chefs warehouse maison
Maison means home in French. Place of comfort, nourishment and sharing. Chefs Warehouse Maison is that relaxed contemporary country restaurant with the gentle ease and hospitality you’d expect from an old Winelands friend, who just happens to be a fantastic chef.
Liam knew this when he first saw it; so did chef/partner David Schneider who’s been bringing solid farm-to-table thinking, support of local suppliers, seasonality, style and substance to the menu since it opened.
One of many exciting things about the Chefs Warehouse group is that each restaurant is different; each is the right fit for its environment. This one, on Franschhoek’s Maison Estate, begins with a walk through the simple door of an old tin-roofed farmhouse, moves on to a four-course tapas for two menu zinging with flavour and fabulous local wines, and might end -- if you’ve still got room -- with an ice cream sundae. Not any old ice cream sundae, of course…depending on the season, we might be talking homemade toasted hay ice cream, geranium mousse, rooibos fudge, marshmallow and meringue.
Like everything else at Maison, there’s mad sophistication behind the simplicity.
Since new partners Seb Ackerstaff and Jessie Verdonschot of COCOON design brand bought Maison Estate in mid-2023, the restaurant has been freshly spruced up, from generous plantings of fruit trees and succulents to a fireplace and sleek sliding glass panels in the natural-hued indoor-outdoor dining room, nearly doubling its indoor seating capacity. Rain or shine, we’ve now got you covered.
David has gone back to his roots with a playful menu sparkling with South African accents. Like Chefs’ Happies – a platter of little bites to start – and preparations like house-made apricot chutney and OBS jus. The backbone of the menu is a deep commitment to ethical eating, with seasonal respect, meat and fish bought in whole and processing of all foods done on-site, from condiments to charcuterie. Each of the four courses is designed to invoke memories of past meals shared with friends or loved ones, either a picnic in the garden, a lazy meal by the sea, a quick bite on the street or a feast with family.
Maison is home, but better. Great food that doesn’t take itself too seriously. A stoep and a lazy oak-shaded lawn with nearby vineyards, and the odd chicken. The perfect place for a long, lingering meal with your favourite people.
OUR PROMISE TO VEGETARIANS AND VEGANS
At Chefs Warehouse Maison, we believe all dishes are created equally. Being vegetarian or vegan shouldn’t entail a sacrifice for either the diner or the chef, and we proudly offer abundant choices for both. This is no afterthought: great thought and care have gone into making sure that ALL these dishes are as delicious and exciting as everything else on our menu. If you have any other dietary restrictions, please let us know beforehand, or as soon as you arrive, so we can best serve you.
OPENING HOURS
Monday – Saturday Lunch and Dinner 12 PM - 9 PM
Sunday Lunch from 12 PM
📍Maison Estate, R45, Franschhoek
Call: +27 (0)21 876 2116
Email us at maison@chefswarehouse.co.za for event queries, weddings or wine orders.
David Schneider
“I’m so happy with where we are at Maison, what we’re doing and what we stand for. This is the food we need to cook here.”
From chef to butcher to restauranteur, David Schneider has approached every aspect of his profession with superhuman intensity and deep thinking.
As head chef and Liam’s partner at Chefs Warehouse at Maison, he is cooking food that is authentic, heartfelt and beautifully homestyle. David has been elbow-deep in all kinds of food spaces, from his early years of training in massive American hotel kitchens to working closely with chefs Marthinus Ferreira at DW 1130 in Johannesburg and later Luke Dale Roberts in Cape Town. After a stint at The Test Kitchen, David was part of the opening team at The Pot Luck Club, where he was sous chef to head chef Wesley Randles.
At a seeming career apex, he took a turn and trained as a blockman with butcher Ryan Boon. His return to cooking was at Chefs Warehouse, then a jump to Beau as Ivor’s sous chef and ultimately Maison, where he has been making food that connects to its place in the Winelands since it opened in 2017.
In an altogether different vein, he has been integral in the conceptualisation and opening of another collaborative restaurant project with Liam: The Red Room at the Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel. The pan-Asian menu reflects the melting pot of a city like Hong Kong, but unlike fusion restaurants, each dish is authentic to its cuisine of origin. This project has been a deep dive into a number of Asian cuisines, and David has relished the attention to detail involved in bringing every dish to life.
If anything best defines his approach – no matter what the cuisine -- it’s a desire to cook as sustainably as possible. Wherever he turns his focus, he’s dedicated to making every component of every dish on site, whenever humanly possible. Pastrami, banana ketchup, hoisin sauce, roasted guava pickle – it’s all done in-house. Fervent about fermentation, wild about using the whole animal and determined to train and upskill local talent, he takes his responsibilities as a chef seriously.
Part of this is making mental health for restaurant workers a priority. With Liam, Dave co-created Mind Your Backs, an initiative seeking to address and ameliorate mental health within the group and ultimately the industry at large.
He has also partnered with Liam and Ivor in CW Essentials, a business which supplies a curated collection of high-quality mini-bar packaged snacks to boutique hotels and guesthouses.
Wine tasting
Come and taste our award-winning wines and soak up the beauty of our estate and Franschhoek mountains.
The wine-tasting experience is available between 10 am and 5 pm and includes four wines for R100 or all 6 of our wines for R150.
4 wine tastings at R100 per person
6 wine tastings at R150 per person
