A returning chef, a younger kitchen crew and a property-wide refurbishment have given Mount Grace Lodge & Spa a brand new look and a menu constructed on foraging, fermenting and the tales behind each dish.
Lengthy earlier than he returned as Govt Chef in March 2026, Pieter Malan labored at Mount Grace Lodge & Spa as a scholar. That first style of the Magaliesberg laid the inspiration for a profession that took him all over the world. Now he’s again, and following a two-year private examine of the area’s pure substances, he has refreshed each menu on the property, from excessive tea to nice eating.
He has not come again alone. In a reunion of types, Chef Edwin Theron has additionally joined the Mount Grace Lodge & Spa kitchen crew. The 2 cooks had been co-competitors on kykNET’s Kokkedoor. Edwin went on to graduate cum laude from culinary college and now works intently with Chef Pieter on the resort’s idea eating.
Cooking from the soil
For the previous two years, Chef Pieter has made a private examine of what the land itself can provide the kitchen. The mountains round Mount Grace are wealthy in pure substances, from Tulbaghia (wild garlic), amadumbe and wild prickly pears to confetti bush, aloe, lavender and imphepho. The crew forages them by hand and turns the soil afterwards so the vegetation can regenerate naturally.
Round 80% of the substances are indigenous and both foraged or sourced inside a 60km radius, which suggests more energizing produce and assist for native producers comparable to Van Gaalen Cheese in Hartbeespoort and the family-run Bambini, identified for its ice cream and gelato. Not each ingredient is on the market all 12 months, so the kitchen preserves and ferments, setting apart the most effective of every season for later. It’s a conventional, nostalgic manner of cooking, and it offers the menus a way of place.
The in-house kombucha exhibits how far this goes. The crew brews the bottom in a glass syphon: because the liquid heats within the decrease chamber, stress pushes it up into an higher chamber stuffed with botanicals. The result’s a hibiscus kombucha, made with hibiscus from the neighbouring farm and native honey alongside foraged confetti bush, lavender and aloe, which reappears on the Rambling Vine menu as a discount served with domestically sourced tilapia.
“Every part on this menu begins with one query: what does this land give us? We forage, we ferment and we protect in order that we will cook dinner with what’s native and true to the Magaliesberg all 12 months spherical. I need the younger cooks on this kitchen to personal that story, as a result of they’re those who will carry it ahead,” says Chef Pieter Malan.
A seven-course culinary journey at Rambling Vine
The brand new menus honour South African meals, treasured household recipes and the nostalgia that comes with them, all given a Mount Grace twist. Nowhere is that this clearer than at Rambling Vine, the place the seven-course tasting menu attracts on substances and methods from throughout the nation.
The night begins within the wine cellar with canapés: a velvety amadumbe soup with wild garlic oil, buchu emulsion and fermented prickly pear, alongside “The Cigar”, a cold-smoked wild hog coppa mousse with a honey tuille. On the desk, the bread service brings dombolo, amagwinya and mosbolletjies with a candle comprised of boerewors lard for dipping. Later, sorghum, certainly one of South Africa’s oldest staple grains, is reworked right into a risotto with braised oxtail and so as to add crunch as a popcorn topping.
What units the night aside is who tells the story. Every course and its wine is introduced on the desk by a member of the culinary crew, lots of them younger cooks educated by Chef Pieter. They clarify the place every ingredient comes from, the way it was ready and the historical past behind the dish. The result’s a shared effort moderately than a one-chef present, and a manner of constructing abilities and confidence throughout the crew.
A recent look
The meals is matched by a refurbishment of all 121 rooms, reception, the lounge, Rambling Vine and the 1852 Heritage Bar. A muted palette of earthy tones, sage and pure wooden displays the gardens and mountains exterior, with panelled cream partitions, comfortable furnishings and fireplaces all through. Rooms are set in freestanding buildings throughout the gardens, and 26 suites have their very own heated pool.
The 1852 Heritage Bar, named for the 12 months the land was first registered as a farm, retains its old-school attraction. Settle in entrance of the fireplace in winter or open the doorways to the cool mountain breeze in summer time, over hearty plates comparable to slow-braised oxtail with a steamed dumpling.
“The refurbishment gave us the possibility to take a look at Mount Grace Lodge & Spa with recent eyes, and meals was at all times going to be an enormous a part of that. The brand new look displays our environment, and Chef Pieter’s menus deliver these environment to the desk. We wish Mount Grace Lodge & Spa again on the map as a vacation spot for individuals who love good meals,” says Normal Supervisor Barend Olivier.
