Mount Grace Hotel & Spa Brings Magaliesberg Ingredients to the Table
Mount Grace Hotel & Spa is bringing the flavours of the Magaliesberg into its kitchens, with refreshed menus built around indigenous ingredients, seasonal foraging and traditional South African dishes.
The property, located in the Magaliesberg region of Gauteng, has introduced new menus across its dining experiences under Executive Chef Pieter Malan, who returned to the hotel in March 2026. The changes follow two years of personal research into the area’s natural ingredients and coincide with a refurbishment of the hotel’s 121 rooms and key public spaces.
At the centre of the culinary direction is a focus on local sourcing, fermentation and preservation, with the team using ingredients from the surrounding landscape to shape a dining experience connected to the region.
Cooking with the Magaliesberg Landscape
Chef Pieter Malan’s approach begins with the ingredients available in the mountains and surrounding countryside. The kitchen works with indigenous plants and produce including wild garlic, amadumbe, wild prickly pears, confetti bush, aloe, lavender and imphepho.
According to the hotel, around 80% of its ingredients are indigenous and either foraged or sourced within a 60-kilometre radius. Local suppliers include Van Gaalen Cheese in Hartbeespoort and family-run Bambini, known for its ice cream and gelato.
Seasonality plays an important role. Where ingredients are not available throughout the year, the kitchen preserves and ferments produce so it can continue using those flavours beyond their natural growing seasons. The team also forages by hand and turns the soil afterwards to support natural plant regeneration.
“Everything on this menu starts with one question: what does this land give us?” says Chef Pieter Malan. He explains that foraging, fermenting and preserving allow the kitchen to work with local ingredients throughout the year while giving younger chefs the knowledge to carry the approach forward.
Indigenous Ingredients Meet Fermentation
One example of the hotel’s approach is its house-made kombucha. Prepared using a glass syphon and botanicals, the hibiscus kombucha incorporates hibiscus from a neighbouring farm and local honey, alongside foraged confetti bush, lavender and aloe.
The drink also informs the Rambling Vine menu, where it returns as a reduction served with locally sourced tilapia. It is one example of how ingredients and techniques are carried across the kitchen’s work rather than used in isolation.
The emphasis on preservation also connects the menus to older food traditions, while giving familiar ingredients a different role in contemporary restaurant dishes.
Rambling Vine’s Seven-Course Tasting Menu
The new culinary direction is particularly evident at Rambling Vine, where a seven-course tasting menu draws on South African food traditions, family recipes and regional ingredients.
The experience begins in the wine cellar with canapés, including amadumbe soup with wild garlic oil, buchu emulsion and fermented prickly pear. Another opening dish, called “The Cigar”, combines cold-smoked wild hog coppa mousse with a honey tuile.
At the table, the bread service features dombolo, amagwinya and mosbolletjies, accompanied by a candle made from boerewors lard for dipping. Sorghum, one of South Africa’s traditional staple grains, is also reworked into a risotto with braised oxtail and used as a popcorn-style topping for added crunch.
The experience is designed to give diners context as well as food. Members of the culinary team introduce each course and its wine pairing, explaining ingredient origins, preparation methods and the stories behind the dishes.
The approach also creates an opportunity for younger cooks to develop their presentation skills and deepen their understanding of the food they prepare.
Chef Edwin Theron Joins the Kitchen
Malan’s return has also brought Chef Edwin Theron into the Mount Grace Hotel & Spa kitchen team. The pair previously competed on kykNET’s Kokkedoor.
Theron later graduated cum laude from culinary school and now works with Malan on the hotel’s concept dining. Their collaboration brings together their shared culinary background and the hotel’s focus on regional ingredients and South African food heritage.
Rather than placing the entire experience around a single chef, the Rambling Vine format gives the wider kitchen team a role in explaining and presenting the menu.
Refurbished Rooms and Dining Spaces
The culinary changes accompany a refurbishment across the property, including all 121 rooms, reception, the lounge, Rambling Vine and the 1852 Heritage Bar.
The updated interiors use earthy colours, sage tones and natural wood, drawing inspiration from the gardens and surrounding mountains. Cream panelling, soft furnishings and fireplaces contribute to the refreshed look.
The hotel’s rooms are arranged in freestanding buildings across the gardens, while 26 suites feature private heated pools.
The 1852 Heritage Bar takes its name from the year the land was first registered as a farm. The space retains a traditional atmosphere, with a fireplace for colder weather and doors that open to the mountain air in warmer months. Its food offering includes hearty dishes such as slow-braised oxtail with a steamed dumpling.
General Manager Barend Olivier says the refurbishment created an opportunity to reconsider the property’s identity, with the new interiors and menus intended to reconnect the guest experience with the surrounding landscape.
A Magaliesberg Destination for Food and Travel
Mount Grace Hotel & Spa’s refreshed dining programme positions food as part of the wider destination experience, connecting regional produce, South African culinary traditions and the Magaliesberg landscape.
For diners, Rambling Vine’s seven-course tasting menu offers a more detailed exploration of that approach, while the property’s other dining spaces provide additional ways to experience its updated food offering.
For the hotel, the focus is on making the surrounding region part of the story told at the table, from the ingredients sourced nearby to the people preparing and presenting each dish.
Location: Mount Grace Hotel & Spa, Magaliesberg, Gauteng, South Africa.
