A Fyn Art

Skills forged over years of experience in some of the country’s finest epicurean destinations combined with a meeting of minds has culminated in the carefully crafted masterpiece that is Fyn in Cape Town’s CBD.

- Richard Holmes

It’s hours before lunch service, but there’s already an energy buzzing through Fyn, one of the most talked-about restaurants in Cape Town this year – this is in no small part due to the dynamic partnership between chef-patron, Peter Tempelhoff, executive chef, Ashley Moss, and general manager, Jennifer Hugé, three of the most talented restaurateurs in the business.

This trio are no strangers either: the two chefs worked together at The Cellars- Hohenort Hotel’s Greenhouse restaurant in Constantia, while for some years Jennifer was the welcoming front-of-house face at fine-dining establishment La Colombe. For all three, the move to the city was an exciting one.

“The beginning of Fyn goes back three or four years, when Ash and I worked together at Greenhouse. A conversation started around lifting the restaurant and moving it into the city to make it more accessible; to bring it a wider market,” Peter recalls. “We found that being in the Winelands was a bit of a push for people to come out of the city to experience our food. So, we’ve always been keen to get the restaurant to the city.”

As we chat in Fyn’s mezzanine eyrie, Peter and Ashley keep a keen eye on the prep for service happening below. Commis chefs are hard at work in the back of the kitchen, slicing tuna and kneading dough. Wine glasses are being polished. The day’s menus are being refreshed, linen napkins rolled and chopsticks placed, just so, on stone placeholders. It feels a little like a theatrical production preparing for the curtain to be raised. And in a sense, it is.