Food

Restaurant Mosaic to close as top chef Chantel Dartnall starts 'new adventure'

04 December 2020 - 11:25 By Toni Jaye Singer
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Chantel Dartnall, chef-patron of Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient, has won numerous awards both locally and abroad.
Chantel Dartnall, chef-patron of Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient, has won numerous awards both locally and abroad.
Image: Supplied

The local fine dining scene is poised to lose one of its key ingredients: Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient has announced that it will be closing at the end of March 2021.

Over the past 15 years, this upmarket eatery in Elandsfontein, Pretoria, has elevated SA’s reputation in the global culinary arena by continually winning prestigious international awards.

In fact, its chef patron Chantel Dartnall — who is known for her beautiful, botanical-inspired dishes — is possibly our country’s most acclaimed female chef. She’s also officially one of the best chefs on the planet.

In 2017, Dartnall was named Best Lady Chef at the global Best Chef Awards, and Chef of the Year for Africa and the Middle East at the Luxury Travel Guide Awards. She’s twice been named Chef of the Year in the local Eat Out Restaurant Awards.

She made the Best Chef Awards list of the world’s Top 100 Chefs in 2017 and 2018, and was shortlisted for the 2020 ranking.

Dartnall broke the bittersweet news in a press release, saying that the lockdown had giving her the “chance to take stock”. It made her realise how much she treasures family time and how much she’d been missing out on.

“I have been considering this brave new adventure for a while, and this period helped to solidify my decision,” she said.

This “new adventure” will see Dartnall focusing on her debut cookbook as she splits her time between her “secret hideaway” in the southern Cape and La Ville Lumière in Paris.

Chef Chantel Dartnall has championed 'botanical cuisine' in SA.
Chef Chantel Dartnall has championed 'botanical cuisine' in SA.
Image: Supplied

“This is not the end of Chantel Dartnall the chef,” she reassured fans. “I will be furthering my knowledge of European cuisine, focusing on my French language studies and enhancing my technical skills.”

In the New Year, Dartnall will be taking a nostalgic stroll down memory lane in the months leading up to her final service. The restaurant will be serving up a “Best of Mosaic” menu celebrating the culinary highlights of its history.

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