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Top Billing visits chef Nicky Gibbs at home
Top Billing visits chef Nicky Gibbs at home
She cheffed with Anthony Bourdain, he cooked for Steven Spielberg, now Nicky Gibbs and Clive Cleland Johnson are wowing guests with fynbos infused dining.
Chef Nicky Gibbs has worked with the planet’s most famous foodies, in celebrated kitchens on land and sea. At last, she has her own restaurant at the Crofter’s Kitchen and with her own, organic garden – she’s known as The Queen of Conscious Cuisine!
This modernist home and restaurant hunkering down in the fynbos of Noordhoek is where the long-wandering Chef Nicky has chosen to lay her chef’s hat. Her journey has seen her cooking with the likes of Anthony Bourdain on the cruise-liner QE2. She was first female sous chef at Quaglinos in London, then the second busiest restaurant in Europe. She’s catered for rock stars, been Executive Chef at Joburg’s top hotels and after working with renowned Cape chef Frank Dangereux, she set up shop – from home.
Just a year old when her British parents moved out here, she is proudly one of us.
As her own interior designer, Chef Gibbs has gone for geometric shapes and a bold feel, blended with seventies furniture and dishes, plates and bowls from most continents.
The young Ms. Gibbs was raised by parents who grew vegetables, cured and smoked their own meat and fish - so, she learned fast.
Her passion for cooking started the day a six year old Nicky Gibbs was gifted a recipe book by her aunt. In no time she’d made every dish in the book and was hungry for trying new ideas.
Running the décor, events and marketing at Crofter’s Kitchen is Clive Cleland Johnson, an international award winner for his table-scapes.
These creatives became friends after Clive returned to South Africa from cooking on the mega yachts of Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Lopez. He and Nicky worked together on several functions until they decided to pool their resources. At the start of 2018, they forged this dream team and opened for business.
It’s a tribute to the best of South African hospitality. We could try to describe that tasting menu for you but words would never come close so we’ll simply say - go! There is no way on this Earth, you could be disappointed.