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Malcolm Burroughs, Product Owner
 


The Who’s Who restaurant

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Some restaurateurs cook. Some design their menus and some welcome guests. Some even take orders. A few do all of the above but only a very few personally take their restaurants to the levels that Malcolm Burroughs does.

Until recently Malcolm ran 10 on Russell, a fabulous old restaurant in a fabulous, much older, building that became a gastronomic landmark in the Lowveld of Mpumalanga. Malcolm ran 10 on Russell to critical, culinary and customer acclaim. The restaurant gathered a reputation that spread far beyond Mpumalanga, and Malcolm was feted by food writers, radio and television show hosts and charity-drive organisers. But after five years it was time for him to move on and so, in May 2009, Malcolm moved his staff of 13 and all his creative talents to a new location in a stylish new retail/office centre in Sonpark, Nelspruit.

The new restaurant is The Who’s Who. Malcolm describes it as “a cabaret-style restaurant, with a touch of the avant-garde and a whole lot of showmanship”. The styling is shabby chic and there’s more than just a hint of New York about the seating arrangements.

Malcolm has, he says “been in food since the Ark – by which I mean that I trained as a chef on the [South African] Railways”. In 1976 he went to Europe where he mixed cooking with modelling. Back in South Africa six years later he mixed modelling with fashion design – and more cooking. In 2005, after starting a catering business, Malcolm tired of Johannesburg and moved to what he now calls his idea of paradise – the Lowveld.

The Who’s Who’s name was coined by the restaurateur’s mother, who pointed out that it was catering for the upper crust of Nelspruit, one of South Africa’s most dynamic and fastest growing cities. Like its predecessor, Who’s Who has been an instant hit with the smart young things of Nelspruit but, says Malcolm, it’s a place where the “black diamonds [wealthy young black professionals], Afrikaners and [white] English-speakers all feel completely at ease with each other”.

The menu is elegant, “a seriously good meal”, but without any “fussy” haute cuisine bells and whistles. Its starters include deep-fried camembert with a fig and chilli marinade, and an avocado tower with crushed feta and a choice of either biltong or smoked salmon. Main courses, of which there are currently a dozen or so, plus pasta and “in-betweeners”, include the usual suspects of chicken, duck, pork and fish but all with Who’s Who’s typically atypical treatment.

Those South Africans who have somehow not heard of Nelspruit’s recent economic boom might be pleasantly surprised to find such fine dining in the Mpumalanga capital. Whatever their preconceptions, if they never experienced 10 on Russell, they will be amazed at the involvement of the owner in the restaurant. That involvement starts as customers walk up the red carpet, past the bollards to the front door, to be greeted by Malcolm wearing his trademark top hat (with chef’s uniform). He personally “sells” the dishes to diners although, as he says, patrons often don’t even look at the menu after they’ve had an informal “foody” chat with one of South Africa’s most famous chefs. “The idea with The Who’s Who,” explains the celebrity owner, “is to make life simple and fun, and to make people laugh.”

How Malcolm makes people laugh is never scripted. A seriously funny stand-up comic in his own right, he will sometimes regale audiences with banter that turns into an hilarious unscripted routine. Or some nights he will simply leave diners to themselves. Most nights, a pianist provides background music; a mix of jazz, blues, pop, whatever the pianist and Malcolm judge to be the right vibe for the evening. It’s not unheard of for the evening to take a turn towards opera, sometimes with the boss joining a guest who turns out to be a professional opera singer, in a bit of La Traviata. Sometimes guests take to the keyboard themselves.

Malcolm, 54, is delighted to lend his expertise and reputation to the TEP Mpumalanga Cluster which he describes as “an excellent initiative”, and to work with fellow tourism-related entrepreneurs in growing the experiences of visitors to one of South Africa’s loveliest parts.

Fine dining and fine fun made 10 on Russell Nelspruit’s leading restaurant. At a new venue, with a new theme and a whole new menu, Malcolm Burroughs is re-inventing eating out in the Lowveld.

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