The Dinner Club - The craft of storytelling

From the day we started VERVE Ntsika has been wanting me to write about food. I learnt how to cook long before I ever considered myself a creative - but cooking was always just something I did. I never saw it as an art form

Through this two year journey though I’ve come to realise how similar the process of cooking is to the artistic processes I’ve learnt about through interviewing creatives.

And no one else I’ve interviewed has embodied that quite as succinctly as Chef Miguel Blick. I caught up with him and his partner Joshua Jacobs, the brains behind The Dinner Club, to find out what they have in store for their pop up on the 4th of September

So I guess to start with, give me an introduction to The Dinner Club - what is it and how did it start?

Miguel: We started off like every other pop-up that started back in 2024. Everybody was doing pop-ups wanting to showcase their food and what they’re capable of, but there was no sustenance behind it. That’s why all of them failed.

I also took time away from it all because it wasn’t really working for me. Everybody was just doing pop-ups and they were all just trying to be a restaurant. You can go to an established restaurant, you know the food will be good, and you’ll pay that price for it…but then here’s some random guy coming with a pop-up charging restaurant pricing, when I can rather just go somewhere which is 24/7. 

That’s why I feel like it didn’t work out. The Dinner Club then and pop-ups in general back then didn’t work out. But now, there’s a whole resurgence of the medium. I think the newer generation of chefs are coming to the understanding of the industry boundary, the bracket that we’re all put into. But we’re missing the storytelling experience where we get to take you on this immersive journey as to why we enjoy the South East Asian heritage. 

I worked under Chef Ivor Jones for three years. In those three years, outside of the ten years that I’ve been a chef, I learned more than I ever did at any culinary school or any background that I was given. I worked across the road for Chef Liam Tomlin for quite a long time and that’s where I realised this was the journey and the destination of the food that I see making. 

So the two of them really paid homage to the chef that I am today and the type of chef that I’m aspiring to be. That’s the way I’m teaching my staff, the way that I’m giving back to my staff. A lot of those doors are shut for them because they don’t come from a certain background. There’s a lack of opportunity, and doors that were opened for me because of hard work, determination, and passion. Those doors should be opened for others as well, no matter the background or where people are coming from. 

There are kids from the flats and townships who have the passion for it. But they’re never given the opportunity because nobody believes and sees that somebody coming from there has the same capabilities as someone like me, who works hard for it. These are some of the hardest working guys and I just don’t see that door being opened for them, as easily as they were for me.

Yes, my hard work, determination, and drive got me into the places that I’ve worked under and to be able to get taught what I was taught. But, I feel like I’m in that position in my career where I either continue this trajectory that the industry seems to be going on or I can open this other door that has always been shut for others. 

So The Dinner Club is this big umbrella that I see opening up this intimate storytelling experience.

Josh is someone who can talk to any guest just based on your interaction with him.There’s no speeches, there’s nothing. It’s just based on your interaction, you’ll be able to add into the storytelling experience. He is able to speak and he’s able to express the wine that pairs with the food. 

Joshua: Look, Miguel has touched on the vast majority of why I wanted to join the opportunity of being on this journey called The Dinner Club. It’s because it sets us apart from the usual.

When you mention all these big names, and yes these people are trained to be serious cats, to handle serious people with serious calibre, and serious money. But at the end of the day, they lack that storytelling ability. 

Storytelling comes from upbringing, it comes from surroundings, it comes from family, it comes from career, and it comes from a lot of failures and positivity, right? I think we’re doing something quite intimate and relaxed.

Yes, you can go to those fancy spots, but as Miguel mentioned the word ‘service’...it’s just a service. I know what I’m paying for, I know what I’m going to eat, I’ve done my research, or I’ve heard the XYZ’s from the right people that I trust highly. 

I think we can try to create an avenue where you can still have that high expectation but sit back and watch it like an IMAX film, mentally, you know what I mean? Everyone can’t quote me on this but a cool guy, I won’t mention his name, said “the language of the people or the travelling of the world, whether you have or not, is through food and wine”. I think we’re embarking on an avenue where we can allow you to go to Taiwan and have a little Asian experience while sitting locally. 

All of these flavours tap into different memory banks. Whether there’s a smell of a dish that takes you back to being swung around by your dad in a park and hitting the grass. Yes, it hurt, but it’s a special memory. If we can allow you to jump back and allow you to remember something really unique but also with an elevated take on it, I think that’s quite special.

And for us now, we’re joining really cool wine farms. We already have such a wide magnitude of wine farms in Cape Town and we now have quite a new style of wine makers. The traditional style is slowly melting out but the newer wine makers are doing something really special and more of them are given the opportunities to work on these farms and make something of themselves. 

We’re now collaborating with these wine makers that also have a story to tell. They’re doing the same thing we’re doing and I think that mixes quite well with what we have. I think if we look towards the future, we’re putting them on a pedestal and that’ll allow them to put us on a pedestal from a food standpoint. We really just want to see each other grow. 

And wine tells stories. We can talk about where those wine origins come from. In order for that wine to get bottled, it needed to find a farm, that farm has maybe eight generations prior to this new becoming, and there’s such a unique story to tell through all these stories passed down all these generations. 

We’re going to be partnering up with Fryer’s Cove, which is on the West Coast. Everything that comes in from a sales standpoint, there’s a connection that goes back to the community. They’ve uplifted schools, done feeding schemes, and this is in an area that didn’t have much going on there besides crayfishing. There was not much going on with the land because of the cold temperatures. 

I want to touch on where we come from. I want to touch on how we as laaities were playing on the pavilion with the sea squid, watching the fisherman do strange things but we’d mimic them and find ourselves little clams. It was fascinating at the time and it all boils down to who we are right now, working for a really cool establishment, gaining knowledge and giving knowledge to those who work with us as a team. 

Service is service, you know? But, it’s such a serious word. The context is so important when you use the word ‘service’. I think everyone that’s in the industry has a longing to be of service. We just want to see someone else do better or for a moment, allow a bit of joy. If we can do that through wine, food, music, or through storytelling, and just let you dive back into that memory bank for a quick moment, we’ve done our job. 

If we can allow a platform where we can have those that are less fortunate but want to tell their story, we can be the foundation for them to tell their story. If we live through that, then that energy continues to live through and through, and then we’re just spreading love at the end of the day.

You telling a story of a food that brings up a memory already brings up a sense of nostalgia. When people try the food, it brings back something that they remember. It’s literally setting the tone for the experience. 

Joshua: 100%...I think it’s a really cool, realistic piece of art that’s forever changing and becoming unique. Same thing with the industry and food, you can do it all the time. This one gentleman mentioned to me that he makes a really good Negroni, he could teach me how to make a really good Negroni, but it’s probably not going to taste as good as his Negroni. Because he puts blood, sweat, and tears into creating this Negroni. 

He was teaching me how to make this Negroni. But if you’ve got passion, drive, and love, that is the cheat code to the soul. Drinking something, eating something, and taking in something willingly, we’re pushing the love and passion into this experience.

I always say you can go to a burger joint,a  fine dining restaurant, or anywhere with tasty food. But, when you come home, you’re still going to open the fridge and look inside because something is missing. My personal opinion is that I want to taste the food but I want to taste the love in the food as well. You can taste when somebody has put a lot into a meal. 

But back to the storytelling, talk to us about the 4th of September. 

Miguel: So the entire journey that we’re taking for this chapter is the streets of Asia. We’re taking you through South-East Asia, , going through Saigon and Bangkok. After that we’re going to China, after China we’ll touch on Turkey, then a whole lot after. 

But we don’t want to look too far into the future. Everyday we plan as we go. It’s just worked out better for us and we’ve learned to stop trying to plan the future. I can’t control the narrative, but we can control is the now. 

So we’re taking on the journey of Bangkok and Saigon through the night streetmarkets that has all these vibes and experiences, taking you through tradition. On the 4th of September 2026, Chapter 2 of The Dinner Club. Josh, myself, David, and Chris will be partnering up with Fryer’s’s Cove, Mukanya Wines and Teremana Tequila at the Showroom, just to showcase this brand that we’re trying to build. 

It’s going to be luxurious and it’s going to be an experience. Yes, it’s so limited and intimate but being able to showcase that and we’ll be able to branch out after that. That’s the bigger picture. There’s a vision and a goal now, but that goal and vision is going to be able to put ourselves under this big umbrella where I am able to give more than what I was ever given to somebody else. That’s where we firmly believe we are in. 

We’re in the service industry, yes. We’re in the hospitality industry, yes. But we are here for a bigger purpose. We needed to go through the routes that we had to go through to find that bigger purpose. With Chris, I feel the three of us partnering up, I feel there’s more destined for us. I feel there’s more that we can give back. It’s not for the taking, it’s for the giving. 

How will you be telling the story on the plate? 

Miguel: Look, we have the menu figured out. We’re taking deep tradition and just elevating that. Nothing more nothing less. We don’t want to over complicate it. We’re just taking my heritage and my influence, what I’ve learned, and what I’ve been taught through research. 

One day I will be able to go to Bangkok and Saigon and say this is exactly what it was. And god-willingly, I’ll get put on that journey to experience Asia as a whole. I just feel like there’s so much there, so much passion, and so much tradition put into that and that can never be replicated. I can try to replicate it with all the research and knowledge that I have but that auntie that’s been doing that in Thailand for the past 25/30 years, that’s the real food.

I want that experience and I want to be able to give homage to what I take so much inspiration from. I want guests to experience our upbringing through how we run service, to why the bigger picture needs to get painted on our food service and how tradition can be passed down and given to open doors for those who aren’t so easily opened for. 

Joshua: I think we want to make it worth it. The 4th of September is a special day for us. The food is going to be jitz, the service is going to be exceptional, and the wine is going to be amazing. 

I think it’ll be a cool combination. We’re going to have some Jazz playing in the background as well, taking you on this lekker journey. It’ll touch on everyone and we’re going to have a mixologist come in as well who’ll be doing a little show-and-tell as well, which’ll be quite exciting. 

Everyone goes to the very serious spots because it allows them to be treated like royalty, right? It’s like if you buy Remy Martin, if you’re going to drink it, you need a pipette to take out this liquid gold and pour into a barrel crystal Remy Martin glass. When you cheers, the room turns. You know what I mean? It’s a serious glass of Remy Martin…but it’s also you wanting people to know and see that you’re drinking Remy Martin. 

So, it’s very eccentric. But on the 4th, we’re going to make all twelve of the people we have feel like they are the royalty. They will be looked after and we’re going to make them feel welcome and at home in a luxury environment.

Taking it back to something you mentioned earlier about pop-ups back in 2024 and the resurgence of pop-ups now. What do you think was missing back then? 

Miguel: The soul. Everybody was just trying to make food. Everybody was trying to make food for the sake of breaking out of the fine dining scene and wanting to make a name for themselves. There was a lot that came and went. Dinner Club was there and many other names were there as well. 

Where do you see them now? You don’t see them. That’s because we didn’t have soul. We didn’t have an identity. Everybody did it as a way of making money. Every chef wanted to showcase their own egos. It was more about who could have the better pop-up. 

There was no business structure behind it. You couldn’t see where it was moving into and you couldn’t see what it was developing into. I think that’s why it all faded out. But I think the resurgence now, The Dinner Club is what we’re trying to build more to giving back and opening doors for the people who need those doors to be opened for. We’re trying to showcase what can be done with just 5 simple elements on the plate. 

You don’t need to overcomplicate things to make good food - if you put passion, you put love, you put your soul into it, it’ll turn out better than any R2000 tasting menu that’s out there. 

The Dinner Club is me painting the picture - this is why I do what I do. Me putting my soul into every chop, every ingredient, every final touch that I put on that plate. So when people get that plate put in front of them its a wow - but not just a “wow it looks good”, its a wow where they can feel the love that’s put into it. There’s a story being told, with Josh being able to verbalize that story for me, it just puts it apart from the rest. 

But look, this is only the start. The bigger picture is that we do eventually open up The Dinner Club to skills mentorship, training and development, sending these kids to schools. And then one day god willing to be able to open up a school, to be able to take all these lessons that I’ve learnt over the years and showcase them, to give them back on a broader scale. 

What stood out to me about The Dinner Club wasn’t just the passion, but the mission behind the movement. It isn’t just about standing out, but also about paving a way forward for those that come after.

I’ve always said that food is more than just sustenance, its a spiritual experience. And to listen to the team behind The Dinner Club talk about it, there are many stories yet to be told through the medium.

Pay close attention to what they do next, as I’m sure they will be making waves in the Cape Town food scene very soon