Le Quartier Français, based in Franschhoek in the winelands, has taken the highest honours in Wine Magazine’s Top 100 Restaurants in South Africa 2004, winning first place for the best chef in South Africa and first for the best service in South Africa — as well as attaining a five-star rating for food, service and value in the prestigious national restaurant guide.
Crowning her eighth year in the kitchen at Le Quartier Français, Margot Janse was selected as top chef from among one hundred of South Africa’s leading restaurants. Commenting on her “personal pick of the country’s best”, Jos Baker, editor of the annual guide, paid tribute to Margot as “a superb and spontaneous chef”, and praised Le Quartier Français for “top service — alert, professional and leavened by friendliness.”
Janse also was named chef of the year in another popular dining guide, Eat Out 200.
“I don’t cook to be recognised; I cook to cook,” she commented. “It is great recognition for my whole team. We are now 20 women in the kitchen — a 99% female team plus one male trainee chef!”
Le Quartier Français is one of a handful of leading restaurants that have won a highly-prized place in all six editions of Wine Magazine’s Top 100 Restaurants in South Africa — and a place in the top ten restaurants in Eat Out every year since 1999.
The laudatory entry in Wine’s 2004 guide highlights the popular tasting menu: “an epicurean treat of superbly judged flavours, textures and portion, confirming Margot’s international reputation.”
The guide highlights signature dishes that showcase local ingredients and the restaurant’s winning cuisine — a double-baked beetroot and rocket souffle, Saldanha mussels in miso broth, springbok loin in balsamic broth with curried gnocchi, brie and porcini ravioli and orange-glazed ostrich fillet with sweetcorn and basil pancakes. ‒ I-Net Bridge