The Chef & Associates

Catering · Events · Hospitality consulting

Food that feeds a room — from ten guests to ten thousand.

The Chef & Associates is led by Stuart McClarty: chef, baker and entrepreneur with more than 30 years in hospitality. We cater corporate days, celebrations and remote productions, and help kitchens run better.

A seafood display with a whole fish on ice, lemons, fresh sardines and spices Plated canapés in small white dishes around a soy dipping bowl A long outdoor buffet table of salads, breads and flowers
30+ years
in kitchens, bakeries and restaurants
Fellow
South African Chefs Association
WACS judge
Worldchefs culinary competitions
Founder
member, South African Bakers Association

Everything on the table, done properly.

One team for the menu, the cooking, the setting and the service. Tell us the guests, the place and the budget; we take it from there.

Corporate buffet with sliced chicken, salads and dips

Corporate catering & buffets

Breakfasts, working lunches and conference days. Generous seasonal salads, carved roasts and fresh breads, laid out to feed a crowd quickly.

Round tables dressed in white and blue on a terrace overlooking trees

Events & functions

Weddings, birthdays, launches and year-end parties. Menus, table settings and service planned around your venue, indoors or out.

Crisp polenta topped with roasted mushrooms in pale blue bowls

Canapés & fine dining

Finger food for cocktail hours and plated courses for seated dinners, finished with the detail you would expect from a restaurant kitchen.

A packed health-conscious meal of chicken and seasonal salads with a The Chef & Associates label

Packed meals for offices

Labelled, grab-and-go meals: roast beef or chicken with seasonal salads, pasta salads and more. Lovingly prepared, ready to hand out.

Glazed hot cross buns cooling on a wire rack

Bakery & pastry

Trained in pastry in London and a former supplier to Johannesburg’s top restaurants. Breads, biscuits and seasonal bakes, including the signature butternut ciabatta and seed bars.

A whole lamb roasting on a spit over coals

Spit roasts & braai

Live-fire cooking for garden parties and outdoor events: whole spit-roasted lamb, kebabs on the grill and everything that goes with them.

Plates of roast meat and vegetables lined up on a kitchen pass

Hospitality consulting

Better menus, calmer kitchens, stronger teams.

For restaurants, lodges and cafés that want to grow, we work alongside owners and staff on the things that make a kitchen profitable and consistent.

Menu designCosted, seasonal, built for your kitchen
Kitchen layoutReorganising flow, stations and storage
Staff trainingHands-on skills for cooks and front of house
Business developmentPlanning grounded in financial management

Clients include Olympia Café (long-term menu, business and staff development) and The Bush Camp Company at Mfuwe Lodge, Zambia.

Big, remote and on camera.

When the brief is unusual, the planning has to be exact. A few of the jobs we are proudest of:

10,000

All-Africa Games, Brazzaville

Three meals a day for 10,000 people, for 30 days.

400

Film catering, Hoedspruit

Kitchens built on a mountainside to feed a crew of 400 for three months.

TV

Ultimate Braai Master & MasterChef SA

Head of Culinary for Ultimate Braai Master Season 8; assistant culinary producer on MasterChef SA.

Tibet

Himalayan mountain-bike tour

Cooking for a 15-person high-mountain tour, far from any supplier.

Also: Mount Grace Country House & Spa, food photography and styling, and MC duties at South African Chefs Association events.

Meet the chef

Stuart McClarty

Chef, baker, entrepreneur — and the person who will answer your email.

Stuart trained through a Southern Sun apprenticeship, earning his Professional Cookery Diploma, and then completed City & Guilds in Pastry and Confectionery at Westminster College in London. He went on to own a bakery and restaurants for many years, supplying some of Johannesburg’s best-known kitchens.

Today The Chef & Associates brings that experience to every job, from a boardroom lunch to a month-long sporting event. Stuart has also completed short courses at GIBS, most notably in financial management, which shapes the practical, numbers-aware advice he gives consulting clients.

Professional Cookery DiplomaSouthern Sun apprenticeship
City & Guilds, PastryWestminster College, London
Financial managementShort course, GIBS

Hungry guests on the way?

Send the date, venue, number of guests and the kind of food you have in mind. We’ll come back with a menu and a quote.