Michelle’s philosophy of regional, sustainable cooking sprang from a traditional South African home, where a luscious garden offered loads of homegrown produce and mealtimes were taken seriously. She studied culinary arts and then worked at several restaurants in and around Cape Town, before joining the team at Pierneef à La Motte in 2010. She helped them make the top 10 in the 2013 Eat Out DStv Food Network Awards, becoming the executive chef in 2014.

To celebrate her talent and the month of love (or the month of chocolate in our case), we asked her to create a savoury chocolate-inspired dish. She definitely did not disappoint when she presented us with something we have never seen before. Fish and white chocolate. She chose kingklip, newly back on WWF SASSI’s Green List and served it up with a white-chocolate and rooibos Béarnaise, smoked-potato, caper and onion salad and a drizzling of white chocolate and rooibos oil.

Take a look at what we got up to on shoot day and get Chef Michelle’s recipe in the February issue of MyKitchen, on sale now at Spar, Clicks, Exclusive Books, Van Schaik Bookstore, Engen, BP, Caltex and Total.