CAPE RESIDENCY: Durban’s sustainability hero comes to the Cape for a summer season

Rather than opening a Cape restaurant outright, the Richters – Johannes and Johanna, aka JoJo – have taken a summer residency at the historic Ellerman House in Bantry Bay from December 2026 until May 2027.

No, The LivingRoom is not shutting down. No, they are not opening a new restaurant in Cape Town as such – it is a residency, and whether it will be repeated remains to be seen.

The lauded South African Chef of the Year from Durban is not moving to the Cape as such, and certainly not abandoning his now world-famous restaurant there. The LivingRoom at Summerhill at Cowie’s Hill in Durban will sail ahead as always, and the other Richter in the operation – Johanna, who is both sommelier and restaurant manager at Summerhill – will be keeping the mother ship afloat.

Bantry Bay’s Ellerman House, once the Cape Town summer residence of Sir John Ellerman, who steered one of the world’s great shipping lines in the late 1900s and much of the 20th century, is one of the grandest homes in the Mother City, and has long been home to restaurants worth spending a pretty penny in.

The current restaurant there is called Curate, and for the season it will become Curate by The LivingRoom at Ellerman House. 

“I’ll be moving between the two restaurants and in contact with both teams throughout,” Richter said this week.

Interviewed as the news broke, he told me that a friend had introduced him and Johanna to the Ellerman House team.

“They felt our restaurant and the hotel share a philosophy, and that a residency would suit both of us. The timing couldn’t have been better.”

Sustainability is everything in Johannes’s micro-world, and he has already been out and about sourcing potential ingredients to go on his first ever Cape Town menu. And the sea is right there. I asked him what we might expect.

“Sourcing is where every menu starts for us, and we’ve already been in touch with growers and producers around the Cape. Expect the same approach we take at The LivingRoom, with the menu built around the season and what local producers have at their best.

“Sustainability is the foundation of our restaurant, so we’ll hold to the same principles in Cape Town, and that means no wild-caught seafood on the menu. We’ll share more about the menu closer to opening.”

The hyper-local bent of The LivingRoom will not be replicated exactly. Because this restaurant is, as Johannes puts it, in “South Africa’s culinary capital”, his purview will be broader by choice, and it makes sense for there to be some elements of a LivingRoom menu at Curate too, alongside distinctive dishes conjured by the region.

For instance, during exploratory menu work in Bantry Bay, Johannes created a palate cleanser out of botanicals picked from the Ellerman House garden.

Johannes is possibly one of the most hands-on chefs I’ve ever seen at work. I picture him head down, bent over food he is preparing or plating up. Yet he cannot be in two places at one time. I asked him: Does it worry you that your hand will be off the mother ship in Durban? I know you have confidence in head chef Akhona Dukwana but you will nevertheless not be there, Cape Town is not near, and the restaurant is all about your personal touch (and Johanna’s).

It turns out the advent of a Cape “season” for the Richters has been in mind for some time. And he will not be spreading himself too thinly, as his trusted aides have been with him for years, and it is foremost in their minds to encourage the careers of the young chefs they’ve been working closely with for some years.

“We’ve been exploring residencies for a while,” Johannes told me. “We saw an opportunity to grow, and the young chefs we work with are ready to step up and take on more responsibility.

“Finding the right project mattered, and Ellerman House was the right fit. Developing our team is a big part of how we think about sustainability. I have complete trust in Luckson Mare and Akhona Dukwana, and in the wider teams in both kitchens.

Luckson, a fine young chef in his own right who has been rising slowly but surely for several years at Richter’s side, will command the kitchen at The LivingRoom. Richter makes it clear that The LivingRoom at Summerhill Guest Estate will remain open for the course of the residency with head chef Luckson Mare running the kitchen under Richter.

Akhona, who has been with The LivingRoom for eight years, will be head chef at Curate by The LivingRoom at Ellerman House. She will be cooking alongside Johannes, while Johanna shapes the service and trains the front-of-house team.

Curate’s sommelier, Joe Beziek, South Africa’s Best Young Sommelier 2026, will lead the floor and create the pairings from the hotel’s cellar of about 10,000 bottles of South African wine.

The Richters are far too young to have known Ellerman House as the historic home it was, and the Cape Town summer residence of Sir John Ellerman, whose grand passenger liners plied between the UK and South Africa.

“We know Ellerman House as the hotel it is today: a renowned Cape Town property and one of the country’s great showcases of South African art, hospitality and wine. We’re proud to be associated with a house of that stature, which celebrates South Africa at every opportunity and supports charitable work in local communities,” Johannes said.

I asked him: Ellerman House is magnificent, but it is not your home, in the way that Summerhill certainly is. And a residency is not a restaurant in the way that Summerhill is for you.

“Summerhill will always be home. Ellerman House shares our commitment to celebrating South Africa’s culinary culture and diversity, and the hotel and the Wine Gallery, which is Curate’s dining room, are beautiful settings. We’re looking forward to bringing The LivingRoom there this summer. We’re grateful for the opportunity and can’t wait to get started.”

Johanna, meanwhile, will continue running the floor and the wine at The LivingRoom in Durban, he added.

“At Curate, Ellerman House’s sommelier Joe Beziek will look after the wine, and with the house’s collection to draw on, the pairings are in very good hands. Johanna will work alongside Joe, training the front-of-house team, curating service and assisting with the wine, cocktail and non-alcoholic pairings.”

Curate opened in 2025, with a menu built around terroir and the country’s culinary traditions, and that philosophy is a natural fit for the Richters. 

Johannes trained in Michelin-starred kitchens in Germany, including Berlin’s three-star Rutz, where he met Johanna, now co-owner, sommelier and front-of-house manager at The LivingRoom.

The couple opened The LivingRoom at Summerhill Guest Estate in 2017, telling the story of KwaZulu-Natal’s culinary and cultural diversity through hyper-endemic ingredients and ancient preservation techniques, with about 95% of its suppliers within 100km.

It was named Eat Out Restaurant of the Year in 2022, holds three Eat Out stars and is recognised as a 50 Best Discovery restaurant, while Johannes was named Eat Out Chef of the Year in 2025 and 2026 and holds Two Knives from The Best Chef Awards.

The LivingRoom cooks only with fresh, unprocessed ingredients, serves no wild-caught seafood (as will be the case in Bantry Bay), has removed single-use plastic from its kitchen and has run off-grid since 2024.

Curate occupies the Wine Gallery, an immersive dining room featuring wine-inspired elements by South African artists. Angus Taylor’s Terroir Wall holds 100 copper frames of soil from the estates in the hotel’s wine collection, while the room’s centrepiece is an iconic carbon-fibre corkscrew wine rack designed by Brian Steinhobel. The restaurant was conceived to carry a sense of place the way a wine carries its terroir, telling the story of South Africa’s soils, and Johannes will cook in that spirit.

Curate by The LivingRoom will be open for dinner from Tuesday to Saturday to hotel guests and outside diners alike. 

Reservations are required and can be made through DinePlan, where a confirmed booking serves as the invitation to dine at Curate by The LivingRoom. Parking at the hotel is limited, so guests are encouraged to arrive by Uber or a similar service. DM