Besele Moses Moloi continues to earn recognition for his culinary excellence. Having won his third consecutive Best Chef South Africa award at the 2026 South Africa Restaurant Awards, he has also received three accolades from the international Best Chef Awards, affirming his world-class creativity and vision.
“I don’t take these wins for granted,” the chef says. “But I’m never on my own. I work with a strong team, and allowing them to shine is meaningful.”
When he established Gigi restaurant in Waterfall City, Midrand, with business partner Pari Xenophontos in 2024, the intent was to centre contemporary South African cuisine with a global twist. This approach reflected his culinary journey. He is French-trained and has worked at the Marine Hotel in Hermanus and Johannesburg’s Saxon Hotel. Abroad, he worked under the leadership of Marco Pierre White.
Mentored by acclaimed chef Peter Tempelhoff at home, he eventually headed Tempelhoff’s kitchen at FYN in Cape Town, where he explored Japanese cuisine. He later experimented with South American cuisine while serving as head chef at Zioux by David Higgs.
His method is also rooted in who he is and his upbringing in Botshabelo in the Free State. That philosophy was further solidified when he was nominated for the 2023 Best Chef Awards in Yucatán, Mexico, where he was ranked 85th.
“Being there as a young African chef among the leading chefs and trendsetters of the world, I got to speak with Ferran and Albert Adrià, the minds behind elBulli, a restaurant that completely redefined what food could be. What they told me was liberating and shifted things for me in a significant way. They said, ‘Cook who you are and where you’re from, and embrace it.’
“And that’s what Gigi is. It’s about working with my own background, the flavours I grew up with, the traditions of home, and giving them a contemporary spin. This authenticity of one’s story now extends to my team, who draw on their own backgrounds in the way they innovate. That’s growth,” Moses says.
Signature dishes from the menu of small plates and mains include the oxtail (served both as a vetkoek small plate and as a main with pap, tomato gravy, cabbage, roasted baby carrots, and deep-fried spinach) and beef tongue. These popular mainstays carry strands of memory through their flavour and thoughtful elevation. The vibrancy of Moses’s food is the meeting point of his soul, considered technique and passionate experimentation.
He is part of a generation of chefs stamping their identities onto an elevated approach to South African and continental cuisine, including Coco Reinarhz, Mmabatho Molefe, Vusi Ndlovu, Wandile Mabaso and Katlego Mlambo. This movement, which they are steadily spearheading and which has great potential for wider exploration, coincides with the gradual renaissance of Africa’s indigenous ingredients. Moses often works with these ingredients in his occasional seven-course tasting menus, which highlight a single seasonal ingredient.
This June, he is introducing around 12 new dishes to the menu.
“There are new explorations with indigenous ingredients, and some dishes will showcase influences from my time in Cape Town. My chefs have also contributed a few new offerings,” he says.
Highlights include the spiced lamb loin with sorghum and quinoa risotto, sautéed spinach, cashew and peppadew, fresh plum, umqombothi foam, sorghum popcorn, and lamb jus; chokka ramen; pork chop with chakalaka purée, mielie pap croquette and parsnip pork jus; kingklip risotto; and Rooibos-poached pear for dessert.
Gigi is an experience of sophisticated yet accessible South African food, prepared with meaning.
