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The Epicurean
When young people have dreams, they should be encouraged by everyone around them to achieve all they set out to do, and it is really satisfying and not a little exciting to see the plan unfold and the dream turn into reality.
One such dreamer is Dean Jones, now a 30-something with his own restaurant in Zimbabwe’s tourism capital, Victoria Falls. As a youngster he recognised he had two very specific talents in his power: the first to sing — and sing well — and the second to cook (and do this well, too!). His dream has been to utilise both these skills, along with his own significant personal charm, in his life’s career path.
In April this year he set up Dean’s Victoria Falls, a charming and vibrant sidewalk café in the courtyard of the popular Elephant’s Walk shopping centre in Victoria Falls, thus achieving what he set out to do.
He is still a dreamer (and a do-er) and the dream does not end here, as he has loads of ambition and ideas, but at least it is really exciting for him, and for his growing customer base, to see the hopes and plans turn into reality. I was able to enjoy lunch with him in his delightful eaterie this past Thursday, an exceptionally hot and cloudless day, with cooling mist spraying over us from the overheard piping.
Dean’s life has been a mix of challenge and opportunities. He was born and raised in the Eastern Highlands and attended Plumtree School. When he was 18 he auditioned for a part in a musical show at Harare’s Reps Theatre and since that time he has become an extremely popular singer in Harare and elsewhere. He has also studied the culinary arts and sciences in South Africa, and despite his youth has an impressive CV.
He came back from South Africa in 2016 and moved to the Falls, working first for the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge as a consultant chef, later moving across to Wild Horizons and then, most recently, opening’s Dean’s Victoria Falls in April.
The restaurant is really cheerful and charming, with a small but effective service point fronting the kitchen and looking out to a courtyard surrounding by a double-storeyed, thatched retail centre. In the courtyard are the tables and chairs of this café, will a buzzy atmosphere and all manner of accents and languages being heard all around. Dean’s menu is focused on breakfast and lunches, with all day-treats added, and he intends for it to be dynamic, not static, with changes and revamps from time to time.
I was torn between two lunch items: the quinoa salad or the Zambezi bream. Both looked appetising and interesting, but Dean recommended the bream, as he had created a wonderful spicy sauce to accompany it and wanted my thoughts on this creation.
It was truly stunning, with several bream fillets served on a salad base along with French fries and an amazing (really!) chilli peanut sauce that gave the fish an exciting tang. Here we were, only a few hundred metres from the Zambezi, enjoying one of the great products of this magnificent river. It was a good choice and I enjoyed it immensely. Incidentally, quinoa, a grain-like seed of a plant related to spinach, is one of the fastest- growing new foods around the world, especially among the health-conscious.
No room for dessert, so I ended with a lovely Americano coffee and walked back to The Kingdom, where this week’s Tourism Convention was taking place and the reason for my foray to our tourism capital. Other guests around Dean’s included North Americans, South Americans, Germans, Italians, South Africans and, of course, Zimbabweans. It’s early days yet, but I have a feeling that Dean’s is going to be a huge success, and I hope that his dreams will include expansion of the ‘‘brand’’ to Harare and elsewhere across the country.
The menu is not huge, but has a great selection of Dean’s take on a range of dishes, and it is clear his style is for tasty meals served in a fresh and colourful manner using his own thoughts on what his varied and diverse customer base will enjoy. Prices are also reasonable, my Zambezi bream was a generous and tasty portion at only $14, reasonable by most standards and positively the bargain of the year in Victoria Falls terms.
Dean’s Victoria Falls is open during the daytime all week, and he will only open in the evening for arranged functions, which he enjoys creating. He also does outside catering and does meals for groups in private homes and other venues around the town. An exciting outreach for him is the creation of unusual and inspired cakes, especially wedding cakes, and he is becoming increasingly in demand for wedding cakes, not only in Victoria Falls but also in Harare. I have had the privilege of knowing this sensitive, intelligent and creative young man for a decade and a half, having met him when he was in rehearsal for that first show at Reps Theatre, which was called Boy Band Blockbusters, directed by the effervescent Debbie Fleming and featuring a line-up of mostly new male singing talent. After the show ended, he and several other of the singers were invited to form Zimbabwe’s own boy band, called 5Star, colleagues include names now well-known to local audiences like Josh Ansley and David Bvumbe.
This group was a starting point for Dean and colleagues to go on to develop their own singing careers and it is excellent to hear that Dean is still singing at gigs in Victoria Falls and in Harare.
In an article in The Herald in April 2005 Dean was quoted as saying he had an ambition to be a singing chef . . . and it is an expression that has kept pace with his development in the subsequent 13 years. With youth on his side, and a marvellous set of experiences behind him, on stage and in the kitchen, I think it safe to say the world is there to make his own.
Dean’s Victoria Falls is one of the resort’s great new dining venues and a place for socialising and networking for all ages.
It is open daily from 8am to 4pm and can be contacted on 0785 898114. The Elephant’s Walk shopping complex is situated within walking distance of hotels like The Kingdom, Ilala Lodge and The Victoria Falls Hotel. Feedback and questions on this story and on anything to do with dining out to [email protected]
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