My first impression of Greg is of a lovely, down-to-earth man, who has the rare ability to speak articulately at exceedingly high speeds – a talent which means it takes several seconds for me to register the accent.

“I came out here in 2004,” he tells me, “I’m very happy here, I wouldn’t move anywhere else”, explaining how he came out from England with a then-girlfriend and promptly returned home, sold his house and returned to the country.

“I actually wanted to be a dentist,” he says, “I had a lot of orthodontic work when I was a kid, and my dentist drove a BMW and I thought he was the greatest guy going”, he says, pausing to smile. He took physics, biology and chemistry in A levels, and began studying, but dropped out after deciding that it wasn’t for him.

“I started cooking in local pub – washing up, actually – and figured that making sandwiches was better than washing up so I started making sandwiches.” He has always had a passion for food, however. “My mom’s French, and my grandparents lived in Spain, so when we had Mediterranean holidays we would go to market everyday and buy the food fresh.” He can also wax lyrical on the subject of spicy food. “I’m a curry addict. I particularly like the way the Thais balance their hot and sweet and sour, and also the way in Indian curries, the same way France has got provincial cooking, India is very similar, with the use of spices and creams, ground almonds.”

Greg did a stint at Browns in Joburg, followed by time at Harbour House in Kalk Bay, before finding his way to Five Flies. This year, Jo-Anne During took over ownership of the Cape Town institution, bringing some fresh ideas with her.

“Under Alex we were very much more about doing volume. I came and ate at five flies when I first came to Cape Town seven years ago – Gerard [Reidy – who returned home to Ireland in 2006] was the chef then – and it was a real place to be in Cape Town,” says Greg.

Since then, Greg feels, the quality slipped a little. “We would do a lot of volume – 300 people a night – and the first fifty, sixty or hundred plates a night are good and after that, you can’t concentrate, it’s impossible.” Diners too, felt the push, says Greg, “a lot of the feedback that we got was that people felt very rushed.”

Now though, the restaurant is heading in a new direction.

“With Joanne, we sat down, and decided we won’t really do more than 100, 120 people, which means that I can control everything that comes out of the kitchen; check every single plate. It also means we can make it fresh everyday; we don’t have to make big batches of food to get us through the next 600, 700 people we know we’re going to do.”

There’s an air of professional contentment about Greg as he tells me about this new, slower direction. “You can spend your time making sure that every plate is perfect, perfectly seasoned,” he says, pinching the air. “It’s my idea of heaven really.”

Lower numbers has also made it possible for Greg to build a more complex menu, which requires more attention on the night. “Now everything is all cooked to order, we spend a lot more time on the presentation. We’re also trying to use newer techniques and make lighter food, with more intense flavours in the sauces.”

Greg’s picks of the new menu, include treats like seared scallops on Thai spiced angel hair noodles with soy-ginger foam, and a roast rack of lamb with aubergine puree, roast vegetable tian and spiced olive jus. “The salmon is very good as well,” Greg says; a seared Norwegian salmon with creamed spinach, sweetcorn ravioli, port jus and thyme foam.

It sounds delicious; and certainly not the kind of food that can be mass produced. “Our goal in the long term – the next three or four years – is to push to being a top ten restaurant.” 

I wish him the best of luck; and can’t wait to see where this new focus takes the restaurant.

You can see Greg in action at the Good Food & Wine Show at the end of May.