About Bruce Marais – A true and real spirit of creation

Anyone coming into contact with Bruce Marais can’t help being infected by his enchanting energy and enthusiasm. A true master of creation, it’s almost immaterial which medium is put in front of him. Whether painting gigantic murals, preparing a foodie feast, framing the perfect photograph or picking out antique collectables for an interior design commission you can be sure of a dazzling result.

His art spans across continents, it’s entirely possible to find him at his Casablanca Cup Cake Club in Morrocco, scouring an antique fair in Belgium, curating a photographic exhibition on Papua New Guinea or headed off to New York to paint a billboard sized artwork. Each of his adventures comes with a compelling story: speak to him about food and he’ll explain the depth behind cooking with intuition rather than a recipe. In Morrocco, when asked to prepare a tasting menu for high profile foodies; Camel Carpaccio, shaved Truffels and Lemon Oil dominated his menu.

Drawing was Bruce’s first love, which he avidly practiced from the time he could hold a pencil. Cooking was his next and from as early as age 6, he was mixing ingredients into food art. His background is a smorgasbord of Advertising School, accolades in illustration and graphic design, clothing design, art direction and everything imaginable that’s arty.

After College and working, he went travelling for two years, then took a deep breath and jetted to Paris on a one-way ticket to pursue a career in cooking. He ended up cooking in all corners of the earth and finally ended in New York where he met Samir Kabbaj. Samir became the driving force in exposing Bruce’s potential. This site is testament to the creative empire they are building.

14 THINGS YOU DID NOT KNOW ABOUT BRUCE!

Has created 135 Playlists on Spotify, arranged alphabetically, with more than 53 000 songs in total.
Bruce was a choir boy until he finished high school, a member of the Cape Town Youth Choir, and even performed a song at Little Miss South Africa in 1995.
In 2008, he entered a competition to illustrate a children’s book, African Sky Stories, and won! The book was published by the South African government and was distributed in libraries across the country.
In 1992, he won a beauty pageant!
In 2010 he worked in a ski resort for 6 months, and only skied twice. It appears Bruce has very bad balance.
In 2015, Bruce was invited to cook at the prestigious Urbani Truffle Academy in Italy.
In 2014 he became a co-founder of the Casablanca Cupcake Club with Fatiha Sajid.
Bruce didn’t know what a pastry chef was, until he became one in 2010 at the Mandeville Hotel in London. A few months later he was promoted to Head Pastry Chef.
Ever the adventure seeker, at the age of 16, Bruce and two friends hitch hiked 1,400 km from his hometown of Durbanville to Johannesburg to attend a party. They never managed to get the party and the trio was flown back to Cape Town the following morning.
In 2016, Bruce appeared on the US Food Network TV-show, Chopped. He did not win, but was delighted to compete.
Bruce’s first language is Afrikaans. He also speaks English, Dutch, some Xhosa, French and German.
He has travelled to 77 countries and counting. His ambition in life is to visit every country in the world.
His friends call him Bunny
Bruce also hopes to live to a 100.