Klein Jan

The inspiration behind Restaurant Klein JAN did not come from a desire to create a fine dining experience in the middle of the Kalahari. It came from the heart – from the tables of my childhood – memories that I have taken with me into an unknown land. Although I hadn’t been to the Kalahari before visiting Tswalu for the first time, I instantly connected with this place. I felt my grandmother’s presence at Boscia House, I fell in love with the people of the Northern Cape and was overwhelmed by their hospitality, and the more time I spent in the Kalahari, the deeper my roots spread through the endless red earth. This book is my homage to losing your heart to a special place, and making your dreams come true.Creating Klein JAN has been Chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen’s great homecoming project. Growing up on a farm in South Africa’s rural Mpumalanga province, he felt an instant connection to the vastness of the Kalahari and knew that the time had come to return the spirit of JAN – his Michelin-star restaurant in Nice – to home soil.Klein JAN is situated on one of South Africa’s leading private game reserves, Tswalu Kalahari, a refuge – untamed, untouched, unspoiled – that celebrates the simple, authentic splendours of this magical region. Klein JAN tells the story of South African culture through food, from the ways of old to the new.

South African-born Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen was raised on a rural farm in the north of the country. After completing an Advanced Diploma in Culinary Arts in Stellenbosch he furthered his studies with a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Design and Photography. He worked as a contributing food editor for ELLE magazine in South Africa and Paris before relocating to Nice to open his own restaurant called JAN in 2013. Since its humble beginnings, JAN has garnered a reputation as one of the top restaurants in the south of France, earning a Michelin star in 2016. Klein JAN opened in 2021, bringing the spirit of JAN to home soil, and giving the food from the Kalahari the global stage it deserves. In 2023, Jan Hendrik was named first in the African Food Network 100 Most Influential People in the African Food Industry 2023, which celebrates change-makers from all regions of Africa who’ve made an impact through entrepreneurship, advocacy, innovation, and preservation of culinary traditions.

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