The Gorgeous George Hotel will open its doors in downtown Cape Town this April and is the latest addition to the Design Hotels™ group.The hotel will also be welcoming Guy Bennett as the executive chef of its GiGi Rooftop restaurant, a grand, European-styled café. Bennett has wielded his knives at top restaurants in Cape Town, most recently Grande Provence Heritage Estate and the One&Only, and is looking forward to creating European-style cuisine with some unique flourishes for the GiGi menu.
South African-born Bennett got his first taste of the food markets in Paris on a family trip to Europe at the tender age of seven, an experience that made a huge impression on the youngster. ‘The variety of fresh produce and being able to interact with the farmers was eye-opening for me as a child, and it was something we didn’t get to see much of in South Africa,’ he says.
Bennett grew up in a family that enjoyed cooking together, and could often be found in the kitchen with his mother and grandmothers. ‘My father is Afrikaans, so there was a strong culture of braaiing in our family, a very South African thing to do on weekends.’ This gave the aspiring young chef a unique connection to cooking and further confidence in his kitchen skills.
Bennett is looking forward to introducing some of his new and unique touches to the menu at GiGi Rooftop at Gorgeous George. ‘Our philosophy at Gorgeous George is ‘come for breakfast, stay all day’, so the menu will have a relaxed feel, using some classic French techniques, while also drawing on all my experiences, which include Asian fusion, South African and modern UK influences,’ he says.
Being part of Design HotelsTM, GiGi will stay true to the ideology of innovative design and architecture, with a strong cultural rooting in hospitality. This will be brought out in the menu, which will benefit from cutting-edge cooking techniques, distinctive plating and seasonal locally-sourced ingredients.
Gorgeous George will be taking bookings from 18 April 2019. For further information please visit the Gorgeous George website here.
Image: supplied
