Neil Fraser
July 27, 2004
JUST on a year ago - in Citichat 29 of 2003, 1 August 2003 - I wrote about the amazing metamorphosis taking place in Milpark.
The three major projects I described - Atlas Studios, 44 Stanley and The Refinery - involved investment of about R50-million and were all still under construction. Today they are not only complete, but have had considerable impact on this previously neglected edge of the inner city.
Atlas Studios - previously Atlas Bakery and a Coca-Cola bottling plant - has been sympathetically converted by its architect-owners, Jonathan and Lorien Gimpel, and is now a state-of-the-art TV and film studio that is in great demand.
Brian Green, a young Johannesburg entrepreneur, is behind 44 Stanley - which offers great pubs, restaurants, coffee bars and boutique-type retail; it has developed quite a reputation as a trendy spot. Ricci Polack's industrial-chic lofts in The Refinery complement the other two developments with funky urban living.
South of this node is the Gasworks - another great project waiting to happen. Plans for some more interesting accommodation west of it are in an advanced state.
Now the broader area is receiving another R50-million boost. Directly over the road from the Gasworks, Technikon Witwatersrand is building its School of Tourism and Hospitality.
Last week Doc Mornet showed me around. He has been with the Wits Tech Hotel School for 30 years - the last 15 of them as its head - and now he is responsible for getting this new project off the ground.
Mornet, incidentally, started at the coalface of the hotel industry. But he moved through the ranks and held management positions here and abroad - and collected an amazing string of six university degrees, including two masters and one doctorate. The new development couldn't be in better hands.
The tech is itself undergoing a metamorphosis that will culminate when it merges with Rand Afrikaans University and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista and emerges as the University of Johannesburg next year. The School of Tourism and Hospitality will be the first hotel school in South Africa to offer the advantage of university degrees in the hospitality industry.
Programmes will be offered in tourism, food-and-beverage management and hospitality management. Mornet tells me that probably 20 hotel schools are counted among the best in the world, led by those at Cornell and Lausanne. He is determined that this new facility be up there with the best.
The school will have some unique features. Billy Gallagher, the doyen of chefs in this country, will establish a Centre for Culinary Excellence here. It will also include the best culinary library in Africa with a live databank of recipes and an interactive museum depicting the history of catering and cuisine.
Gallagher, too, has an amazing background - the hospitality industry appears to produce very special people! He started working in kitchens at the age of 14, later joined Southern Sun and is now on its board. He was one of the founders of the South African Chefs' Association and was the brainchild behind the World Cooks' Tour for Hunger, which was held in 1993 and 2003 and which raised more than R1,4-million.
Gallagher, who was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1995, was elected president of the World Association of Cooks' Societies in 1996. The injury he tragically suffered some years ago, which confines him to a wheelchair, in no way seems to have affected his energy and commitment.
The SA Chefs' Association will move from Sandton to take up space in the school. The Gauteng branch of the Cape Wine Academy - which offers wine-tasting courses, lectures and more - will also migrate from Sandton and will establish a cellar in the new building.
Apart from 12 lecture halls and a computer centre, the school will provide: two restaurants catering for fine dining, a la carte, buffet and fast food; a private dining room; a cigar bar; a wine cellar; a 144-seat auditorium; two function rooms for 150 people; and a demo kitchen.
There will be a variety of kitchens for training. Visiting international chefs will be able to use the eight bedrooms in the school, as will parents of students from out of town.
Talking of students, the hotel school has about 400 enrolments; this will rise to a thousand in the new premises. The South African hospitality industry employs about 470 000 people, but only 400 graduate from training institutions each year - so this new facility will provide a tremendous boost to the industry.
The Wits Tech Hotel School actually opened its doors 35 years ago when it began operating from the Italic Centre (adjacent to the Wits Technical College) and the former President Hotel. In those early days in-service training took place at the Sunnyside and President hotels and at the Kyalami Ranch.
In 1972 the Smit Street facility, the Gables Restaurant, opened in a gracious Victorian building from 1895. I have enjoyed many fine meals in the restaurant, but not too many know of its existence. It is open for lunch Tuesdays to Fridays.
Sadly for the inner city, this restaurant will close down at the end of the year when the new school opens its doors (as will the art faculty at the top of Eloff Street, when it moves to the site adjoining the hotel school).
However, one needs to take a sensible view and celebrate that we will be able to boast about such additions to the city.
Talking about food, I lunched with a visiting overseas journalist at Kapitans recently. It certainly hasn't lost its touch (neither has Mrs Kapitan, who scolded us roundly for not booking!) and we had a great curry.
Kapitans (the old), the Gables (the not so old), 44 Stanley (the new) and, from early next year, some more superb dining at the School of Tourism and Hospitality. To think people complain there's nowhere to eat in the inner city!
