The Royal Portfolio is proud to announce the appointment of Veronica Canha-Hibbert as the executive chef of The Silo Hotel. She joins The Royal Portfolio after eight and a half years at Ellerman House where she guided her team with grace and took guests on an incredible culinary journey.
Canha-Hibbert started her career in 1999 as an apprentice at the Mount Nelson hotel before moving to England in 2004 to work at the Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire.
“I am extremely excited to join The Royal Portfolio and to take the next exciting step in my career.
The Silo Hotel is an incredible project and to be involved from the outset is a fantastic opportunity.
I can’t wait to get started and to deliver a unique and authentic dining experience for both locals and international guests.”
-Veronica Canha-Hibbert
Liz Biden, owner of The Royal Portfolio said, “We are delighted to have Veronica on board and look forward to her contribution to the wonderful and diverse dining experiences at The Royal Portfolio. The style of the cuisine at The Silo Hotel will be delicious and approachable morning, noon and night – contemporary comfort food with a focus on fresh, local ingredients. We look forward to welcoming our guests from around the world and to creating a warm and welcoming space for Capetonians to enjoy.”
The Silo is being built in the grain elevator portion of the historic grain silo complex occupying six floors above what will become the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA). Zeitz MOCAA will be a contemporary art museum to rival the likes of the Tate Modern in London, MoMA in New York and Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid. Zeitz MOCAA is a not-for-profit partnership between the V&A Waterfront and Jochen Zeitz,
The building has been designed by Thomas Heatherwick, Founder and Principal of the London-based Heatherwick Studio. Heatherwick Studio was tasked with the transformation of the elevator house and the adjacent storage annex of six rows of seven silos, while carefully retaining its cultural significance and creating a building that will be as synonymous with the Cape Town skyline as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris.
From the outside, the greatest visible change to the building’s original structure will be the addition of pillowed glazing panels, inserted into the geometry of the hotel floors, which will bulge outward as if gently inflated. By night, this will transform the building into a glowing lantern or beacon in the harbour.
The restaurants and bars at The Silo Hotel will be open to the public. The Willaston Bar and the Granary Café will be located on the sixth floor while visitors to the rooftop will be able to enjoy fine wines and wonderful cocktails with unrivaled views of Cape Town.
