Franck was born in France (Cannes) and born into food. Every holiday involved a family feast, and not only was his mother a phenomenal cook but so were his grandmothers. They taught Franck about going to the market, smelling the produce and choosing the finest ingredients. Franck says his earliest memories were strongly connected to food… “My gran who lived in Nice cooked delicious food for us – rabbit with red wine, cep mushrooms and prunes. Asparagus with a vinegary, creamy sauce, strawberries with homemade custard."

By his early teens, Franck knew that he wanted to work with food, and at fifteen he started at the Nice Hotel School which was incredibly tough at the time. 

He trained at the Hotel School for three years, and later trained with Roger Verge of Moulin de Mougins. By the age of eighteen he started working at Michelin 3-star restaurants in Southern France, and has been working ever since. 

 

As a young chef Franck was fascinated with experimenting with ingredients, and the adventure was about trying different combinations. By his own admission, some dishes “were disgusting!” 

Franck travelled to St Bart in the Caribbean where he started a laid back restaurant at the top of a hill. Whilst working here, in 1987 he came to South Africa on a surf holiday to see an uncle he barely knew, and was blown away by the country. It was his first visit to South Africa, and the people, the mountain, the climate and the light delighted and enthralled him so much that he stayed for an entire month. 

Franck returned to the Caribbean, working there and Northern Africa, but South Africa and Cape Town in particular stayed prominently in his mind. After Nelson Mandela’s release, he felt that there were exciting times and opportunities in South Africa, and he made his way back to his uncle. 

 

Franck started working with Franck Swainston at Constantia Uitsig. For Franck it was a new phase of his adventures as a chef. There was gastronomical revolution happening in South Africa, and Franck’s enjoyment of being in the kitchen and working with about ten other chefs as part of the movement was a quest. He had grown up, and his pursuit in the world of food was to achieve perfection and to cook with sensibility, simplifying his dishes to the perfect combinations. In 1996 Franck created La Colombe restaurant on Constantia Uitsig farm. It is no surprise that during his ten years there, La Colombe was voted restaurant of the year six times. He was placed 28th on the list of the world’s best restaurants in 2006. Franck is humble though, and despite his achievements, numerous awards and an elevated status with a huge fan base and following, for him the pleasure revolved around the enjoyment of cooking and having happy patrons. 

 

Franck’s next adventure was joining up with Pete de Bruin and starting the Foodbarn Noordhoek Farm Village. Linked to a stage in his personal life, Franck had met his wife and with two boys (now both grown-up) and a lifestyle that Franck had always dreamed of, the move to Noordhoek was and still is an exciting challenge. The Foodbarn was partly motivated by spending time with his family, partly motivated by surfing the surrounding spots, and partly based on a new phase of his career. 

Having left the world of Fine Dining, Franck wanted to introduce better food to a broader audience using his experience and food savvy ways. As he says, “I want fine dining brought to the streets – the more people know about ingredients and their origins,  the more conscious and demanding they are, the  better the food we serve. 

 

Franck’s latest quest is to share his knowledge with other people and create a culture of unpretentious fine dining. He has shared this knowledge with his passionate team and staff, and now is sharing that with the public. 

Look out for Franck’s  Wine Wednesdays and Conscious Eating Events which run monthly throughout the year in the restaurant. Sharing is caring but have no fear, he will still be waking up in the middle of the night with new ideas for an exciting combination for a new dish - so keep visiting as the menu is continuously changing with the seasons and the “midnight dishes” from Franck’s head. 

 

The Foodbarn is very conscious about local support and all ingredients are sourced locally where possible (with a maximum 80km radius of Cape Town). Franck believes in supporting the people who live and work around us for the long term sustainability of our people and our planet. 

 

Franck Dangereux – chef extraordinaire is loving life in Noordhoek and at Noordhoek Farm Village. He spends time with his family, surfs Kommetjie and Noordhoek as often as possible, lives 2 minutes from work, and loves what he does and loves sharing that. 

Perhaps Franck’s greatest challenge is one that we all face in our day to day living and that is time – the currency of time is more valuable than money in so many ways to him, and like all of us real people doing real things, creating time to enjoy the things we love and not rush is what life is all about.