Jean Delport

Benguela on Main’s executive chef Jean Delport is on a culinary crusade. Jean’s training in classical French and English cooking has given him the confidence to become an innovator in the kitchen.

Jean trained at Zevenwacht Chef School, where he was awarded both the Patissier Award in 2007 and Best Overall Student Award in his second year in 2008. He has worked at top South African eateries like Rust en Vrede, Terroir, Cassia, Equus Dine at Cavalli, and Killeen House Hotel in Ireland. He cites as his influences British celebrity chef Marco Pierre White, Swiss chef Daniel Humm and local talent John Shuttleworth.

What can one expect from Jean’s kitchen?
Food that uses only fresh seasonal local ingredients, food in which the ingredients are allowed to come into their own, old dishes served in inventive new ways, food that is so good that it does not need to be disguised.

Jean presides over a kitchen that does not hold with a stalemate; menus are changed regularly, as are the dishes. Jean does not consider any dish to be perfect and says that trying to attain perfection is his quest. For this very reason he says that he does not have a signature dish.

He also understands the symbiosis between good food and good wine and is intent on showing how these interact and complement each other.