The summer residency will see South Africa's Chef of The Year Johannes Richter bring his award-winning Durban restaurant, The LivingRoom at Summerhill Guest Estate, to Bantry Bay.
Cape Town, South Africa: Award-winning boutique hotel Ellerman House is set to host South Africa's Chef of the Year Johannes Richter and his team from The LivingRoom in Durban for a four-month summer residency at Curate, the hotel's multi-course fine-dining restaurant. Curate by The LivingRoom will run from December 2026 through March 2027.
Since opening in 2025, Curate has carried the hotel's commitment to South Africa onto the plate with a menu built around terroir and the country's culinary traditions, making this residency a natural evolution of its fine-dining offering. For the residency, Johannes will draw on small-scale producers and growers around the Cape while turning to the culinary and cultural diversity of South Africa as a whole for inspiration.
Akhona Dukwana, who has been with The LivingRoom for eight years, steps in as head chef for the residency, cooking alongside Johannes, while Johanna shapes the service and trains the front-of-house team. Curate's sommelier, Joe Beziek, South Africa's Best Young Sommelier 2026, will work closely with the team, leading the floor and creating the pairings from the hotel's cellar of some 10 000 bottles of South African wine.
"Ellerman House has always been a place to show our guests the best of South Africa, whether that is on the walls, in the cellar, through our hospitality, or on the plate," says Ellerman House CEO Carol Kohne. "Johannes and Johanna have built something remarkable in Durban, cooking with an honesty and a respect that sits very close to our own values. Welcoming The LivingRoom team to Curate is incredibly exciting."
One of the country's most decorated chefs, Johannes has been a trailblazer in championing indigenous and local ingredients, celebrating culinary and cultural diversity, and sustainable fine dining. He trained in Michelin-starred kitchens in Germany, including Berlin's three-star Rutz, where he met his wife, Johanna Richter, now co-owner, sommelier and front-of-house manager at The LivingRoom.
"We are incredibly proud to partner with one of the best hotels in the world, whose commitment to showcasing South Africa aligns so closely with our ethos," says Johannes Richter. "We look forward to bringing diners a unique expression of South African dining, built on the ingredients of the Cape, rooted in sustainability and celebrating the country's culinary diversity."
The couple opened The LivingRoom at Summerhill Guest Estate in 2017, telling the story of KwaZulu-Natal's culinary and cultural diversity through hyper-endemic ingredients and ancient preservation techniques, with around 95% of its suppliers within 100 kilometres. Rooted far from the Western Cape, where most of South Africa's acclaimed restaurants are concentrated, it was named Eat Out Restaurant of the Year in 2022, holds three Eat Out stars and is recognised as a 50 Best Discovery restaurant, while Johannes was named Eat Out Chef of the Year in 2025 and 2026 and holds Two Knives from The Best Chef Awards.
The LivingRoom cooks only with fresh, unprocessed ingredients, serves no wild-caught seafood, has removed single-use plastic from its kitchen and has run off-grid since 2024. Those principles, which have earned The LivingRoom the Eat Out Sustainability Award in 2023 and the Eat Out Green Star in 2025 and 2026, travel with the team to Bantry Bay.
Curate occupies the Wine Gallery, an immersive dining room featuring wine-inspired elements by South African artists. Angus Taylor's Terroir Wall holds one hundred copper frames of soil from the estates in the hotel's wine collection, while the room's centrepiece is an iconic carbon-fibre corkscrew wine rack designed by Brian Steinhobel. The restaurant was conceived to carry a sense of place the way a wine carries its terroir, telling the story of South Africa's soils, and Johannes will cook in that spirit.
Curate by The LivingRoom will be open for dinner from Tuesday to Saturday to hotel guests and outside diners alike.
Reservations are required and can be made through DinePlan, where a confirmed booking serves as the invitation to dine at Curate by The LivingRoom. Parking at the hotel is limited, so guests are encouraged to arrive by Uber or a similar service.
Continue exploring perspectives from Ellerman House and beyond through stories centred on design, cuisine, wine, culture and place. Each article offers a deeper connection to the people, landscapes and experiences shaping contemporary life in Cape Town.