Bertus Hendrik Basson (born 12 April 1979)Basson is 34 in December 2013 if his birthday was in April: is a South African chef,

restaurateur A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspe ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and

TV personality Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

best known for his work as

head chef A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads a kitchen and its cooks. A chef patron (feminine form ''chef patronne'') (French for ''boss chef'') or executive chef is a chef that manages multiple kitche ...

of Overture in

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Thomas Baldwin ...

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

Early life

After being born in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

in 1979, Bertus was brought up in

Polokwane Polokwane (, meaning "Sanctuary" in Northern SothoPolokwane - The Heart of the Limpopo Provin ...

Nelspruit Mbombela, formerly Nelspruit, is a city in northeastern South Africa. It is the capital of the Mpumalanga province. Located on the Crocodile River, the city lies about by road west of the Mozambique border, east of Johannesburg and north of ...

and

Witbank Witbank (), officially eMalahleni, is a city situated on the Highveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa, within the Emalahleni Local Municipality, Mpumalanga, Emalahleni Local Municipality. The name Witbank is Afrikaans for "white ridge", and is named ...

. He began to help his mother with cooking in the kitchen at a young age. Growing up, Basson also worked as a waiter at Spur Steak Ranches, as well as at a liquor store and a toy store.

Career

Bertus Basson began working in the culinary career when he was 17 years old. He moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

at the age of 19 to work at the

Michelin star The ''Michelin Guides'' ( ; ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The ''Guide'' awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few restaurants in certain geographic ...

red restaurant

Chez Bruce Chez Bruce is a restaurant located at 2 Bellevue Road in Wandsworth, London, England. History The restaurant was opened in February 1995 by Bruce Poole and his business partner Nigel Platts-Martin, a proprietor of several other Michelin-star ...

. Basson began his first catering business, All Things Culinary, in 2005. In 2007, Bertus was named ''

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Chef of the Year'', before establishing his first restaurant, Overture in November. Overture has been awarded distinguished accolades from both the Eat Out Guide and Rossouws Restaurant Guide while under his leadership. Basson appeared as a judge on Season 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the national cooking show '' The Ultimate Braai Master'' on

SABC 3 SABC 3, also branded as S3, is a South African free-to-air television channel owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Since March 2024, it carries programming in English and Afrikaans only. History On 1 January 1982, two tel ...

. He also appears as a guest on the lifestyle TV show

Top Billing Billing is a performing arts term used in referring to the order and other aspects of how credits are presented for plays, films, television, or other creative works. Information given in billing usually consists of the companies, actors, direct ...

as well as the daily talk show ''Expresso''. Basson was crowned with "Chef of the Year" at the 2019 South African EatOut Awards for his work at Eike and Overture.

Restaurants

Books

Bertus Basson has two books to his name: * ''Homegrown'' (2017, Jacana Media; ) * ''Being Bertus Basson'' (2018, Jacana Media; )

Awards and nominations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Basson, Bertus 1979 births Living people South African chefs South African cookbook writers South African television personalities People from the Western Cape South African writers People from Cape Town