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A new Cape Town culinary travel experience is putting South African food, culture and storytelling at the centre of the journey, with curated tours designed to take visitors from the source to the table.
Food can tell you a lot about a place. From the ingredients grown on local farms to recipes passed between generations, what we eat often carries stories of culture, heritage and community.
That idea is at the heart of Beyond the Plate, a new immersive culinary tourism experience launched by Jetsetting with Janet at the International Hotel School in Salt River, Cape Town.
Created by travel and culinary storyteller Janet Pillai, the concept aims to offer local and national tourists a different way to experience South Africa, using food as the starting point for discovering the people, places and stories behind it.
Taking travellers beyond the restaurant
The intimate media launch brought together guests and industry voices to explore the growing relationship between food and tourism.
During a conversation titled “Why Beyond the Plate Matters: Culinary Tourism is the Future,” Pillai unpacked the thinking behind the new offering and why she believes food can provide travellers with a deeper understanding of a destination.
Beyond the Plate combines food, culture, storytelling, wellness, travel and human connection, but the experience does not end when the meal is served.
The food experiences are accompanied by curated tours that take visitors closer to the source of what they are eating, creating a more literal farm-to-table journey.
These tours, together with annotated cooking experiences, are being marketed to both local and national tourists looking for experiences that go beyond conventional sightseeing.
The broader goal is to help tell the story of South Africa through its food while offering visitors a distinctly South African gastronomic experience.
Tasting the story
Guests at the Cape Town launch were given an introduction to the concept through The Tasting Table, featuring Lynn Naidoo and Peter Badenhorst.
A wine presentation added another dimension to the afternoon, demonstrating how food and drink can be used to unpack stories about places, producers and communities.
Guests were also introduced to The Marlene, a signature cocktail developed by Pillai as a tribute to the spirit of Dr Marlene Roux.
But tasting was only part of the experience.
Networking and cultural conversations were intentionally woven into the afternoon, giving guests an opportunity to share meals, experiences and ideas while connecting with others in the tourism, hospitality and culinary spaces.
It demonstrated one of the principles behind Beyond the Plate: food can be a natural starting point for conversations that extend into heritage, identity, creativity and travel.
Culinary tourism as an experience
The launch also highlighted the changing expectations of travellers.
Rather than simply visiting a destination, experiential tourism allows visitors to engage with the culture and communities that shape it. Food offers a particularly accessible way to do that.
For Beyond the Plate, the destination is therefore not only where a traveller arrives. It is also what they discover along the way.
Food provides the introduction. Culture adds context. Travel takes visitors closer to the source, while storytelling connects each part of the experience.
Hosting the launch at the International Hotel School also placed the conversation within a space connected to the next generation of hospitality and culinary professionals, highlighting how the industry continues to evolve beyond traditional dining experiences.
A new chapter for Jetsetting with Janet
Beyond the Plate marks an expansion of Pillai’s work through Jetsetting with Janet, a travel platform focused on celebrating South African destinations, heritage, people and experiences.
Originally from KwaZulu-Natal and now based in Cape Town, Pillai’s career spans business development, corporate governance, heritage preservation and tourism.
Her work in the heritage sector includes spearheading the Liberation Archives Project, which culminated in the establishment of South Africa’s Liberation Archives repository. Her experience has also included international fellowships with institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Michigan, as well as an association with the University of Fort Hare.
Through Jetsetting with Janet, she has brought those interests together, using travel and storytelling to highlight local tourism entrepreneurs, communities and lesser-known destinations.
Beyond the Plate takes that philosophy into the culinary tourism space.
The aim is not simply to show visitors what South Africans eat, but to introduce them to where the food comes from, who produces it, the traditions surrounding it and the stories that give it meaning.
For travellers, it offers the possibility of leaving with something more lasting than the memory of a meal.
It gives them a South African story to tell.
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