About

CHEFS WAREHOUSE TIMELINE

2010 Liam and Jan Tomlin open Chefs Warehouse and Cookery School in Cape Town on New Church Street, a place for keen home cooks to learn from international chef Liam Tomlin. With its retail section laden with ingredients, equipment and cookbooks, it quickly becomes a food lover’s haven.

2014 A legend is born. With a change of concept and location to emerging foodie hot spot Bree Street, the restaurant Chefs Warehouse and Canteen opens and kicks off the popular concept of high quality global tapas for two. It’s jammed from day one.

2016 A big year. Chefs Warehouse Beau Constantia opens with Ivor Jones as partner and head chef. In the same week, Thali – which is Liam’s colourful take on modern Indian food -- opens on Park Road just off Kloof Street. Liam begins consulting for Singita, elevating the food offering of this group of luxury private game reserves to today’s heights.

2017 Franschhoek welcomes the opening of a Liam Tomlin restaurant with Chefs Warehouse at Maison, headed up by partner/head chef David Schneider.

2020 Liam makes waves on the dramatic Chapmans Peak coastline with the opening of Chefs Warehouse at Tintswalo Atlantic, pushing the tapas for two concept to the coastline.

2022 The Bailey is launched. A major renovation of an historic building opposite the original Chefs Warehouse and Canteen brings three concepts together under one roof: Chefs Warehouse at The Bailey (relocated from across the road), The Brasserie at The Bailey and The Old Bailey Lounge.

2023 Liam and David Schneider open The Red Room at the Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel, a retro-sophisticated celebration of pan-Asian food.

2024 Liam, Jan and David open Chefs Warehouse & Canteen, Merchant Bar & Grill, and Room 91, bringing chef Adrian Hadlow into the fold.

LIAM TOMLIN

“What makes food great isn’t showing off with multiple ingredients. It’s balance and restraint. I look at every dish we create and think, what can we take away from it?”

Few people alive have spent as many hours in a restaurant as Liam Tomlin. Born and raised in Dublin, Liam has worked in kitchens for over 40 years, since he began his career as a pot washer and kitchen porter at Dublin’s five-star Royal Hibernian Hotel, at the tender age of 14.

His culinary foundations were laid in the classical kitchens of European hotels and restaurants – in Dublin, London, Zurich, Amsterdam and Rome. In each, he absorbed every shred of knowledge he could – from Mirabeau, which was Ireland’s poshest restaurant at the time, to Zurich’s Hotel Central, where he credits chef and mentor Bruno Enderli with igniting his passion and instilling high standards, to Keats in London, where he was first introduced to a more original modern take on the classics, with a few more in between.

Liam went on to oversee several renowned restaurants in Australia, in collaboration with chef Dietmar Sawyer, and later on his own. Liam and his wife and partner Jan opened Banc in 1997 in Sydney, which garnered top accolades including 3 Chef Hats and Gourmet Traveller Restaurant of the Year.

It’s no accident that Cape Town ultimately became Liam and Jan’s home. With its beautiful beaches, phenomenal produce, growing food-centric culture and winelands, it had everything they wanted after living and working in Europe, Australia and Asia. At the time, they recognised Cape Town’s huge potential as a restaurant city, and two decades later, they’re still just as bullish.

Liam’s experience is worldly. His foundations are well-steeped in classical French cooking, he’s ignited by the flavours and ingredients of Asia and blown away by the freshness and abundance of produce and wine in South Africa. His toolbox is a global one, and he loves nothing more than using our fine local ingredients to bring exciting dishes to Cape Town tables. In doing so, he’s created something uniquely South African, and influenced dozens of chefs along the way. He is also a talented restaurant operator.

This is a man obsessed with restaurants. If he’s not in one of his own, chances are he’s eating in one. Or Googling one. Or planning his next visit to one. Or cooking up something new.

When he opened Chefs Warehouse and Cookery School in Cape Town in 2010, he had no idea that he would ultimately open another restaurant, let alone 10. Since then, his vision and ability to make good partnerships has led to restaurants in stunning physical settings – from ocean to winelands. He has influenced and mentored numerous young chefs, and as the Chefs Warehouse group has grown, he has let them shine. By creating positions for proven talent, like Ivor Jones and David Schneider, who have come on board as partners, he is now in a more managerial directive role.

He is particularly proud of the contribution he has made at Singita, the group of luxury game lodges for which he serves as a consultant. Brought on board to raise the standard of their food and drinks offering, he’s exceeded his goal of creating restaurant kitchens and highly trained professional chefs that create food on par with the world’s best restaurants.

Passionate about cookbooks, Liam is that unusual chef who loves to painstakingly document his dishes in what is to him another creative outlet. In collaborations with top food photographers like Claire Gunn and Micky Hoyle, he has written six cookbooks, including Season to Taste (2005), Lessons with Liam (2012), Tapas (2014) and Thali (2018) in South Africa and two in Australia, and will soon publish a new book titled We Speak Kitchen Here. Part biography, part restaurant how-to and industry commentary, and part recipe collection, it is a celebration of those who have made the Chefs Warehouse group the success it is.

Liam is the recipient of numerous awards internationally and in South Africa, including Eat Out Chef of the Year and more recently Eat Out Woolworths Lockdown Innovation Award, for which he was honoured for his important industry contributions during the pandemic. Many of the Chefs Warehouse restaurants have also been extensively recognised with awards by Eat Out, JHP Gourmet Guide, La Liste and other prestigious industry organisations.

With success has come the means to help others. Chefs Warehouse supports the Reach for a Dream Foundation, through the annual charity gala dinner it hosts in Cape Town, which raises millions of rands to assist this important cause.

Liam and Ivor oversee The Mark Mbotya Internship Program, a three-year intensive practical and academic old-school internship which turns unskilled youth into chefs: gaining knowledge and skills as they rotate through the group’s restaurants.

Mental health within the restaurant industry is a serious concern of Liam’s and like chefs across the world, many of his team have battled with mental health issues and addictions. To this end, he and Dave have created Mind Your Backs, an initiative which seeks to address and ameliorate mental health within the group and ultimately the industry at large.

Liam takes great pride in the business he and Jan have built, with the support of a team of super-talented, enthusiastic and hard-working people. With some 350 employees, the Chefs Warehouse group is a notable South African enterprise that supports hundreds of extended families. The company is based on old-school values of hospitality, hard work, respect and excellence, values which Liam holds dear. In an industry which can often be unprofessional, Liam raises the bar, wherever he goes.

When you walk into a Liam Tomlin restaurant, you immediately sense that standards matter.