About Peter

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Peter Tempelhoff spent most of his life travelling and working in different countries and studied economics at University before discovering his true passion for food. After training at the 'Institute of Culinary Arts' in Cape Town in 1996 he finished top of his class and was awarded a bursary to study at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America.

His first chef position was at Grande Roche Hotel, Relais & Châteaux, under the late Grand Chef, Frank Zlomke where he spent 2 influential years.

Peter then relocated to London's Quo Vadis with Marco Pierre White for a year.

From there he spent 2 years in his first Michelin starred restaurant with his long time mentor and friend Aaron Patterson of Hambleton Hall. After which it was back to London for a year at another one Michelin starred restaurant, Zafferano, owned by Giorgio Locatelli.

In 2005 he accepted the position of Executive Chef at Automat in Mayfair, which gained instant applause as being one of the coolest places to eat in London, with some of the simplest yet finest food. Awards soon followed which included 'Top Table in London in 2005' and was nominated for 'Restaurant of the Year 2005 by Harpers and the Queens Restaurant Awards'.

Returning to South Africa in October 2006, Peter took over as Executive Chef at the award winning Grande Provence Wine Estate in Franschhoek. During his time here he was named 'Sunday Times Chef of the Year 2007', 'Franschhoek Life Chef 2007' and also elevated the restaurant to the 'Eat Out Top 10 Restaurants in South Africa'.

In January 2008 he accepted the position to oversee the 5 Relais Chateaux restaurants within 'The Collection by Liz McGrath'. Since then he has been awarded 3 Stars in The Rossouw's Restaurants guide and the Eat Out Top 10 award for The Greenhouse. Between The Plettenberg, The Marine and The Cellars-Hohenort Hotels, Peter is currently holding 9 Rossouw's stars, more than anyone else in the guide's history and the country. Sand @ The Plettenberg has also won best hotel restaurant on the Garden Route for 2 years in a row, by CXPress Newspaper, for 2009 and 2010.

Over the last 3 years Peter has also had the good fortune of working with some of this generation's greatest chefs, including... Joel Robuchon, Anne Sophie-Pic, Michael Caines, Kyomi Mikuni and Yoshi Takazawa.