Some dinners stay with you because of what you ate. Hands On might stay with you because of how you ate it.
On 13 and 14 November, 2026, Jason Kosmas and Ivor Jones, two of South Africa’s most exciting and respected chefs, will come together at The Pot Luck Club for a six-course collaboration that invites guests to put down their cutlery and get closer to the food. Leaves become a way to pick up sashimi. A liquorice skewer accompanies braaied lobster. Coconut roti is torn and used to scoop up a rich beef shin curry. Created for these two nights, this dinner will never be repeated in the same form.
Two distinct culinary passions
The collaboration brings together two distinct culinary passions. Jason has been fishing since childhood, when he and his brother used hand lines off a pier on the Greek island where he was born. After moving to South Africa, he fished its dams and coastline, developing a fascination that followed him into the kitchen: how to handle a fish, use it fully and understand what each species can bring to a plate.
That curiosity has led him to dry-ageing fish, one of the defining techniques of Hands On. When fish is handled correctly and aged in a carefully controlled environment, its texture softens and its natural flavour develops. For the dinner, Jason plans to bring together several species from local coastlines in a sashimi dish. Guests will use large leaves to pinch each mouthful from the plate, experiencing the different qualities of the fish side by side.
Ivor launched Chefs Warehouse Beau Constantia with Liam Tomlin ten years ago and has become known for food that is bold, playful and deeply considered. His longstanding passion for Southeast Asian cooking runs through his approach to fresh aromatics, layered flavours and unexpected textures. He thinks as carefully about how guests encounter a dish as he does about how it tastes, making Hands On a fitting collaboration.
Ivor has long been obsessed with the bold, aromatic flavours of Southeast Asian cooking, especially the way a dish can build depth while still tasting fresh and alive. His beef shin Panang curry is a case in point. Spices are added gradually as it cooks, layering flavour into the sauce before the beef is served tender and rich alongside coconut roti and fresh pickles. The roti is there to tear and scoop; the pickles bring a sharp lift that keeps you coming back for another mouthful.
The six courses begin with a Royal Thai shrimp salad and a barbecue chicken skewer with a rum and peanut marinade and cashew nut satay. After the dry-aged sashimi comes South Coast rock lobster, braaied and returned to its shell. Guests will use a liquorice skewer to draw the lobster through a miso, lemon and popcorn foam.
Dessert takes inspiration from mango sticky rice, pairing sticky rice pudding with crisp, sweet taco shells, mango and a yuzu and white chocolate sabayon. A fragrant nitrogen snow with notes of lemongrass, lime leaf and citrus provides a fresh final flourish.
Even the welcome cocktail is being created for the occasion. Jason is developing a drink that brings together tropical and South Asian flavours, with coconut, lime leaf, lemongrass, galangal and ginger among the aromatics he is exploring. Cachaça is his proposed base.
Hands On gives guests a rare opportunity to experience The Pot Luck Club and Chefs Warehouse Beau Constantia on the same menu, with Jason and Ivor creating dishes that draw on what makes each chef’s cooking so distinctive. Their shared love of big flavour comes with an invitation to enjoy the meal a little differently: pick up a leaf, tear off some roti and leave the usual table manners at the door.
Hands On takes place at The Pot Luck Club in Cape Town on 13 and 14 November 2026, with two seatings each evening: 18:00–21:00 and 21:00 until close. The six-course dinner costs R1,950 per person, including a welcome cocktail, with an optional drinks pairing available for R795 per person. For more details and reservations, visit www.thepotluckclub.co.za.
