JAN RSVP is here

What you need to know about my new series JAN RSVP

After three beautiful seasons of JAN, I felt that we had captured my story… for now. As we started talking about how we would approach the next chapter, we kept coming back to doing something completely new, something that would expand what we do with a fresh point of view. I have always been incredibly inspired by people, and the moment we started talking about who I would invite to dinner, my heart started racing. Imagine if I could do a whole show where I meet my heroes! Imagine the things we would talk about. And so the idea for JAN RSVP, an entirely new project, was born.

This new series is a departure from what viewers might recognise from JAN previously. This time around I’m back on home soil and turning a small 1712 farmhouse in a Franschhoek lavender field into something magnificent. As always, food and my passion for it is the heartbeat and soul of the show. As viewers have seen in previous seasons of JAN, I use my home country as inspiration for the dishes in my restaurant in Nice, France. Where I usually find ideas in old South African cooking books or unique products from European markets, I now turn to the people I meet and spend time with for inspiration. In JAN RSVP, filmed at La Motte Wine Estate in Franschhoek, I get to invite some of my heroes for the food experience of a lifetime in a show that is inspired by the idea of ‘togetherness’.

I’m honoured to have been able to sit down with celebrities and industry legends like Coenie de Villiers, Ina Paarman, chef Mokgadi Itsweng and Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout. For each of my special guests I make a dish inspired by their own stories and being that will then be added to the menu of JAN in Nice. Together we cook, talk about life, share old recipes, traditions and dishes that they remember. We bond the only way I know how – breaking bread together around beautifully set tables – talking about life, love and everything in between.

The first episode airs this Sunday, 16 October at 20:30 on VIA, and repeats on Mondays at 22:00. I can’t wait to share it with you!