The Talent behind Chefs Experience – Jenny Ward

Since Chefs opened its doors on St John’s Street in Gardens, on-the-go Capetonians are happier for it. The restaurant serves up a selection of three meals a day, prepared from 12 noon onwards. Customers with a busy day ahead can find out what’s cooking on Chefs’ website, head there for lunch or dinner, order and pay on arrival, and be served a delicious dish in no time at all.

What makes the restaurant different is its incorporation of the ‘fast fine’ trend into its dining experience. This concept basically combines the best of fast food with fine dining. Reservations are not required, the menu isn’t extensive, there’s no long wait to eat, and the food is of the highest quality, prepared by an excellent chef.

The person responsible for Chefs’ consistently exceptional, varied and swiftly prepared dishes is Head Chef Jenny Ward. She brings into the kitchen her skill with wood-fired cooking, a love for simple and traditional cooking techniques, and a preference for using raw ingredients from carefully sourced suppliers. The successful combination of these three strategies is proven by her unostentatious and flavourful meals.

Jenny achieved a cum laude qualification from the Institute of Culinary Arts, going on to cook in numerous restaurants, as well as making cuisine for the private jet catering company Par Avion and celebrities such as Mariah Carey. She met her sous chef, the talented Jaffarie Sabe, when the two were working at Bizerca Bistro, a restaurant based in Cape Town’s CBD.

Jenny acquired her passion for wood-fired cooking while working in a Turkish restaurant in Australia, and she honed these skills while chefing privately for a family on the coast of KwaZulu-Natal. Her love for cooking in general stems from her childhood, when she would help her mother bake and prepare jams and preserves. This has inspired her to use many preserves and chutneys in her dishes.

Regarding her own culinary preferences, Jenny loves to prepare a braised or marinated lamb stew, which was added to the Chefs menu recently, much to her satisfaction. Her favourite meal is beef tartare, which has featured on the menu as well. She also enjoys a good chicken-mayonnaise sandwich on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and maintains that the best sandwiches of this kind are made at her childhood home.

You can taste Jenny’s fabulous food at Chefs restaurant from Monday to Friday from 12h00 onwards. The kitchen takes its last orders at 20h30. Phone +27 21 461 0368 for more enquiries or visit www.chefscapetown.co.za

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