ΡΗΟΕΝΙΧ RISING

Chef Tyron Gentry is the man behind the pass at The Test Kitchen Carbon, newly opened in Johannesburg, where he's putting his own prodigious stamp on the menu

- LYNDA INGHAM-BROWN

IT MUST BE TOUGH TO LIVE UP TO THE NAME LUKE DALE ROBERTS, when you’re not the man himself. But Tyron Gentry is taking an impressive stab at it as head chef of The Test Kitchen Carbon in Rosebank, where the multi-award-winning Dale Roberts opened the latest addition to his stable in March this year. “This is not a carbon copy of The Test Kitchen in Cape Town,” Tyron emphasises, without irony. But it is certainly true of this new foray into the City of Gold; it is no reincarnation. For Luke, opening in Johannesburg came about organically. The pandemic changed the dining landscape in Cape Town, resulting in the closure of The Shortmarket Club, for one. And when Tyron told Luke he was moving to Joburg after his wife, Candice, was offered a job there, Luke decided the time to do something of his own in the city had finally come. “I had two of my greatest chefs moving up there [Tyron and also Taryn Smith, head chef at The Shortmarket Club – which opened in the same precinct, Oxford Parks, late last year].” It was an easy decision for Luke to put Tyron in the spotlight at Carbon. His own role is as a mentor and guide to the young chef ’s creativity and he has given him free rein in the kitchen.