Sandton’s vibrant restaurant scene was given an injection of international flavour for one night in May when London-based chef Novelli visited South Africa for the launch of the new Audi A8 at the Sandton Convention Centre (SCC). An entire floor of the SCC was transformed into an exclusive pop-up restaurant, The Art of 8, for a night of indulgent dining, courtesy of the renowned Chef Novelli.
Internationally renowned chef Jean-Christophe Novelli with Garth Shnier – executive chef for Sandton Sun, Inter-Continental Sandton Towers and Sandton Convention Centre along with James Khoza executive chef of Sandton Convention Centre.
On the menu at The Art at 8 was a starter of warm goats cheese terrine with confit aubergine and red pepper, followed by lamb shank with masala spices, confit vegetables and Carlos potato and ending with a decadent dessert of tart tatin with caramel sauce and vanilla bean ice cream with berry compote.
Jean-Christophe travels around the world working on a myriad of projects for which he is passionate about, often only arriving for an event a few days before. This requires some long distance planning with a variety of people. “Garth and James’s team at the SCC is one of the finest I have ever worked with. Often I get to my destination and I have to go straight into preparation and reworking concepts. As I landed the SCC team had already prepared sample dishes and tentatively booked suppliers. Garth and James were flexible throughout the process, prepared to make any changes required,” notes Novelli.
Garth is a veteran of the hospitality industry, having worked as a chef for around 30 years and heading up the kitchens of the Sandton Sun, InterContinental Johannesburg Sandton Towers and Sandton Convention Centre for Tsogo Sun for the last six years. He has an impressive list of accolades to his name, having won numerous gold, silver and bronze medals in international culinary competitions, both as a member of the team and as manager. Today he is one of a handful of chefs from around the world and the only one from South Africa responsible for establishing and maintaining the strict guidelines and standards for international competitions as a member of the World Association of Chefs Societies International Culinary Guidelines Committee. This experience and expertise stood the Sandton Convention Centre’s kitchen brigade in good stead as they prepared to execute Novelli’s intricate menu.
The event required the expertise of 37 chefs to create over 360 dishes for the 300 guests, while ensuring another 4 000 dishes were complete for a number of other events at the SCC on the same evening. Novelli notes that while he has worked in convention centres before it has never been on this scale, “It is an indescribable experience working with Garth and James; they made my job easy.”
Says Shnier, “Jean was a true professional, a humble man who wants to work as a team. From the onset we agreed on what was possible and how we could create the best concept for this pop up restaurant.”
As Executive Chef of Sandton Convention Centre, James was responsible for ensuring that every minute detail of the food delivery was prepared for seamless and faultless execution on the night of the event. James’ began his culinary adventure working under Walter Ulz at Linger Longer restaurant as demi chef de cuisine and went on to work around the world in France, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Berlin, before coming back to South Africa. Back home James joined the Tsogo Sun group, where he has been employed for over nine years.
“The experience was one of the highlights of the year for myself and the team. It was a challenge that we embraced and the staff thoroughly enjoyed working with him,” concludes Khoza.
