Newmark Hotels & Reserves Celebrates Culinary and Wine Excellence
Newmark Hotels & Reserves has a lot to celebrate where culinary expertise is concerned. Firstly, their luxury boutique hotel, Future Found Sanctuary, officially welcomed Chef Malika van Reenen as Executive Chef recently. Secondly, their in-house Terrarium Restaurant has been awarded Silver for Star Wine List’s Best International Newcomer Wine List 2025.
Future Found Sanctuary Blooms Anew Under Chef Malika van Reenen
A new Executive Chef is on the block after Future Found Sanctuary, a private luxury boutique hotel located on the slopes of Table Mountain, welcomed Chef Malika Van Reenen to their ranks.
Drawing on her Cape Malay heritage and global culinary lens, Van Reenen brings a personal, locally rooted approach that ushers in a new era for the property’s guest experience and food philosophy.
Evidently, the kitchen will receive influence from Chef Malika’s international adventures like French techniques, Indian spices and Asian trends. In addition, she will also draw inspiration from her Cape Malay upbringing, with layered aromatics and fruit-forward notes.
Chef Malika will uphold Head Chef Chris Erasmus’ ideology of using only local producers and letting the ingredients lead the plate. The philosophy that food is a true expression of place remains at the forefront.
Further to this, she is currently leading a culinary programme that is garden-driven and entirely responsive to nature. That means the menu changes daily, depending on what is seasonal, what is ripe and what can be picked from the property’s gardens and orchids, alongside local small-scale suppliers.
She says: “We pick what’s ripe and perfect and build the menu around that. It’s intimate, seasonal and no two days are ever the same. Guests often arrive having spent time in the city’s finest restaurants. When they come here, it’s about slowing down, engaging the senses and experiencing something truly personal.”
Terrarium Brings Home Silver Crown for Wine List
The edgy, fine-dining restaurant, Terrarium, based at the Queen Victoria Hotel in Cape Town, has been awarded Silver in the Best International Newcomer Wine List 2025 category at the Star Wine List of the Year International Open. In fact, Terrarium is the only South African establishment recognised in this category. Only one other South African venue was acknowledged across this year’s nine award categories.
Group Sommelier, Marlvin Gwese, curated the award-winning wine list. It features a selection of small, bespoke producers, Cape Winemakers Guild auction wines and large-format magnums. Additionally, the restaurant’s focus on foraged ingredients – such as wild mushrooms and coastal herbs – informed the wine list closely.
Gwese says: “Foraged ingredients tend to be delicate, earthy, resinous or floral. These flavours often call for structured and full-bodied white wines or mineral-driven reds that bring harmony to the plate.”
Also to come in the future is a vintage wine collection, housed in a cellar at one of Newmark Hotels & Reserves finest establishments.
Newmark Hotels & Reserves is blooming where South African hospitality and culinary expertise is concerned. Whether it’s a new Executive Chef or an award-winning wine list, they are proving themselves superior in the industry.
