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South African chef Jean Delport has won a Michelin Star for the second consecutive year at Restaurant Interlude, in Leonardslee Lakes & Gardens, England.

Executive chef Jean Delport is only the second South African to win the UK’s top restaurant award. Entrepreneur Penny Streeter OBE owns Restaurant Interlude, as well as Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate, near Hermanus in Western Cape.

Penny Streeter brought Jean Delport from his native South Africa to open the restaurant in October 2018. He manages a team of seven kitchen staff and says:

"We were delighted to receive this recognition by Michelin after just one year of opening, and now have retained the award in 2021. Interlude connects lovers of fine dining with the very spirit of the finest woodland gardens in England, unspoilt and carefully curated for over 200 years.”

“Every dish in each seasonal, multi-course tasting menu is designed to a hunter-gatherer concept of food that’s foraged, cultivated and raised on the estate or close by. It is savoured and enjoyed as an intimate dining experience; a small, exclusive dinner party within the estate’s Italianate mansion house.”

Diners can feast on the seasonal menu that might include: estate rabbit, winter purslane, hogweed cider and charcoal; fallow deer with local braai and sour raspberry; or oyster, foraged greens and juniper.

Guests arriving at Restaurant Interlude in the estate mansion house, built in 1855, are greeted in the grand hallway with music from a self-playing piano and drinks in the bar. They are then seated together at around 7pm in the restaurant, enjoying views across acres of gardens in the steep valley below, and east and south across to the South Downs.

Jean has particular experience from South Africa of how to complement innovative tasting menus with fine wines. Guests at Interlude can enjoy a selection of vintages from the owner’s vineyard at Benguela Cove, Hermanus, as well as from other estates in South Africa.

Executive Chef Jean Delport formerly worked with owner Penny Streeter at her restaurant in Somerset West, Cape Town for several years. Jean trained and won awards at the prestigious Zevenwacht Chef School in South Africa. With a background in classical French and English cooking, including several seasons in Ireland, he is noted as an innovator, changing and improving upon his own menus and selection of ingredients regularly.

Chef Ruan Pretorius began his career, and was finally head chef at restaurant Terroir in the Cape winelands in South Africa. Terroir is one of South Africa’s most decorated restaurants, in the top 20 of the country for 19 years running. He decided to join Jean Delport in the UK to meet an exciting new challenge at Restaurant Interlude.

www.restaurant-interlude.co.uk

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