The Team

Extreem Kwizeen is owned and managed up by Wynand du Plessis and Jamaal van der Vent along with their affiliates of Extreem - Geared towards the hospitality industry.

Wynand du Plessis
Wynand completed his international hotel management diploma and then made his way to the kitchens. He trained at the prestigious Five Star Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg and then moved to the Five Star Mount Nelson Hotel to complete his 3 year in-house apprenticeship. Wynand was selected as the youngest member ever to represent South Africa in the South African National Culinary Team and travelled to Luxembourg to represent South Africa in the Culinary World Cup.

Having his international taste buds tickled, he headed off to London for 3 years where he worked at various upmarket catering companies and restaurants and ended his European travels as Head Chef of two restaurants in Clapham, South London. Wynand travelled Europe extensively, gaining experience in Germany and France. He also joined the National Teams in their European travels as an assistant during his absence from South Africa.

On returning to South Africa in 2001, Extreem Kwizeen was launched. Extreem Kwizeen has been playing a formidable roll in the local function and events industry ever since. Under Wynand’s management, Leinster Hall restaurant rose to become one of the top fine dining establishments in Cape Town. The restaurant was awarded one of the top 100 restaurants in South Africa and rated as one of the Top 10 in Cape Town during the 18 months that Wynand operated the restaurant. However, due to Extreem Kwizeen’s rapid expansion, Wynand sadly sold Leinster Hall Restaurant to enable him to focus exclusively on Extreem Kwizeen and the affiliates it has created through growth.

Jamaal van der Vent
Jamaal joined Extreem Kwizeen in 2005 adding a wealth of experience to the team. Jamaal worked at KKS, Fedics and Peninsula Technikon, then joined Real Foods Manufacturers. Jamaal moved to Chefs@Work with his employers which then started Capers Restaurant and The South African Culinary Academy. Jamaal’s strengths lie in his calm and collected manner and his experience in training staff members - he adds immense value to the Extreem Team.

Lizelle Du Plessis
Lizelle started off her career as a trainee at the world renown Executive Dining Facilities at Turffontein Race Course. After departing for a Holiday to London, the international travelling bug bit and 6 weeks after returning from her holiday, she found herself cooking in some of the top establishments in London. After 2 years of international travels Lizelle returned to Cape Town and cooked up a storm under world renowned Executive Chefs at the Mount Nelson Hotel.

Two years on, Lizelle, with a generous amount of food knowledge moved into the coordinating side of food and found herself working for a top wedding coordinator in Cape Town. Here she coordinated several weddings for the rich and famous in the most exotic of locations. After getting married to Wynand and witnessing the growth in Extreem Kwizeen, Lizelle joined our team to fulfil the important role of bringing everything together on the day. Lizelle’s intense food knowledge and her precise attention to detail and planning, now gets applied to the daily operation of Extreem Kwizeen to ensure the efficient execution of functions and events.

Lee van Ryneveld (Backsberg)
Lee Ann entered the industry completing her in service training at various Hotels within the Protea Group. With a keen interest in nature, she took up a work opportunity at the Award Winning Mabula Game Lodge, focussing on banqueting, conferencing and incentive groups as Banqueting Manager. After relocating to Cape Town, Lee held the position of Restaurant Manager and then promoted to Banqueting Manager overseeing hundreds of weddings and corporate functions at the grand facilities at the Lanserac Hotel and Wine Estate.

After getting married, Lee Ann started her international travels in Europe which included managing Food and Beverage outlets and restaurants on Various Golf Estates across the UK. Managing restaurants in Jersey and finishing off her travels as Banqueting Manager at the prestigious Bishops Palace in Wales

Returning to SA, Lee was swooped up by the Orient Express Hotel Group to operate their world renowned Game Trackers Lodges with a multiple of camps in the Botswana Delta for 3 years. In 2003, Lee took up employment at Leinster Hall Restaurant with Wynand winning several awards and has since been involved in several ventures paving the way to Backsberg Estate Cellars.

Here, Lee does not only use her excellent banqueting skills to ensure that functions are coordinated and run perfectly every time, but also uses her vast food and beverage operational skills to manage the restaurants and wine tasting centres operated by Backsberg.

Suzanne Pittaway (Groups Financial Controller)
Suzanne is a dynamic and personable individual who takes her work seriously. She has been involved with accountancy since leaving school in 1989. Over the years she has been Financial Manager of three large corporate businesses. Three years ago she decided to leave the corporate environment and to pursue her own business. Suzanne works for a number of clients over a large variety of industries. In such this also gives Suzanne insights to a lot of daily business practices etc which have stood her in good stead to add value to any business she is involved with. She is loyal, dependable, very trustworthy and thorough. Her motto “if it is 1 cent out it doesn’t balance!!”

Suzanne takes full control of group accounting and financial management from planning phase, through implementation to evaluating operating progress at Extreem and its affiliates. Suzanne’s attention to detail and calm, pleasant nature has been a major benefit to Extreem in the accounting department, ensuring bills are paid timiously.

The Rest of The Gang
Extreem has a complement of in-house chefs, co-ordinators and administrative staff, which is specially geared to customer service. Together they form the foundation for the chefs to perform at their best, exceeding customer expectations. The background staff ensure that all the logistics and infrastructure is taken care of professionally, to create the ideal working environment to enable the chefs to perform efficiently and to maintain the standards that they are renowned for.