IN his decade abroad, Neill Anthony found himself honing his skills in the kitchens of world-renowned restaurants and himself studying briefly under celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing.
The “Private Chef” shares: “It was an amazing experience and also a big learning curve for me. I got to work with Gordon Ramsay, not all the time, though, and Marcus Wareing. You gain a lot of knowledge as a cook and a person. But it also meant a lot of hard work.”
When he returned to South Africa in 2010, he planted his feet down in Cape Town.
Of course, selling the concept of a personal chef wasn’t easy.
He notes: “I think people are scared – they think it is something that’s only for mega millionaires and billionaires. So it’s had its ups and downs. Also, coming to Cape Town and not knowing the avenues to follow was daunting.
“It really does snowball from the word-of- mouth aspect, which is your biggest friend in terms of publicity.”
Right now he is in the eye of a huge publicity drive after bagging Neill Anthony – The Private Chef on SABC3.
He says this show was inspired after his TV spell on Bitten with foodie blogger and author, Sarah Graham.
On what he brings to the table, he shares: “We looked at what’s out there. And I have something special to offer, it’s not just me cooking in my house. It also showcases Cape Town as an amazing food destination. Look, it’s taken an extremely large amount of work. But the show has such a nice variety of things.”
Aside from the recognisable faces of Nerine Pienaar (Francois Pienaar’s wife) and her iconic rugby dinner guests, business mogul Sonja Muller, the SABC3 Expresso team, MasterChef SA season two winner Kamini Pather, food critic and television personality, Aubrey Ngcungama, American businessman Jonathan Hoffman and an eccentric British IT millionaire feature in the 13-part series.
From a concept perspective, that’s what sets this show apart from other cooking shows.
Anthony adds: “We looked at having diversity on the show. You don’t want me just cooking at huge villas. We did a game farm, stuff at my place, the beautiful Tulip House.”
And the nosh varied from posh to organic to comfort cuisine.
He notes: “The style is mainly rustic refined. And I only using fresh local ingredients. We really push that. So it varies from a toasted sandwich at home to dinner party food. We have a canapé party with tapas-style dinning, an olive-based dinner, stylish finger foods and dessert.”
“So we are keeping it real and keeping it local,” he maintains.
While he has strayed from his initial plans to “get my own restaurant and work myself into an early grave”, he is happy to still have his foot in the food industry, inspiring people and, hopefully, bagging a few more seasons of his TV show.
• Neill Anthony – The Private Chef airs on SABC3 from March 15 at 4.30pm.