I first heard about Liam Tomlin when I stumbled on his book Season To Taste. I was struck by the sheer beauty of the photographs and the meticulous recipes.

So, I’m not surprised that when I meet the author he’s as put together as his book is. His hair is neatly combed back and his eyes are the blue of the Irish Sea, the country he hails from. “My mum is a great cook,” says Liam. “She baked fresh bread every day and cooked classic dishes like Sunday roast, boiled ham with new potatoes, and Irish stew. Whenever I go back home, no matter what the time, my mom cooks me a proper breakfast; bacon, eggs, and sausages all mopped up with her freshly baked soda bread.”

Another one of Liam’s Irish pastimes is to go down to the harbour and order pints of Guinness and a plateful of oysters. The latter is one of his favourite ingredients. He’s a great believer in the purity and quality of each ingredient in a recipe. So much so, that Season To Taste is based on his 18 favourite ingredients.

“It’s about to go into its second printing,” says Liam, gesturing to his book. We’re chatting by the bookshelf in Liam’s latest venture, Chef’s Warehouse. “I’m not interested in selling mass-produced books; only the rare and interesting will take up shelf space.”

The front room of Chef’s Warehouse is home to all things cheffy. There are cotton uniforms with handy tasting spoons attached, French copper pots, knives that cost an entire month’s salary, mixers, cookie cutters – you name it, he’s got it.

The doorbell rings and in walks chef Chris Erasmus from Ginja. They haggle over one of the knives, and with a special price agreed; Chris says he’ll be back for it later. “This is exactly how I want this place to be. I want chefs to walk in here and get gear for their kitchens, and to come and chat to me,” says Liam. “Let me finish showing you around.”

Chef’s Warehouse won’t only be playing host to cookbooks and utensils, but also to unusual and hard-to-find ingredients such as Turkish delight jam, pickled garlic, chestnut puree, and even sour grapes. The latter are crunchy and piquant and would be perfect in a seafood salad.

Then there’s the cookery school. In the back is a pristine kitchen, all stainless steel and good light. The other half of the room is kitted out with workbenches. “We’ll run this part of the class just like a restaurant,” says Liam. “We’ll set up the benches with linen, proper stemware and silver cutlery.”

The aim is to offer over 200 demonstrations and classes a year. Liam is jumping in feet first with his Basic Techniques and Methods of Cookery course: a 20-part course that aims to turn aspiring cooks into gastronomic pros. Throughout the year, top local and international chefs will also host classes. In fact, Neil Jewell, South Africa’s charcuterie king, is sharpening his knives for a class on 5 May. Other classes soon to be on offer will incorporate everything from beer-making to artisanal baking.

The shop is very much alive, the bell keeps ringing, equipment is delivered, and the scent of coffee (very good coffee) permeates the air. Liam seems content in his latest incarnation, his chef’s playground. And it’s taken a lot of air miles and elbow grease to get here.

His rise to the top has been anything but meteoric. Kicked out of school at the age of 14, his dad insisted he get a job. “I started working as a kitchen porter washing pots in a hotel restaurant,” Liam says. “After about four months I was offered an apprenticeship. In the beginning I wasn’t passionate about it. It was just a job.

“I did like the buzz in the kitchen. There was also a hierarchy. It’s not like today when chefs become sous chefs straight out of college. Back then, you worked your way up. The head chefs were in their fifties and sixties.

“It was when I went to work for Bruno Enderli in Switzerland that I woke up. My job turned into a passion.”

Liam worked all over Europe and it was while working in London 27 years ago that he met his wife Jan. “We worked together; she was front-of-house staff. She didn’t like me much. I was the only person (from work) not invited to her 21st birthday party!” Eventually they became friends and later married.

In 1991, the pair went to work in Australia. After only one week, they wanted to leave. “The Australia of 20 years ago is not the Australia of today,” Liam explains. “The food was standard stuff.”

Tickets back to London were put on hold when Liam met Dietmar Sawyer of Restaurant Forty One. “He was one of the forerunners of fusion/Pacific Rim cuisine, and he was doing it really well. I was fascinated. I came from a background of French classical cuisine, and here was this chef using things like pickled ginger and miso.” Liam became his chef de cuisine and stayed with him for seven years.

In 1997, they opened Banc Restaurant in Sydney. And what a restaurant it was. The awards flowed like good Australian chardonnay, including the 3 Hats Award and Restaurant of the Year from the Sydney Morning Herald.

According to Liam, winning these awards set them a new challenge. “Being at that level is fantastic – it’s hard to get there, but it’s even harder to stay there.”

But the giant that was Banc closed after Rodney Adler, one of the business’s financial backers, was found guilty of Australia’s biggest corporate fraud. The restaurant was an innocent casualty in the aftermath.

The couple soon left Australia and went to Philadelphia in the United States to open a restaurant with a friend. Ultimately, they decided against the venture and it was on a holiday in Cape Town that the intrepid travellers finally felt at home.

“The minute we got into the taxi at the airport we knew we wanted to stay,” Liam says, looking at his wife. “There’s a rawness here, it’s not as over-governed or as regulated as Australia is. We also enjoy the proximity. I can be in the in the winelands in 40 minutes from the beach in Camps Bay.

“And the restaurants! I love Bread &Wine, La Boheme, Jardine, HQ, Bizerca, and Caveau  – there’s so much choice.”

Liam says his culinary style has relaxed somewhat. “I admire and appreciate what they’re doing at Aubergine and Jardine, but these days I make simple, honest food.”

Simple or not, I still want him to sign my copy of Season To Taste. He takes a look at my blue ballpoint and says, “Let me just get another pen”, returning with one that uses “real” ink. It’s this dedication to the best that so defines him. He blows the ink dry and hands the book to me. The careful script is not out of place in the pristine book. It’s a lesson Liam learnt long ago – the beauty is in the details.

By Malu Lambert

Find the Chef’s Warehouse on 50 New Church Street, Cape Town, call 021 422 0128.

Enter here to win a spot at Neil Jewells class on 5 May.

For more on Liam and his Chefs Warehouse catch issue 52 of TASTE magazine on 26 May.