Stream the latest season of delectable local cooking show JAN

Like Madonna or Cher, Jan – an otherwise commonplace name – needs no further introduction or the addition of his surname. Say “Jan” and everyone immediately knows you’re talking about Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen, whether it’s his food or his style, his journal or his recipes (which, if they’re for “at home” are well within an ordinary cook’s grasp), the range of luxury products to which he attaches his name, or his TV series.

JAN is back for a fourth season, titled JAN RSVP, and for all intents and purposes, it’s an entirely new show, a departure from previous seasons (which are all available on Showmax). This time, Jan invites other famous South Africans (just because you’re famous yourself doesn’t mean you don’t have local heroes of your own) to join him at his farmhouse in the lavender fields of La Motte in Franschhoek where they cook together, but more than that, they talk.

Whether you’ve met Jan in the flesh, or you’ve watched his previous series, you’ll know he is charming, engaging, an excellent host – and funny.

JAN Season 4 is in essence a chat show but done with inimitable Jan style. It’s filmed in the Chiaroscuro style, the treatment of contrasted light and shade in drawing and painting used by Renaissance painters like Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Goya, and Georges de La Tour. It’s incredibly beautiful against a backdrop of classical music. But wait … what’s that? Oh, it’s Sarie Marais, slow and instrumental.

The show is a homage to South Africa and South Africans, and the food they grew up with.

Two people we know equally as well as Jan – although their surnames are inexorably linked – are Ina Paarman and Riaan Cruywagen, who are the guests in episode 1. Living legends, both of them, and if we can’t have them at our own dinner tables, at least we can live vicariously through Jan.

Jan asks Ina where her love of food came from. Surely from hunger, she replies, deadpan. They are working together, cooking, preparing a meal, in the kitchen; she is shaping her favourite potato and trout cakes which Jan will serve later with dill béarnaise sauce and topped with dollops of salmon roe. He also bakes Ina’s famous chocolate cake, her original bake mix from the 1980s tested more than a hundred times, and decorates it with whipped cream rosettes and glacé cherries, the way his ouma did.

Guests in this week’s second episode were Dutch singer Stef Bos and actress (although one simple word doesn’t even begin to cover this woman’s magnificence on stage and screen) Brümilda van Rensburg, where they feasted on oysters, eight-hour roasted leg of lamb, baked onions with honey and thyme, roast potatoes with “lots of salt”, and jelly and custard.

In other episodes we’ll meet Deon Meyer, Karen Dudley, Margot Janse, Coenie de Villiers, Mokgadi Itsweng and Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout, among others.

Hear from Jan himself in this exclusive interview for Showmax

“I knew exactly who I wanted to invite,” Jan shared in an exclusive interview. “They are legends, but I feel like I’ve known them my whole life, they were part of my childhood. Riaan Cruywagen’s voice was always echoing through our home in the evenings with an update on the news, Brümilda van Rensburg and Annelize van der Ryst were in all the soapies my mom used to watch, and Carike Keuzenkamp was what we sang along to in the car as a child.

“They all had a remarkable influence in my life, and I was blown away when they RSVP’d to have dinner with me at my table. Every guest not only plays a role in my life but also in many South Africans’.”

They are his heroes, he adds. “I was so nervous and excited at the same time, first waiting for a response and then to cook for them! Imagine inviting your heroes to have dinner with you and they say yes?!

“On the one side I felt like I have known these heroes my whole life, but at the same time I have never met some of them, so to have them share their stories and life experiences with me was such an honour and I am so humbled by the experience. We left at the end of the evening as good friends, a connection that is rare and I still believe brought together by food and wine.”

The farmhouse, Veepos, is in the beautiful winelands, at La Motte Wine Estate in Franschhoek, says Jan. “I’ve known about the farmhouse for a while and always knew I wanted to use the space in some way for a future project so when Carien Loubser of production company Brainwave and I started talking about the new season, I knew Veepos was the perfect location. It is also the most photographed building in Franschhoek, which makes it so iconic. It was a huge challenge to film inside because of the size. But with a great time we nailed it!”

The interior decor and style is pure Jan, including the cookbooks (he’s an avid collector) on the shelf in the kitchen, including Kook en Geniet, which is something of a bible when it comes to local cooking, and you just want to let the beauty of it all wash over you.

“We can’t elaborate too much yet, but we are planning to use Veepos for other projects too. Watch this space,” Jan says.

Talking about the food on the show, Jan says they begin with heritage dishes for the feast table: “Think snails with garlic pap, curry samp and beans, pampoenkoekies and ginger beer … tripe, slow-cooked food and most dishes we grew up with… most recipes inspired by our South African Cookbook Collection held in Cape Town at JAN Innovation Studio – and then eventually I prepare a fine-dine dish worthy to be on my menu at JAN in France. This dish is inspired by my guests and the conversation we had.”

Making and sharing food is an act of love, and a universal language we all understand. Breaking bread together is the most primal ritual in which we participate.

“The whole process of inviting someone for dinner, cooking for them and having them sit at your table and eating your food is such a vulnerable process,” says Jan. “It says so much about who you are as a person. It’s a memory that is shared between you and your guest and that is how I personally think the best bonds are formed.”

According to Jan, this is the most exciting project he has worked on. “We had so much freedom with this series. It’s not the normal talk show where questions are set out and pre-prepared. Instead of having everything planned and scripted we wanted to capture spontaneous moments between people enjoying life, beautiful ingredients and good company,” he says. “I left set each day feeling so inspired and excited by meeting and creating amazingness.”

Just one thing, Jan – when I come for dinner, please may I have a bigger glass for my bubbly?

JAN Season 4 airs weekly with new episodes on Showmax every Monday.