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From a three-Michelin-star kitchen in Napa to the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, Jason McKinney is cooking his way around the world in search of the real thing

How 34-year-old Jason McKinney landed in South Africa as visiting chef-in-residence at Creation Wines in the Hemel-en-Aarde is a story of bold moves, risks and rewards beyond what he imagined.

There are names in the world of top restaurants and rock-star chefs that hush a room. They are celebrated and respected by guests but mostly by every aspiring young chef who dreams of being in the heat, in the pressure zone and on the global list of ‘Best in the World.’ For Jason McKinney, aged 18 and under pressure at his first job in New Hampshire, the dream was to work at the French Laundry in the Napa Valley with its three Michelin stars. Co-workers mocked him by calling him Keller after Thomas Keller, head chef at French Laundry, but Jason had the last laugh when, after an important spell at Georgia’s Sea Island Resort, where he was mentored by David Carrier and Jonathan Jerusalmy among others, he joined the staff at the legendary Californian establishment. The restaurant knew passion and drive when they saw it.

He credits The French Laundry and Per Se, its sister restaurant for the innovative learning culture: “That’s why I think all these guys from the Thomas Keller restaurant group are so successful. What you do is not necessarily learn how to cook really well, you learn how to learn.” These restaurants change their menu every single day, depending on what fresh ingredients are available. And Jason resists having his cooking style or philosophy pigeon-holed. He quotes the great Italian chef Massimo Bottura saying you’ve got to learn everything, then you forget it, then you can create. After several years during which he won coveted Employee of the Year, Jason moved on.

There were challenging times ahead.

During COVID, Jason started Truffle Shuffle, an attempt to sell truffles online. He went on Mark Cuban’s Shark Tank TV programme to pitch the idea to potential investors successfully. He had to teach himself online marketing, how to do a successful interactive cooking show using truffles, how to do budgets. Driven by the fear of missing payroll and with the confidence of learning how to learn, the project was so successful that Truffle Shuffle was later sold to major food chain Butcher’s Block.

The deal gave Jason the means for a culinary adventure: traveling the world and learning as much as possible. Luckily for him, the world of fine dining is changing in interesting ways. In certain parts of the world, like India, “There are hotels that are opening up restaurants that are just for talented rotating chefs. So, it makes a lot of sense because it’s easier to travel. People want to get out there and see the world.”

Think of the chef, not just as a fixture in a kitchen, but as a visiting musical celebrity, partly conductor, partly celebrity soloist. Jason has done this in India, Thailand and Malaysia, teaching and learning as he goes, sampling local cuisine. The South African stop is part of global exploration of the sources of authentic cooking. He searches for places that figure on world lists of the best restaurants and was particularly interested in Creation Wines because of their emphasis on innovation, local sourcing and wine pairings. To plan his five course Creation menu, he started by sampling their wines and then only decided on the menu. But that too depends on the quality of fresh produce available, which on a recent forage in and around Hermanus includes freshly caught fish from Gansbaai, abalone and seasonal greens.

Next on his list is opening an intimate 14-seater restaurant in New York, Elizabeth, named in honour of his mother. A second restaurant, inspired by his world travels, will be named Polina after his Russian wife, an authority on tea. They met in Paris where she was, she says, “drinking champagne.” They married in Salulita, Mexico. Jason credits her as the “the quiet engine of this entire journey. Every ‘yes’ I chased, every kitchen I talked my way into, every long travel day, she was right there making it work. Marrying her in the middle of the tour felt exactly right.”

His influence on Creation will not just be on this visit, but in plans for further collaboration, ideally during a future harvest. In the height of summer with the vines ripe and ready, he is looking forward to ‘tasting the terroir,’ and using this experience, like many others around the world, to infuse his dishes with authenticity and provenance.

Carolyn Martin, Creative Director and co-owner of Creation Wines, says: “We say Connect, Collaborate and Innovate at Creation, and Jason has shown our team what that actually looks like in a kitchen. He tasted our wines before he developed the dishes, which tells you everything about how he works: from the place first, never from the ego. His drive is contagious and his generosity with what he knows even more so. Our chefs will carry this beyond the two evenings. Thank you, Chef Jason.”

by Carolyn Martin