Round Trip

Yes, Luke Dale Roberts has opened a new restaurant, but it’s head chef Ryan Cole you should pay attention to this time. Straight off the back of helping The Test Kitchen secure the title of Best Restaurant in Africa, he’s now headlining Salsify at the Roundhouse

CHEF RYAN COLE likes things how he likes them. There’s a way of doing things. Whether it’s cutting an onion, packing the fridge, even washing the plates his food is served on – it’s all become part of a shorthand he’s spent the past three-and-a-half years refining as head chef of the number one restaurant in Africa*, spoken in a dialect wholly unique to his brigade at The Test Kitchen.

“The challenges of setting up a new kitchen team are immeasurable,” he says during a short break on the day before the official media launch of Salsify at the Roundhouse – his first restaurant – headed up in business partnership with Luke Dale Roberts and Luke’s wife Sandalene. “I’m OCD to the moon and all the way back. At The Test Kitchen, I could say, ‘Make me this, do that for me,’ and there were 15 people who could do exactly what I wanted because they’d had three years of training with me. Now I’ve got eight new guys in a kitchen that’s open for lunch and dinner. There was no masterclass where I went ‘This is how we do things’. I have to show each person, this is what I want from you. Eight times over. It’s hectic pressure, but I mean, that’s what keeps you alive.”