Chef Ryan Brand is the man in the kitchen at Granny Mouse Country House & Spa!

Culinary Arts graduate from The International Hotel School Cape Town Campus; Chef Ryan Brand says that he is passionate about cooking.

Despite being a natural in the kitchen and having learned the art of whipping up delicious meals, Chef Ryan Brand says, “cheffing’ was not an obvious career choice for me. Growing up, I envisaged something much less colourful or creative, like Accounting.”

After completing his course with The International Hotel School, Brand began his culinary career in 2005 as a trainee chef at the Cape Milner Hotel where he was later appointed as Chef de Partie – which opened many doors for him. As a Chef de Partie, Brand took on many restaurants, both locally and internationally – from the Western Cape Arabella Hotel and Spa in 2006, Boca West Country Club in the USA between 2006 and 2007, Sailfish Point Country Club to the Pine Hollow Country Club, both in the USA in the year of 2008 where he stayed until finally joining the Vanilla Restaurant in Cape Town, in 2010. With hard workAll his hard work had paid off as he was then promoted to Junior Sous Chef in 2011, before joining Granny Mouse Country House and Spa later that year.

As his favourite past-time, Brand enjoys dreaming up delicious new offerings for patrons and guests of the celebrated Granny Mouse Country House & Spa and has many of his latest though out recipes included in the new Bistro Menu, which caters for all.

As a Chef who is not shy to let his inner child play free in the kitchen, Brand is not afraid to experiment and come up with novel ideas and adds that he gets inspiration from South African culinary trend-setters like Reuben Riffel. He is also passionate about buying locally produced products and Granny Mouse share the same values, as they source much of the fresh ingredients used in the kitchen– such as trout, guinea fowls, warthog and veggies – from local producers.

A family man, Brand says that his favourite thing to do is spend time with his wife and five-month old baby boy and one day hopes to introduce a love for cooking to his son.