George Jardine was born in Edinburgh, Scotland into a family of chefs. His grandmother was a pastry chef at Holyrood Palace and throughout the generations various family members chose to hone their skills in kitchens across Scotland. After completing his studies, George worked in various establishments in Scotland before moving to London and working under Michelin Star chef, Jean Christophe Novelli at The Four Seasons Hotel and later Maison Novelli Restaurant.
In 1997 George moved to Cape Town to open Novelli at the Cellars at The Cellars Hohenort Hotel in Constantia. The restaurant was named one of Conde Nast’s Top 50 Dining Destinations in the World during his first year there and carried on to garner many local awards and accolades.Here he also met his wife Louise le Riche and forged many good relationships with suppliers and winemakers.
An offer to become Chef de Cuisine of The Siriwijaya Restaurant in the prestigious Dharmawangsa Hotel in Indonesia, lead the couple to Jakarta, Indonesia. The restaurant was named Asia’s Hottest New Restaurant in 2001 by East Asia Magazine. From there, the journey continued to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where George opened the Adam Tihany designed (Spago and Le Cirque 2000 fame) Lafite Restaurant for the newly renovated, flagship Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur Hotel. Lafite was a massive success and won many industry awards, Best restaurant-Kuala Lumpur International Gourmet Festival, The Golden Cauldron award-Best Restaurant, best restaurant at the Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards. After 4 years in Malaysia, George was invited to open Altitude restaurant at Shangri-La’s newest hotel in Sydney, Australia. The Australian Hospitality Association named Altitude Restaurant Australia’s “Restaurant of the Year” for 2005.
In 2006, George and Louise returned to South Africa with William and Louis, who were both born in Malaysia, to open restaurant Jardine in Cape Town’s CBD. George was Eat Out’s Chef of the Year in both 2006 and 2007 and featured in the Guides top 10 restaurants for 5 consecutive years, Restaurant Jardine was also voted number 67 on San Pellegrino’s Top 100 restaurants in 2008 and 2009. Jardine Bakery, situated next door to the restaurant, opened in August 2007. Fondly called “The hole in the wall”, the bakery has a loyal following of office workers from surrounding office blocks and foodies who pick up hand rolled croissants, rye bread and artisan pastries.
Having established both restaurant and bakery and spending 4 years building up a highly skilled staff complement to uphold the restaurant’s standards of consistency, George expanded into the winelands to open Jordan Restaurant with George Jardine. Jordan restaurant opened in 2009, it is situated on the Jordan wine estate, Jordan restaurant has won many awards during its 12 years, it has been a regular in the Eat Out Guide top ten, has maintained a 3 star rating the Roussow Guide.
In 2016 George and Louise Jardine opened Jardine restaurant in Stellenbosch, Jardine restaurant is a small intimate space serving a menu and wine list focused on local provenance of the Cape Wine Lands. Jardine restaurant has also been included in Eat Out top 10 and garnered many other awards and mentions in guides.
During lock down 2019 George and Louise expanded and re-branded Jardine Restaurant adding a wine bar and re naming it Jardine food and wine bar. In February 2022 George consulted and opened Chefs Food Hall, a concept food hall which included 12 kitchens and over 110 chefs. George was responsible for creating the menu concept, kitchen design and opening.
February 2023 George returned to hotels and took over the helm at the world-renowned Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town, which featured 2 restaurant operations, banqueting and day to day running of this large kitchen operation.