The man who went from student to master of South Africa’s world-famous restaurant

·10 Apr 2025

Executive Chef James Gaag started out as a student at the kitchen he now runs—one of Cape Town’s most well-loved and world-famous restaurants, La Colombe.

A frequent feature among the world’s top 50 restaurants, La Colombe—located in Silvermist Wine Estate, Constantia Nek, Cape Town—is renowned for delivering an exceptional fine-dining experience.

With food that wouldn’t be out of place among works of art, Gaag and his team have worked to deliver a quality that is truly befitting its place on the global map.

Most recently, the restaurant was awarded three stars in the 2025 Eat Out Woolworths Restaurant Awards. It ranked 49th in the global World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, and has been named the best restaurant in Africa on more than one occasion.

According to Gaag, the honour and glory is not his own, but rather the entire team that puts together the experience.

“Everything has to do with the team. Without a great team in the front of house and in the kitchen, you can’t achieve anything,” he said.

While most executive chefs elicit thoughts of boistrous aggression, or high intensity, Gaag’s reflections of his own stylings are lighter in tone.

“What I like to do, personally, is keep the environment fun and light-hearted,” he said.

“That’s not to say it’s not a hard kitchen—it’s an incredibly difficult kitchen and environment to work in having to pump out the best we can every day.”

But the chef tends to “pay it forward”, echoing his own experience of coming up at the restaurant, and putting a particualr focus on teaching.

“If you are continuously teaching, you are contiunuously honing your own skills. That’s one of the reasons we continuously do well – we have a team that believes and wants to achieve the same things I do, and help us continuously push in the right direction.”

From student to master

In early 2024, Gaag was a guest chef at the famous Restaurant Ikarus at Hangar-7—a trendy and historic space at Austria’s Salzburg Airport.

In a write-up for the spot, Gaag explained how his culinary journey was rooted in his love foor food as a child, with techniques passed onto him by his mother.

His mom was a cookery, confectionery and patisserie teacher at Silwood Kitchen in Cape Town’s southern suburbs, so he grew up surrounded by the art.

From there, his path was set.

He attended Silwood himself, and joined La Colombe as a student in 2010. He rapidly grew in rank becoming sous chef and then head chef within three years.

In 2013 he headed to England, where he worked under legendary chef Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxford.

In 2014, he returned to South Africa and rejoined La Colombe.

Gaag’s residency as a guest chef at Restaurant Ikarus is a notable achievement on his journey as a top chef.

The restaurant’s guest chef concept sees it drawing in the world’s most creative and successful chefs, bringing the highest quality and unique culinary experiences from around the world.

Gaag cracked an invite to one of the most exclusive gigs in any chef’s career.

According to Gaag, his palette is “globally inspired”, with his stylings being a “mix of anything” so long as it is immediately delicious.

“That’s the most important thing, always,” he said.

“Mexican flavours, Indian, Thai, German—it doesn’t really matter. The overriding factor is that it needs to be delcious immediately, as soon as you taste it.”

He added that blending cultures makes menues more unique—and when it comes to ingredients, La Colombe’s location enables the restaurant to get the freshest.

“Being on the mountain…everything can grow. So we can go out in the morning and forage and use the different herbs and shrubs in our food and presentation.”

“It’s still a challenge, but it’s fun,” he said.