Everything’s FYN: Jennifer Hugé in her element, in a restaurant, with wine. Photographed at FYN (centre) and at beyond restaurant in Constantia (left and right). (Photos: Bruce Tuck) 
When chef Franck Dangereux was still blessing the Constantia valley with his magnificent skills, right at his side was restaurant manager Jennifer Hugé, a bubbly Frenchwoman who wins you over with one flash of her ever-present smile.
High-end cuisine at the Cape has never been the same since the halcyon years of the original La Colombe, and today Cape Town is recognised throughout the world as a capital of world cuisine.
This is one of two reasons I was so excited when an email popped into my inbox this week with the news that Jen, as her colleagues Peter Tempelhoff, Ashley Moss and others call her, is the Relais & Châteaux Woman of the Year for 2026.
It was “an overwhelming surprise”, she told me this week soon after returning. Being French, it made the honour yet more special, she said. Relais & Châteaux is a collection of 580 luxury hotels and restaurants worldwide, of which the FYN Group is a member.
The five-day trip from Cape Town to Boston and back was a whirlwind of excitement as well as a test of endurance, as she was also involved in setting up the FYN Group’s new restaurant, Arum, at Boschendal in the Drakenstein Valley between Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. She pretty much had to get there, catch her breath, revel in the emotion of the moment, and turn around and start making her way back.
Arum opened just days after her return, but Hugé will remain at FYN, where she is beverage and service director and a partner, alongside Tempelhoff and Moss.
The second reason I was so thrilled about Hugé’s win is that earlier this year there was a fire in her flat which destroyed everything she owned. Tempelhoff and the team rushed to her aid and she has fought her way back. To me, it seemed like a reward for her endurance and suffering.
“Everything you had accumulated over the years since you arrived in this country suddenly is gone,” she said this week of that terrible event earlier in the year. “The hardest part was to find a new place to move into that would be comfortable and I could call home. I found a new place in March and it was like my energy was renewed, like a Phoenix. And now I’m doing very well.”
Today, she is known in the industry as the “Mother of Service”, and her achievement will be heralded far beyond the FYN and La Colombe groups, such is the prestige and affection with which she is held.
/file/attachments/2985/FYNGroupDirectors_191934_41caf4872240d2c9ebcd2c9c41a195ac.jpg "Peter Tempelhoff, Jennifer Hugé and Ashley Moss at FYN. (Photo: Bruce Tuck)")
As the FYN Group said in announcing her award this week: “For over seven years, the sommelier and service professional has been elevating FYN to the ultimate heights of Cape Town’s culinary establishment. Affectionately known as the ‘Mother of Service’ in South Africa, she has trained the city’s greatest managers and sommeliers, creating a service team at FYN that continues to garner international acclaim.”
“Jennifer is the beating heart of FYN’s front of house,” says Tempelhoff. “Her grace, precision, passion and unwavering commitment to the guest experience have shaped every element of what we do. This award is not only richly deserved – it’s a reflection of the deep respect and admiration we all have for her.”
Meanwhile, at Boschendal, chef Travis Finch is at the helm of Arum, named after the indigenous lily of the Cape that grows almost everywhere you look in the region.
The FYN Group describes Arum as “a contemporary, produce-driven restaurant shaped by fire, seasonality, and the natural rhythm of the farm”.
/file/attachments/2985/TravisFinchwithdirectorsPeterTempelhoffandJenniferHuge_BruceTuck_805146_e310b5857651b4dc619caf66260244fc.jpg "Travis Finch (left) with Jennifer Hugé and Peter Tempelhoff at Arum. (Photo: Bruce Tuck)")
“Arum brings a modern, globally influenced approach to farm-to-table dining, framed by the heritage and regenerative ethos of one of South Africa’s most historic working farms.”
Arum draws inspiration from the arum lily’s seasonal lifecycle: emergence, bloom, retreat and renewal.
“When I think of the valley, I think of lilies,” says founding chef Tempelhoff. “They mirror the rhythm of Boschendal itself – a constant cycle of growth, rest and return.”
Finch, whose career spans The Greenhouse at The Cellars-Hohenort, London’s Chapter One and The Connaught, Melbourne’s Vue de Monde, and years as a private chef aboard luxury yachts, brings a philosophy both worldly and deeply local. His cooking is defined by precision, flame, clarity and restraint, expressed through whole-animal butchery, fermentation, preservation and an intimate connection to the farm’s gardens and pastures. DM