Almost a year after leaving Camphors at Vergelegen as an Eat Out Top 10 restaurant, Chef PJ Vadas has announced that he is setting up The Hog House on the Werf craft Bakery and Café in the more than two hundred year old Jonkershuis building at Spier in October.
The media release received from Spier states that Chef PJ will be baking breads and pastries in the custom-built wood-fired oven, and offer a light menu for breakfast and lunch.
Chef PJ said about his new venture: ‘I love serving up simple, unpretentious dishes – allowing great ingredients to speak for themselves’. He says that his love for baking comes from the time he spent at the recently burnt-down Ile de Pain in Knysna, his hometown. He has worked in London for Gordon Ramsay, and in New York and France, and locally at The Roundhouse, taking it to Eat Out Top 10 too.
Spier’s Mariota Enthoven (pictured with Chef PJ above, and married to Farmer Angus, well-known for his focus on ethical meat and egg supply) is excited about the new collaboration: ‘When we met PJ we quickly realised that we share a belief in the importance of ethically sourcing great quality ingredients.. This collaboration is helping to fulfill our dream that the Werf – historically the bustling heart of the farm – is once more a hub of artisanal activity‘. The Werf (not to be confused with The Werf and its new restaurant at Boschendal) and its historical Cape Dutch buildings have recently been restored. A biodynamic food garden, supplying the restaurants on the farm, has also been established.
It is good news that Chef PJ will be settling down at Spier in summer, his new venture having been eagerly awaited!
POSTSCRIPT 29/5: Chef PJ has Tweeted in reaction to a question that his beer brewing will continue at Ndabeni, and will not be done at Spier.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Tel (021) 433-2100, Twitter:@WhaleCottage Facebook: click here
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