We sat down with Ollie Swart to talk all things cooking – his go-to
ingredients, favourite comfort foods, and the simple tricks that take
a dish from good to unforgettable. Ollie shares his love for bold,
flavour-packed meals, from the perfect braai sides to a life-changing
Michelin-star ravioli. He reveals his ultimate cooking hack (hint: it
involves garlic, wine, and olive oil) and explains how balancing salt,
acidity, and sweetness can transform any dish. Whether you're a
seasoned cook or a kitchen newbie, Ollie’s insights will inspire you
to cook with confidence and flair.
What's the one ingredient you can't cook without?
Salt. A good quality sea salt, like Maldon salt. Salt and lemon.
Describe your cooking style in three words.
Fast, flavour-forward and easy.
Favourite guilty pleasure?
Fried chicken sandwich with coleslaw.
What's the weirdest combo that actually works?
Watermelon and menthol. It’s super refreshing. You take something like Halls, bash them up, and then sprinkle over the watermelon and eat immediately. It’s sweet and juicy, but there’s also this irresistible freshness.
If you could cook for anyone, past or present, who would it be?
That's a tough one. It would probably be my Nana, my grandma on my mom’s side. She died when I was 10. She was an amazing person, the life of the party, and she definitely shaped who I am today. I would probably make a huge feast with a little bit of everything – pastas, roasts.
Sweet or savoury; what's your go to?
Definitely savoury. Not even a question.
Fave South African comfort food?
Anything on the braai, especially lamb chops. Braai sides are also part of it. I've got a special trick that I do with veg. You take all your favourite veg – I like to use aubergine, courgette and red pepper – and you cut them all the same thickness, or leave them whole, then wedge them inside a hand grill, and lie the whole thing vertically down the side of the braai right as you start the fire, and leave it. You can literally sit there and have drinks and watch it while it caramelises, and then you turn it and to do the other side and then it's ready. So by the time your coals are ready, you've got beautifully roasted vegetables that you can serve with your meat. It’s unbelievable.
If you had to eat one dish for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Pasta. Let's say one of my favourite pastas, amatriciana, a classic Italian pasta sauce known for its bold and flavourful combination of guanciale (cured pork cheek), tomato sauce, pecorino romano cheese, and black pepper. I’ll also never forget this pasta dish I had in Switzerland. I was doing an event there, and I had a Michelin star chef come and work with me. He asked me to make them something, so I made lamb chops, and they were blown away. To return the favour, he invited me to his restaurant and made me the best ravioli I think I've ever tasted. It was filled with veal shoulder, smothered in a creamy sauce made with stock, porcini and a dash of cream, and finished off with shavings of fresh truffle and Parmesan cheese. Oh my gosh, I freaked out. I must have had it three or four times in two days.
What's one cooking hack you swear by?
Garlic. If you fry garlic in a pan of olive oil, and then you add wine to it, you've already got the beginnings of a banging sauce. You can do anything from there. Sometimes it’s just about keeping it simple with the best ingredients you can afford. Flavour with salt and pepper and some beautiful olive oil, and that’s it. If you buy a beautiful chicken, it doesn’t need much more than salt and lemon to bring out its most delicious side.
How does one go about balancing flavour?
It’s about understanding that different cuisines have different levels of sweetness, saltiness and acidity, and learning what ingredients achieve those. So in, say, Vietnamese dishes, it's a combination of cane sugar or palm sugar for sweetness, fish sauce or soy sauce for saltiness, lime or rice vinegar for acidity, and to get the distinctive flavour of that dish, you must have all of those components to make it balanced.
And finishing a dish?
I would say that fifty percent of the taste of a meal is actually what you do right at the end. A squeeze of lemon, a pinch of crunchy Maldon salt, fresh herbs, extra virgin olive oil for Mediterranean dishes. It's not only about what ends up on the plate, it's about how you finish it. So if you had a tomato pasta, it could be ordinary, or you could finish it with extra virgin olive oil, a crack of black pepper, parmesan, breadcrumbs. For Vietnamese dishes, fresh herbs are a must.
Freestyle Cooking with Chef Ollie is out now.
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