CONTACT
+27 73 930 7049
chefsallyjane@gmail.com
Meet the Chef
I'm Sally Hurst, an American chef and food writer who has recently moved to Johannesburg, South Africa. I received my MFA in Creative Non-Fiction Writing at Columbia University's School of the Arts in New York, but decided my heart was really in the kitchen and so worked to receive my Grand Diplome in Culinary Arts at the French Culinary Institute (also in New York City). I gained experience in some of America’s most prestigious kitchens before moving to London where I worked as a private chef and contributed to NBC’s Today Show and Travel & Leisure Magazine.
It has been through my years of living around the world and working for my catering and private clients in London, Paris, San Francisco, and even a luxury sailboat on the Mediterranean, that my style has evolved. My recipes, writing, and food philosophy all celebrate the Mediterranean climate and its fantastic local ingredients resulting in a healthy, innovative and (most importantly) delicious, farm-to-table approach to cooking and eating.
During my five years in Beirut I had a small kitchen atelier, The Pantry Beirut, out of which I taught classes, hosted supper clubs, catered, and basically hosted all manner of culinary events. I was also the consultant chef for Green Junkie which features healthy-ish, from-scratch food, and Super Vega, an all-day cafe showcasing farm-to-table, Mediterranean comfort food. If you’re in Amman, Jordan you can try my twist on traditional Middle Eastern Food on the menu I created for Her Majesty Queen Rania’s Jordan River Foundation's restaurant Daimeh. I’ve also been a Middle Eastern Food Ambassador aboard the MSS Amsterdam cruise ship and was a guest judge in the 2019 quarter-finals of MBC’s Top Chef Middle East.
Most recently, I was Project Manager of Empowering Women through Cooking Lebanon, a cookbook which includes the recipes and stories of 52 wonderfully accomplished women from all walks of life around the country. It’s an initiative founded by Seven Circles in Amman with a portion of the proceeds going to the World Food Program, Lebanon. The plan is to replicate that success here in South Africa with a version of the book to come soon!
