Jean Delport

Coming Up

Today, Jean Delport is Executive Chef of Restaurant Interlude.

Where They Are Now

At Restaurant Interlude in Lower Beeding, West Sussex, the brief is clear: build around sustainable, skill-based gastronomy, and keep the cooking anchored in French and British traditions. The South African influence adds another layer, so the menu reads less as a set of references than as a working exchange between upbringing, technique and place. In Delport’s hands, precision is not a decorative value; it is the method that lets ingredients come through without clutter or excess. The surface stays calm because the labour is carried underneath, in a kitchen where discipline sits in every detail and the plate arrives edited, not embellished.

Signature

Jean's signature dishes include spiced vetkoek, a take on traditional Afrikaans onion salad, crispy, painstakingly-deboned chicken feet, and braai. Together, they map the shape of the cooking: rooted in memory, alert to texture, and exact where others might reach for flourish. The names alone tell you enough — a menu that keeps faith with its sources while being shaped through a chef’s measured hand. These are dishes that hold comfort and craft in the same frame, with each element refined enough to stand on its own and still work as part of a larger whole.

In Their Words “Cooking changed my life, and I want young people to feel empowered by food – to understand the power of a good meal, the pride of mastering a skill, and the doors it can open.” That line points past biography and into the working purpose of the kitchen at Restaurant Interlude. Food becomes a route to confidence, a reason to learn technique, and a form of inheritance. The point is not what the plate says about the chef, but what the craft can do for the people coming up behind him: teach discipline, build pride, and carry meaning with the meal.