques’ opportunity to pull out all the stops. ‘While there will always be an a la carte menu on offer, in the evenings the real attraction at Salt will be the tasting menus – four, five or six courses – paired to wines.’

BACKGROUND
Jacques de Jager grew up in Kwa-Zulu Natal, where he graduated as a chef in 2002 before heading to the Algarve in Portugal to work at the fine-dining Anna’s International Restaurant. He gained further international experience with the Sofitel hotel group, working in the kitchen of Chez Colette in the Sofitel Philadelphia in the US for two years. Back in SA, he was offered the job of assistant executive chef at the Restaurant at Grande Provence in the Franschhoek winelands. The lure of being part of the start-up team at barefoot luxury Azura Lodge on Benguerra Island in Mozambique proved too appealing, but by the beginning of 2008 De Jager was back at Grande Provence – this time at the helm.

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