Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

Speaking to some of the chefs whose Eat Out Top 20 restaurants were bashed by blogger Bruce Palling in the past few days, a new picture emerges, in that he appears to have enjoyed our South African wines so much that he seems to have made a number of errors in his ‘reviews’ of the restaurants, writing about them six months after visiting them, misspelling wine and dish names, and even getting the meat types he was served wrong!  He has done our country’s restaurant industry great damage and harm, and demoralised our country’s best chefs.

Palling had two bottles of wine per meal on average, and four bottles per day, on each of 15 days, a total of 60 bottles he blogged proudly, now an expert on South African wines too! Some of Palling’s faux pas were the following:

*   Ordering Steenberg at Planet Restaurant, which he called ‘Steenburger’!

*   He couldn’t spell Biesmiellah and denningvleis, even though he Tweeted about his (private) meal directly from the restaurant!

*   He got the Vriesenhof variety he BYO’d at Makaron Restaurant incorrect, mistaking the Chardonnay for Pinot Noir, and wrote about the ‘waitress’ shaking the bottle!  He had to apologise to sommelier Josephine Gutentoft on Twitter when she corrected him about the variety, and explained that she was turning the bottle to cool the wine!  He referred to the yellowtail as ‘kingklip’, the restaurant being very SASSI marine sustainability conscious, and not serving this orange-rated fish type. The ‘vanilla’ ice cream was actually crème fraîche ice cream, and said so on the menu, of which Palling took a copy with him! Makaron found the review ‘hilarious’, with its many errors, especially as Palling only spent 45 minutes at the restaurant, eating three courses, because he rushed off to Cape Talk for an interview!  The funniest part of all was that Palling poured the remainder of the Vriesenhof Chardonnay left over in his glass back into the bottle, and took it with him - ouch!

*   He slated The Roundhouse for its springbok via Twitter when he first arrived, but the restaurant has not served this meat type for the past two years, Palling confusing it with fallow deer!

*   He could not remember the ingredients of one of The Test Kitchen desserts, and of a number of the dishes at Pierneef à La Motte!

*   He could not spell ‘hartebeest’!  One would expect that a blogger and occasional journalist would spell-check or Google each foreign food name before publishing his blogpost!

*  He did not know the correct name of Pierneef à La Motte!

*   He went off on a tangent, finding a book inscribed by our ‘colourful’ politician ‘Piet Kornoff’ (sic).

In a Google search yesterday, we came across an article on Gastromondiale, slating Palling for containing ‘minor and major errors’, in his review of Ibia in San Sebastian in Spain, confusing chorizo with chistorras, incorrectly calling kokotxas of merzula ‘hake cheeks‘, confusing pork with veal, and described a ‘mild curry sauce‘, the writer Vedat Milor protesting that Ibai would never serve anything curried!  The writer complains about the ‘mischaracterization’ of the Ibai dishes by Palling!

Palling posted his final restaurant missives yesterday, seeming to have run out of energy, not posting a ‘review’ about each of the 30 restaurants he visited, as he bragged.  We know that:

*   He did visit and write ‘reviews’ about The Test Kitchen, The Tasting Room, Jordan Restaurant, The Roundhouse, Tokara, Overture, Nobu, Belthazar (not evaluated for Eat Out), Babel, Planet Restaurant, Bizerca Bistrot, Rust en Vrede, Hartford House, Makaron, and Pierneef à La Motte.

*   He did visit but did not ‘review’ Delaire Graff and Indochine restaurants at Delaire Graff wine estate, The Pot Luck Club (this restaurant had to be removed from the Top 20 shortlist when it was pointed out to Eat Out on this blog that the restaurant had not been open for the required 12 month period since opening), The Greenhouse*, La Colombe, Restaurant Mosaic, DW Eleven-13, and (privately) Biesmiellah.  One wonders why he did not review these restaurants, perhaps running out of steam, or possibly threatened with legal action by New Media Publishing or by individual restaurants?  This takes us to 23 restaurants, with another seven out of the 30 restaurants he ate at unaccounted for.

We know how difficult it is to remember all the small details when one writes a review a few days after the meal.  To remember the intricate details six months after is almost impossible, no matter how good one’s notes and photographs may be.  Palling’s photographs were generally excellent, but a number were dreadful (e.g. for The Test Kitchen. The Tasting Room, Pierneef à La Motte, Bizerca, Planet), not doing all chefs’ dishes justice.

These are his views about a further collection of our top restaurants:

*   Palling was most complimentary about Chef Luke Dale-Roberts and The Test Kitchen, faulting nothing about it at all, and awarding it two Michelin stars, were it to be in London: ‘I was blown away by the menu here and the complete self-assurance of a professional chef. I could finally see why people raved about food in South Africa. Amongst the best meals I have had anywhere in recent times. Luke Dale-Roberts understands the need to integrate the ingredients on the plate so that they create a symphony rather than an ill-assorted collection of competing sonatas. Test Kitchen also offered the best wine pairing I had on my visit. It was rightly chosen by us as EAT OUT’s  best restaurant of the year’.

*   Palling pointed out a number of service issues which should be a no-no at a restaurant of the calibre of The Tasting Room, including bringing the coffee to the table too early, not serving petit fours with it, and not handing his wife her coat back.  He also found Franschhoek to be ‘too perfect’, was not too charmed with the beetroot dish, and criticised the restaurant interior as being ‘a bit too Sixties’, having just been completely redone by Chef Margot Janse’s brother. Palling asked as recently as last week if it had the best interior in Africa, in the BA Highlife article! He liked the tables not having tablecloths, the superb food composition, the dishes not having any oversweetness, and presentation with ‘real flair‘.

*   Terroir came out of Palling’s parlance reasonably unscathed, being praised for its attractive interior, ’seasonal awareness‘, well presented ‘real food’, for being ‘warm and amiable’, for its Tarte Tatin, and its good service.  Negatives were that there was no view outside, that the explanation of each dish was overdone and he had to stop the staff doing it, and the loin of Karoo lamb did not appeal to him at all, describing it as ‘slightly crude gamey verging on abbattoiry taste’.

*   Poor Pierneef à La Motte came in for Bruce-bashing too, only praising the interior as being ‘in reasonably good taste’ and lamb tripe.  He slated the interior as being over the top, ‘reeks of huge expenditure’, being on a large winery attached to it, owned by the Ruperts (well, actually only one!), described the pappardelle as ‘thick as leather’ and the panga ‘overcooked’, and the Meerlust Rubicon 2006 as being ‘too young‘!  He seemed very surprised that he received second best treatment, as Chef Chris Erasmus had left for his stage at Noma in Copenhagen on the day that Palling ate at the restaurant: ‘The problem here was that the attempt to do classic traditional South African recipes did not have enough innovation in the dishes, so there was a sense of disappointment at the results. They ended up being like copies of the real thing without any gesture towards contemporary cuisine, so for me they were therefore rather dull and unimaginative‘.

*   Makaron restaurant at Majeka House received a hammering, Palling clearly not liking anything about it, other than its anchovy-flavoured mayonnaise and the bread on the bread plate!  He complained about it being difficult to find, there being no signage with the restaurant name in the ‘housing development’, the exterior of the restaurant was ‘relentlessly Post War New World Suburban‘, no seasonal food, the amuse bouche of soft-boiled egg with maple syrup and sweet brittle bacon was ‘disgustingly sweet’, the rabbit was raw in the middle and underseasoned, the sweet corn served with one of the dishes was best fed to ‘livestock’, the kingklip was overcooked, a salad was a ‘mess‘, the Tarte Tatin slice was too large and the vanilla ice cream tasteless.  Overall, he felt that the restaurant suggests fine-dining but that this is a ‘misnomer’. He seemed to not be able to marry what he experienced with what he had heard about Chef Tanja Kruger and her stage last year at L’Aperge.  Clearly Palling does not know that Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly was a consultant to the restaurant when it was set up the year before!

*   Overture passed with flying colours, not one negative being mentioned other than the balsamic vinegar having been added to the olive oil.  It offered the best service of all the 30 restaurants he ate at, with good bread.

*   The Greenhouse*: Palling posted this review today, having written and posted the rest of the blogpost yesterday.  He clearly is annoyed that Chef Peter Tempelhoff wouldn’t help him identify his photographs of the meal five months ago, and one can see it in that he made three typing errors in one sentence, showing that he was in a rush to post the ‘review’, and a-Palling-ly did not proofread it at all:  ’The fur (sic) choices were further broken down into four categories - Lightly Chilled, Somewhat cooked, Medium to rare nd (sic) Somthing (sic) Sweet, which was a pleasant enough artifice’. Palling liked the glossary of South African food terms in the menu, the short wine list and the reasonable wine prices, it ‘reeked of seasonality’, and the good service, dishes presented without too much explanation.  He described Chef Peter as ‘technically a highly competent chef’ - did he know that The Greenhouse was South Africa’s number one Eat Out restaurant in 2011?!  The tasting menu he described as a ‘bit of a bumpy ride’, some dishes being first rate, and others too sweet or not having ‘enough oompfh’ (sic)!   He hated his table (they did know he was coming, as he stayed over at the hotel that night, and therefore they had his real name), so one wonders why they didn’t give him the best table in the house.   He implied that a starter had been copied from Heston Blumenthal, and a course of eggs stuffed with lobster was similar to a dish he had eaten at Noma!  The Greenhouse ‘review’ is poorly proofread, as he implies that the abalone and tuna/snoek dishes were equally ’soggy and tepid’, but it did not come across as he is missing some verbs and adjectives relating to the abalone!  The final insult: the presentation was ‘far too fiddly with too many things going on‘!

The Bruce-bashing of restaurants may have come to an end now, but it has seriously impacted on the souls of some of our country’s best chefs, with Palling stomping all over their creative egos and talent.  We are surprised that New Media Publishing still has not issued a media statement, to tell the industry what it thinks of the unprofessional abuse of its confidential restaurant evaluation information for Palling’s own gain. It appears that the Eat Out publisher has called some Top 20 shortlist chefs, and will be interviewing them one on one, to shape the 2013 Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards. Most restaurants and their chefs are inspired by other restaurants, and it has been commendable that a number of our top chefs have sacrificed their family time to sweat out stages at top international restaurants.  It is no surprise that they will be inspired by a chef such as Noma’s Rene Redzepi, and will create their own interpretation of top dishes, such as Michel Bras’ Gargouillou, the first garden dish created years ago with 50 - 60 ingredients, reports the New York Times.

POSTSCRIPT 7/2: New Media Publishing has promised a media statement for Monday, more than a week after Palling began his Eat Out Top 20 shortlist restaurant bashing!

POSTSCRIPT 7/2: Andy Fenner has spoken out against Palling on Twitter, in response to Twit-idiot Michael Olivier, who tried to convince Fenner of Palling’s value: ‘So Bruce whatshisname comes here and slates our restaurants. Everyone goes crazy. Heston raves about his experience. Hardly anybody notices‘!

POSTSCRIPT 7/2: Palling has added his ‘review’ of The Greenhouse*, and we applaud Chef Peter Tempelhoff for standing up to Palling, in refusing to assist him with information five months after his meal there!  We have added our summary of it into this blogpost.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Poor New Media Publishing.  They are bravely trying to fix the image of what was once their prestigious restaurant awards, given the radical decision two years ago to cut the committee which helped editor Abigail Donnelly judge our top restaurants, and has commendably embarked on a journey to engage with the industry to hear its feedback and suggestions.  Now its judge for the 2012 Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant awards, the UK blogger Bruce Palling, is posting a blow by blow review of each restaurant he was sent to by Mrs Donnelly, for evaluation as a Top 20 restaurant. Not even Mrs Donnelly has sat with the Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant Awards shortlist chefs, to pass on feedback to them.

To save face from the judging debacle of 2011, when Mrs Donnelly chose to fire her judging committee of many years, and appoint herself as the sole judge, New Media Publishing decided that they needed an international judge to give the publication credibility for the 2012 awards.  Whoever at New Media Publishing chose to appoint Bruce Palling should be fired, for his vindictive and unprofessional utterings whilst he was in our country as their guest, and currently, seeming to take great joy in slating almost everything about our restaurant and wine industry after having been in our country for a total of only 15 days!

Picking up that Palling had arrived in the country via his Tweets, and finding out via Google searches that he was nothing of the calibre that Eat Out had made him out to be, we wrote a number of blogposts about Palling’s indiscretions whilst he was on his tasting orgy (200 dishes, 30 restaurants, 60 wines in 15 days, he proudly gushed in BA Highlife!).  He retaliated immediately on Twitter, writing that I am a ‘pig ignorant peasant‘!   A complaint to New Media Publishing CEO Bridget McCarney about their invited judge’s rudeness took forever to be replied to, and was simply dismissed.  One senses in retrospect that he would have ignored it anyway, coming across as a MCP and boorish bully.  In his latest missives, published on his blog since Sunday, he scathingly refers to our blogposts about him, trying to find a link between my writing about Palling, and a supposed issue between my son and Eat Out - this may come from trouble-making supermarket wine promoter Michael Olivier.  Quite the opposite is true - Mrs Donnelly has praised my son’s service regularly, and did so again last week at our meeting about Eat Out 2013.  Palling does however appreciate how much traffic his blog received due to our blogposts!  He writes: “The idea was that I would be booked into these places anonymously and simply pay in cash so as to not reveal my identity, but that was quickly impossible because of the gleeful reproduction of my photograph on the web by some person who had a grudge against Eat Out for family reasons. There was also an element of nationalist chauvinism peeping through here - who is this bloody ignorant unknown foreigner to come and lecture us about our fabulous food? Well, I suppose only having to deal with one Laager Lout is pretty good going. I later had reason to be grateful for this twisted person, as these bizarre rants against me guaranteed far wider media interest than I probably deserved. Everyone else I was in contact during that fortnight, couldn’t have been more polite, helpful and solicitous. It really is irrelevant whether or not a restaurant knows your identity anyway, as you can always tell if you are being singled out for special treatment. Besides, several of the places, which addressed me by my real name on arrival, served unpalatable food” (our underlining)!

The brief was that Palling eat at Mrs Donnelly’s proposed Top 20 shortlist, score each restaurant on her magazine’s evaluation criteria, and not Tweet about his meals, to not identify where he had been.  He likes to ‘eat and Tweet’, so he was left to photograph the copious bottles of wine he was drinking at his meals.  He caused affront with his initial Tweets about our boring and bland springbok (which he ate at The Roundhouse, it now emerges).

In his blogpost Palling has a go at our country’s past history, commenting on the staff profile relative to the guest profile:  “One thing I did find disturbing was the heavy imbalance of European diners over Black guests at all of the places I visited. There were usually more Black staff than Black customers at every place I went to. The only exception to this was DW-Eleven-13 in Johburg” (sic)!

In the meeting I was invited to by New Media Publishing to discuss improving the Eat Out 2013 Awards last week, Mrs Donnelly still was defensively loyal to Palling, saying that their scores for the top three restaurants (The Test Kitchen, The Tasting Room, Jordan Restaurant) were spot on the same.  In Palling’s blogpost he makes Mrs Donnelly out to be an ignoramus when it comes to our local restaurants (we know that she ate at all the restaurants she sent Palling to less than a month before), dismissing many of them outright, and having chosen some others, hinting that it was his influence that they made the Top 20 shortlist.  So, oddly Nobu was on the Top 20 shortlist as he had to eat there, despite not being eligible due to the chef change, and Bizerca Bistrot and Babel were not on the initial shortlist, but did make it.

As we saw in the BA Highlife article released on Friday, Palling dissed most of our Top 20 restaurants - he is still releasing additions to his blogpost every few hours:

*   Bizerca Bistrot:  ‘All in all, this was one of the most enjoyable meals I had as it was simple and straightforward with decent ingredients that weren’t too mucked about. This was the sort of place I would happily go to regularly in any city as a local bistro‘.  The highlights were the ‘jolly relaxed atmosphere’, the salad with pancetta and croutons, and the tarte tatin. Palling slated the (original) location in a ’soulless shopping mall’, the oysters had too many additives and herbs, the ’slab of fish piled too high on the plate, which was distracting‘, the lamb was poorly plated, being ‘lumped in the centre of the plate’, and the tuna tartare was ‘vertically challenged’!

*   Babel was not on Palling’s Eat Out Top 20 list, but he went there anyway, getting it onto the Top 20 list.  He described it as ‘biblically beautiful’, and having the best chips he tasted in our country.  The Zorgvliet 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon was ’stupendously alcoholic’, and the steak had not been hung for long enough, making it tough.

*   Rust en Vrede should not have made the Top 10 restaurant list, given Palling’s criticism of its ordinary cutlery, ‘zero seasonality’, ‘in no way exceptional’ scallops, the tasteless dishes, the long wait of 15 minutes between courses, and the bottle of the Rust en Vrede 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon not coming to its own right, despite being decanted and left to breathe.  He did however like the Riedel glassware, and the reading glass selection they offered his wife.

*    Planet Restaurant at the Mount Nelson: His opening shot was completely negative, and it never improved for the restaurant: ‘Why was I sent here? I thought that the Nobu meal was going to be hard to beat in the inedibility stakes, but the Planet deserves a Gold. The composition of the menu wasn’t the problem as it looks inviting and interesting – it was just the poor execution that ruined the meal.  Things got off to a tedious start as all of the staff greeted me by name with big grins, even though I was not actually staying here at the time of my visit’. He really didn’t like anything about it all, including its usually charming Sommelier/Restaurant Manager Carl Habel, whom Palling described as a ‘bully‘ regarding the wine choice, who was overbearing, and who tried to eavesdrop on Palling’s conversation! Palling himself chose the ‘Steenburger’ (sic) Sauvignon Blanc 2011, he writes.  The springbok was tasteless, the swordfish had been frozen, and ‘the pudding was edible but uneventful’, summarising it as ‘hotel food circa 1970′!  He described the hotel and restaurant as a ‘faded film star’, and compared it to the last night before the sinking of The Titanic, without the panic.

*   The Roundhouse:  Poor Chef Eric Bulpitt and owner Fasie Malherbe!  Chef Eric was the first local chef to do a stage at Noma, just after it became the world’s number one restaurant, and Palling has made him out to be close to a fraud, for copying the Noma dishes without acknowledgement.  Arrogant Malherbe’s Let’s Sell Lobster service training company is deemed by many to be the best in the industry, yet Palling was not impressed with it at all!  He found little to praise except for its setting and the ‘proficient display of cooking skills’, saying that there was ‘no originality’, ‘the service was also incredibly demonstrative’. He was welcomed by name on the menu (a big no!), Chef Eric ‘ripped off’ Noma’s signature dish, most of the dishes were ‘tasteless’, and the organic carrots were ‘overcooked and uneventful‘.

*   Hartford House: Palling was most impressed with this restaurant, which he rated to be comparable  with Royal Mail in Australia and Faviken in Sweden, for its remote location.  He enjoyed all the dishes, especially the quail, except the dessert, which was too sweet.  The trip to get to the hotel was the worst he experienced.

*   Jordan Restaurant:   Despite Chef George Jardine’s swipe at foreign judges evaluating our local restaurants from the stage at the Eat Out Awards in November, Palling raved about the chef and his restaurant.  The only negative was the ’slightly too alcoholic’ Luddite Shiraz 2006 (at 14 %)!   The meal was described as ’superb’, it being the ‘most low key leading restaurant’, a ‘proper meal’ and not a tasting menu, and the ‘flavours were all straightforward and bold’.

*   Tokara Restaurant: Palling praised the many Asian ingredients (being surprised that Chef Richard Carstens is ‘actually South African in origin’ - did they not meet?), and the ‘exceptionally well presented ‘ dishes. He criticised the heavy use of wasabi, the use of between 5 - 9 ingredients in each dish causing an ‘absurd amount of conflicting flavours’, little seasonality in the vegetable and fruit usage, the use of too much sugar, a ‘quite tasteless’ pear puddding, blue mould on the cheddar cheese, the recommendation of a Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir 2010 was ‘infanticide to drink right now‘, and there was ‘little harmony in any of the dishes‘.

Interesting is the Twitidiots who have lauded Palling for trashing our restaurant industry, including unsurprisingly Michael Olivier, Jane-Anne Hobbs. and Skye Grove! One wonders how Grove can keep her job at Cape Town Tourism, when she supports the annihilation by Palling of a number of top Cape Town restaurants, nclusing Bizerca Bistrot, which her CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold likes to spend her generous entertainment allowance at!

Eat Out and its publisher New Media Publishing owe the restaurant industry an explanation and an apology for Palling’s behaviour, and for publishing his opinions and experiences about our country’s top restaurants. Surely any judge should sign a confidentiality agreement?!  It is clear that Palling is getting back at New Media Publishing for not flying him back to Cape Town for the Eat Out Awards gala dinner, the relationship between the two parties having broken down after his visit in September.  When I called Eat Out GM-to-be Aileen Lamb yesterday afternoon, it seemed as if she was barely aware of the damage that Palling was causing to their brand, and the company had not even thought of preparing a statement to apologise to the industry for the public humiliation our top restaurants, and talented chefs and sommeliers are suffering at the hands of Palling!  We have requested a statement from New Media Publishing, which has been promised for this morning.

Every restaurant that didn’t make the 2012 Eat Out Top 20 restaurant shortlist must be thanking its lucky stars to have been spared the a-Palling humiliation!

POSTSCRIPT 5/2: We received the following disappointing ’statement’ from Eat Out GM-to-be Aileen Lamb:  “Thank you for your request for comment of yesterday. As discussed in our meeting with you on Wednesday 30 January 2013, we recognize that certain of the decisions we have made in order to grow and develop the Eat Out brand have not been as well received as we would have hoped. To this end we are committed to our extensive research where we will be interviewing chefs, restaurant owners, bloggers, consumers and certain media to gain a 360 degree view of our brand in the market. This research coupled with our expertise will form the basis of the 2013 Eat Out strategy. Our core objective is to be completely transparent in our judging process and to ensure we are answering the needs of the consumers who engage with our content.  We now want to move forward from last year and make positive steps towards the future and I trust you will continue to work with us to the benefit of the Eat Out brand”.

POSTSCRIPT 5/2: Palling is on the Twit-attack, referring to me as a ‘laager lout’, and asking if poor Mrs Donnelly ‘deserves better than to be trashed’ by ourselves.  if anyone is doing the trashing, it’s Palling! Michael Olivier has promptly Tweeted about it on his abuse account, as if he is Palling’s new friend, just because he did an interview with Palling last year!

POSTSCRIPT 6/2:   We note that Palling has made some copy changes to his blogpost of 3 February, adding extra insults at our comment that the BA Highlife article did not include The Test Kitchen other than showing a photograph of one of its dishes!  He seems to also have selectively deleted certain paragraphs and sentences, probably to remove errors!

POSTSCRIPT 7/2: We have written a (hopefully final) blogpost about further Eat Out Top 20 restaurants evaluated by Palling on his blog yesterday (Pierneef à La Motte, Overture, Makaron, The Test Kitchen, The Tasting Room, and Terroir), and highlighted Palling’s poor attention to detail in his writing!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Given that the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards were presented two months ago, and that its controversial international judge Bruce Palling tasted his way around the country five months ago, it was a surprise to see the article he has written about South African cuisine for British Airways Highlife, published yesterday, now claiming to be an expert about our country’s cuisine, wines, and even its accommodation!

The magazine article, which was sent as a scan from London, differs somewhat from the internet version of it, and has some text, but the most interesting part is the restaurants which Palling praised, and those that he slated. The article bills him as an expert on South African cuisine, given that he ate 200 dishes and drank 60 wines at 30 restaurants in Cape Town, the Winelands, Johannesburg, and KwaZulu-Natal in a period of 15 days, to score Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly’s Top 20 restaurant shortlist.

What Palling neglected to write in the article was that some of the restaurants he went to were for his private dining, and were not evaluated for Eat Out (e.g. Biesmiellah and Belthazar).  What is even odder is that he ate at Nobu, which was not in the running for the Top 20 Restaurant shortlist, due to its chef change last year, which means that Palling must have eaten there privately too.  Palling picked out three restaurants that impressed him in particular:

*   Hartford House, praising it for being ‘in a mansion at South Africa’s most famous stud farm’ (Chef Jackie Cameron)

*   The Tasting Room, for its menu by Margot Janse featuring the ‘very best local ingredients’, and ‘dishes presented in a playful manner’. He asks: ‘The most stylish restaurant in Africa?’

*   Jordan Restaurant, for its ’straightforward authentic cuisine with the best cheese selection in the country’ (Chef George Jardine).

Odd by its omission is Luke Dale-Roberts’ The Test Kitchen, selected by Eat Out as the best restaurant in South Africa in 2012, but he did use a photograph of one his dishes for the article.

At the bottom of his list, which could ‘do better’, is three restaurants Mrs Donnelly would have sent him to, and of which two made the Top 20 Restaurant shortlist, plus his own two private dinner choices, which he must have thrown into the mix for good measure of ‘balance’!:

*   Nobu at the One&Only Cape Town, describing it as ‘unadventurous, ordinary sushi’ !

*   Particularly scathing was his description of Planet Restaurant at the Mount Nelson: ‘Tasteless, inept combinations - oysters with sweetbreads’!

*   The Roundhouse, with Chef Eric Bulpitt, who had done a stage at Noma whilst at Jardine’s a few years ago, which he slated for its ‘copycat menu, partially inspired by Copenhagen’s Noma’!

*   Of Indochine at Delaire Graff he wrote: ‘One of the most beautiful settings on the planet, but with kitsch decor and a ‘confusion’ menu of a kaleidoscope of Asian dishes‘.  The interior design was done by top London designer David Collins, who also designed the main Delaire Graff restaurant.

*   Worst of all was his attack against Belthazar, the steak restaurant at which he had his last private meal before flying back to London in September, not being on Mrs Donnelly’s Top 20 shortlist.  Slating his third steak of the evening in a Tweet on that evening for it being cold inside, his feedback has changed in the article: ‘A steakhouse that serves expensive, under-aged steak’!

To extend his short article, Palling added lists.  The first must have been fuelled by good South African wine, as its heading was confusing and contradictory, written twice: first as ‘Five of the best South African Chefs’, then ‘5 Master Chefs in the making‘, and included in this list Adriaan Maree from Roots, Minette Smith from The Saxon, Nicholas Wilkinson of The Pot Luck Club, Annemarie Steenkamp of Burrata (at which Palling did not eat), and PJ Vadas of Camphors at Vergelegen (at which he did not eat, as it only opened two months ago. Chef PJ is far beyond being a chef ‘in the making’, having been a Top 10 Chef whilst at The Roundhouse)!

Best restaurants for Chinese is Red Dragon, best for Thai is Wangthai in Johannesburg, best Steakhouse the Cattle Baron in Constantia, best Indian Chandani, and best Italian Burrata (once again, he did not eat at Burrata!), according to Palling.  The best hotels (at which he stayed for his restaurant evaluations, he failed to mention) were the One&Only Cape Town, Taj, The Mount Nelson, Cape Grace, and The Westcliff.  Finally, our five most typical South African ingredients, says Palling, are biltong (ingredient to what?), mebos, moskonfyt, bokkoms, and the funniest of all being his name for waterblommetjiebredie, being ‘water hyacinth braise’!

His take on our local cuisine was generally positive, other than giving The Roundhouse another smack: ‘The common cliché about South African cuisine is that the most renowned dish is charred springbok from an outdoor barbecue with a view over either a spectacular Cape vineyard or a vista of the Southern Ocean. But I had heard enough about the local ingredients to appreciate that there was a lot more on offer.  The good news is that South African chefs are completely up to speed with all of the current trends abroad, ranging from molecular cuisine to the school of New Nordic as typified by René Redzepi of Copenhagen’s Noma. One restaurant had shamelessly replicated a number of Noma’s dishes as if they were their own. There were plenty of other places that showed off the brilliant local ingredients and even experimented with game such as springbok or even ostrich tartare to good effect. One word of caution for chefs: stop trying to do too much and simplify. It was common to have up to a dozen ingredients on a single plate. And those endless descriptions of dishes, both before and during the meal, must be jettisoned in the interests of diners’ sanity.  I think that a more accurate cliché for South African dining would be an immense terrace on the side of a mountain, with biblical views over the plains. I suspect that owning a gorgeous vineyard with a restaurant is the South African equivalent of an oligarch owning a superyacht. Both must cost tens of millions to construct — and rarely, if ever, pay their way. Restaurants, however, can offer extraordinary meals at relatively bargain prices for anyone paying in a northern hemisphere currency’.

He criticised our high alcohol content wines, and long tasting menus: ‘The local wines, too, are on an upward path, though more steps will be needed to produce fewer alcoholic behemoths and more with finesse and balance. All in all, it is a vibrant scene that just needs to lose its current obsession with lengthy tasting menus and wine pairing by the glass for every dish. Just let the produce do the speaking and all those clichés will soon be history’.

Palling won’t be seen in South Africa again to judge our local restaurants, and it is bad mannered of him to not have acknowledged that he was a guest of Eat Out whilst feasting in our country!   If he was paid to evaluate the restaurants on behalf of Eat Out, surely it was the prerogative of Mrs Donnelly to provide feedback to the Top 20 Restaurant shortlist restaurants privately, and not in an open internet and media forum!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Franschhoek is upping its gourmet game, with two local chefs having spent some weeks at Noma in Copenhagen, the number one restaurant on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and bearing a 2-Michelin star rating since 2008, in the past three months. Both Chef Shaun Schoeman from Fyndraai Restaurant at Solms-Delta and Chef Chris Erasmus from Pierneef à La Motte returned inspired and have fine-tuned their menus and cooking to incorporate Nordic cuisine into their local gourmet offering.

The restaurant’s philosophy is on the homepage of its website:

“In an effort to shape our way of cooking, we look to our landscape and delve into our ingredients and culture,
hoping to rediscover our history and shape our future.”

Chef Chris Erasmus, Pierneef à La Motte

Yesterday I met with Chef Chris Erasmus, a week after his return from Noma, at which he had spent close to a month.  I asked him why he had taken the time to leave his post as Executive Chef, and start from scratch at Noma. Chef Chris said he wanted to study how Chef René Redzepi had taken a restaurant which had been laughed at initially for focusing on Nordic cooking, initially not very exciting and then synonymous with ‘whale blubber and fish eyes’ (like Bobotie would be for South African cuisine, he said), and taking it to the number one restaurant in the world, and having kept it there for three years running.  What Chef Chris does at Pierneef à La Motte, in foraging from nature, and in cooking what one has, is reflected at Noma too. Chef Chris has Daniel Kruger growing a range of unusual herbs, vegetables, and edible flowers for him at La Motte,  with only one of 13 items in the salad farm grown, and the balance foraged,  while Noma is supplied by specialist producers.

Chef Chris was impressed by the systems of the restaurants, each person working for the restaurant knowing what is going on.  A meeting is called by the Restaurant Manager prior to service, in which they discuss any specific dietary requirements of guests, so that the chefs are prepared for this upfront, and not told about them when the guests arrive.  The Restaurant Manager, from Australia, is in the running for a Restaurant Manager of the Year Award in Denmark. Chris said that his knowledge is amazing, having spent so much time with the chefs to get to know the dishes that he can cook them himself. There are 45 kitchen chefs, with another 25 volunteers unpaid and just there to learn more from this leading restaurant.  Only two of the chefs are Danish, the others coming from the USA, Australia, Germany, and Mexico in the main.  The rules are strict, and one is expected to follow them 100%.  A mistake made a second time will lead one to be told to leave. Staff are treated politely, even though Chef René can lose his cool on occasion. No dishes are allowed to be photographed or distributed via Social Media by staff or volunteers.

There are three kitchen sections that the volunteers go through, starting with the Preparation Kitchen, foraging produce, and getting them ready. Chef Chris spent less than a week here.  The second level was the Hot Kitchen, dealing with the restaurant service, and here Chef Chris gave more than expected, already coming to work at 5h00 in the morning (instead of 9h00), and usually getting home to the hostel he was staying at at 2h00 instead of the usual 23h00.  This allowed him to work with the other chefs and learn from them, and to show them how eager he was to learn, so that he could move through the three kitchens.  The third kitchen is the experimental Test Kitchen, which has two scientists and a chef, creating new dishes. Lactic acid fermentation is the foundation of many of the new dishes, a natural process bringing out the Umami in food, eradicating the need to add salt or sugar to food.  There is no salt on the restaurant tables, nor is it added to food.  The maximum sugar content of any dish is 12%. They make their own Miso paste too, taking a few months, ant purée, fermented crickets, and more. Chef Chris shared that he tasted bee larva, having a very rich creamy wax taste.

Chef René greets each guest as they arrive at his restaurant. He works seven days a week, even though the restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Chef Chris came to work on Mondays, again to learn as much as possible.  Noma has an excellent Head Chef and Sous Chefs, on whom Chef René can rely while he is busy with the guests, and spends time in the Test Kitchen. The chefs serve the guests.  Waiters cannot work at Noma if they have not studied to be a waiter for three years at a local college.  The role of the waiters is to explain the dishes to the guests. Guests are served 16 ’snacks’ as a start to the Tasting Menu in rapid succession over 12 minutes, literally a mouthful each. This is followed by four courses, the size of our starters, being a vegetable dish, a meat dish, a fish dish, and a dessert, at a cost of about R2250. The restaurant is flexible in what they serve, to allow for dietary requirements. The Test Kitchen’s role is to add new dishes to the menu, and Chef Chris saw five new dishes being developed in the time that he was there. One of the dishes developed while Chef Chris was in the Test Kitchen was ‘Lacto Plum and Forever Beets’, served with lemon verbena and fennel soup, the beetroot being roasted for three hours, and its leathery skin then peeled off, the inside tasting like liquorice.

To learn from each other, especially the visiting chefs, they have Saturday night ‘Projects’ after service, in the early Sunday morning hours, presenting their own dishes, which are evaluated by the fellow chefs and the scientists.  Chef Chris missed the opportunity to present a dish.

Chef Chris has been inspired by his experience at Noma, and changes are already being made to his current menu.  He has added Lacto-fermented Porcini broth to his menu, inspired by Noma, made by adding salt to the mushrooms and vacuum-packing them, until they ferment at ambient room temperature. This creates enzymes which break down the bad bacteria, bringing out the natural savoury flavour.  The summer menu will be much lighter, with far more foraged herbs and flowers, and some unique vegetables grown for him by Daniel.  Artichokes, peas, and broadbeans are at their best right now, and Chef Chris showed me the some of his vegetables and herbs, which had been picked for him at 10h00 yesterday morning.  They are only using Raspberry Vinegar now, instead of vinaigrettes.  He will focus on only using vegetables and herbs from the La Motte garden.

Chef Chris has invited Chef René to visit (he was in Cape Town for what seemed literally a flying visit in February when he addressed the ‘Design Indaba’).  He was inspired by his experience, and it is visible in his big smile, and new passion for his craft. While others may not have had such a good time, he said that ‘you get out what you put in’. He lost 15 kg in the time, just working and sleeping for a short while.  He can’t wait to go back in a winter time, to see how they use all the preserved foods they prepare in the summer months, such as pickled rosebuds, and fermented plums. Having had to start at the bottom at Noma, he has a better understanding of his staff, yet expects ‘150%’ of them, Chef Chris said.  One of his American co-volunteers at Noma started at The Test Kitchen in Cape Town this week.

Chef Chris’ Noma experience, coupled with the fantastic vegetable and herb garden on the farm, are sure to earn Pierneef à La Motte an Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Award in November!

Chef Shaun Schoeman, Fyndraai, Solms-Delta

In June, Chef Shaun Schoeman of Solms-Delta’s Fyndraai Restaurant spent two weeks working in one of the kitchens at Noma.  Chef Shaun’s feedback was that the simplicity of Noma’s menu, which lists items like ‘pike perch and cabbage’, ‘cooked fava beans and beach herbs’ and ‘the hen and the egg,’ belies its sophisticated appeal, as evidenced by the backlog of keen diners waiting for bookings. Noma is known for its contemporary reinterpretation of Nordic cuisine. This includes a return to the traditional methods of pickling, curing, smoking, and fermenting as well as the integration of many indigenous herbs and plants. Redzepi himself has worked with the world’s best, having spent time at both El Bulli in Spain (when it was the world’s number one restaurant), and the French Laundry in California’s Napa Valley.

“There are many similarities between the kinds of indigenous elements we use here at Fyndraai and what chef Redzepi has become known for in his cuisine,” said Shaun, who felt that he could only benefit from doing a stint at the world-famous Noma. After his acceptance as a stagier, he packed his bags and flew to Copenhagen, where he joined a production kitchen staffed by over 50 chefs from around the world, all there to learn the philosophy and techniques of this influential chef. “Everyone who works at Noma, no matter what their experience, starts in the production kitchen,” explained Shaun, where the standards for preparation and hygiene are exacting and the hours extremely long, with shifts of up to 14 hours. Only after three months will Chef Redzepi consider moving a stagier into the main service kitchen.  Every morning, a group of the production kitchen chefs go out to the nearby seaside to forage for fresh wild herbs and leaves, like nettles, wild rocket, sea coral, and wild garlic. Upon their return, they set to work on their pickings, cutting leaves into uniform sizes, all done on a tray kept over ice. “Temperature is extremely important as the herbs must be kept cold, but never below the temperature of the fridge.”

For a Franschhoek-born and bred native, it was an amazing experience for Shaun. He was overwhelmed by the incredible fresh fish and seafood that came through the production kitchen daily, including live crabs and luscious sea scallops still in their shells. All vegetables were organic and specially grown for the restaurant. A great example of Noma’s high standards was the daily sorting of fresh green peas into varying sizes!  But aside from the differences in product and handling, when it came to the indigenous plants themselves, Shaun found that they were not dramatically different from the plants he relies on at Fyndraai, which are grown in the estate’s Dik Delta Garden. “We have many versions of the same plants, the major difference being that the Scandinavian herbs have more subtlety. South African indigenous herbs are sharper, which means that you really need the knowledge and training to harness their flavour without overpowering dishes.” Shaun returned from Copenhagen infused with energy and appreciation for the wide variety of herbs he has at his discretion, which collectively he refers to as “my baby.” He uses only indigenous herbs grown on site, so management of ingredients is crucial. That said, he feels he has a great deal of flexibility – one of the perks of a kitchen garden – and is always able to find a pleasing substitute if one herb is temporarily depleted.  The ingredient he’s most crazy about is citrus buchu, which he says is the most fantastic herb he’s ever worked with. “It’s got a sexy, citrus flavour that really lifts everything it touches. It works equally well with savoury dishes or desserts, and can be used in anything from infusions to a flavouring in bread rolls.”

He’s also extremely partial to spekboom, a small-leaved succulent also known as ‘elephant bush’, which is very versatile. At Fyndraai, it receives various treatments, from a quick stir-fry to lightly-dressed salad greens, and from pickling to its use as an ingredient in a cold cucumber soup. In its pickled form, it’s one in a range of signature Dik Delta products Shaun has recently started producing and selling on the farm. Some of the others are lemon and wild rosemary chutney, lemon and gemoedsrus (fortified Shiraz) marmalade, and wild herb rubs. Customers love taking these products, which they cannot find elsewhere, home to their own kitchens to experiment with.  “The indigenous herbs play sometimes starring, and more often supporting roles in the food we create at Fyndraai, depending on the nature and flavour of the plants themselves,” Shaun said.  The key is quantity, and knowing how much to add to a dish, and when to add it. Sometimes they are added directly to dishes, at other times infused into sauces, used to create syrups which provide complementary flavours to a dish and even as flavourings in ice cream!  The plants are propagated at Dik Delta, the large ‘kitchen garden’ on the wine estate. The two-hectare veld garden is overseen by a team of trained Solms-Delta residents. It yields crops of dynamic herbs, many of which were on the verge of extinction before the birth of this valuable culinary-bio project.

Today, the garden is the restaurant’s source for everything from wild asparagus to spekboom to makatan, an indigenous melon which Shaun cooks into one of the Dik Delta preserves. The garden is in full spring flower, with sunny yellow patches of honeybush, which flowers will be picked and dried for honeybush tea, and the dark mauve flowers of the Bobbejaantjies (little baboons) or Babiana. While this striking flower is most often used as an ornamental plant, it has a highly nutritious bulb or corm that can be eaten raw or cooked; it tastes a little like a potato and can be used as a vegetable in stews or in salads. Since Fyndraai opened four years ago, cooking with these plants has been an ongoing learning process for Shaun as well as his staff, all of whom were initially kitchen novices. This had many advantages, because they had no preconceived notions or bad habits to break. He is extremely proud of his kitchen crew, who handle the complex menu and its preparations with confidence and expertise.

Pierneef à La Motte, La Motte, R45, Franschhoek.  Tel (021) 876-8000.  www.la-motte.com Twitter: @Pierneeflamotte

Fyndraai, Solms-Delta, Delta Road, off R45, Franschhoek. Tel (021) 874-3937.  www.solms-delta.co.za Twitter: @Solms_Delta

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Our list of latest restaurant openings and closures fortunately lists more openings than closures, and is updated continuously, as we receive information.

Restaurant Openings

*   Tamboers Winkel has opened on De Lorentz Street, just off Kloof Street, Gardens (photograph)

*   Luke Dale-Roberts, Eat Out Top Chef, is to open a real test kitchen, called The Kitchen of Dreams, a private experimental place to develop new recipes, at the Old Biscuit Mill

*  Chef Luke Dale-Roberts is opening a pop-up Pot Luck Club in Swiss ski resort Verbier, at the Hotel Farinet, from 8 December - April, to be run by Chef Luke, his chef Nicolas Wilkinson, and front of house Selena Afnan-Holmes.

*   Col’Cacchio has opened a new outlets in Westlake, and a new one is coming in Claremont too.

*   A new Vida é Caffe has opened on Prestwich Street, and a new branch is to open on Maindean Place in Claremont, and one in the new Wembley Square 2 development.  Two more branches are planned for Mauritius, it is said.

*   Richard’s Supper Stage & Bistro has opened its dinner theatre, performing ‘Kaapse Stories’, on Main/Glengariff Roads in Sea Point, owned by Richard Loring and Roland Seidel

*    Honest Chocolate is opening a second outlet with a ‘production kitchen’ in the Woodstock Industrial Centre

*   Moyo is to open where the Paulaner Braühaus was in the V & A Waterfront in summer.  It has taken over the tearoom at Kirstenbosch already.

*   Josephine’s Cookhouse has opened in Newlands, belonging to the Societi Bistro owners

*    Keenwa has opened the P.I.S.C.O Bar above its restaurants, open Thursdays - Saturdays from 5 pm

*   TRUTH Coffee has opened on Buitenkant Street

*    Liam Tomlin Food Studio and Store at Leopard’s Leap in Franschhoek is opening a Deli, the date to be confirmed

*   FEAST is to open where Franschhoek Food Emporium was, in Place Vendome

*   Deluxe Coffeeworks has opened where Reuben’s Deli used to be in Franschhoek.

*   Okamai Japanese restaurant has opened at Glenwood wine estate in Franschhoek

*   Cavalli restaurant is said to open on the stud farm on R44, between Stellenbosch and Somerset West, this year or next

*   The Slug & Lettuce has opened where Beads was on Church Street in Stellenbosch

*   Stables at Vergelegen Bistro has opened as a lunch restaurant in Somerset West.  Its Lady Phillips Restaurant is being given a make-over by Christo Barnard, and will open in November with a new name called The Vergelegen Restaurant. The new chef will be PJ Vadas, previously of The Roundhouse in Camps Bay.

*   Coopmanshuijs in Stellenbosch is opening a restaurant.

*   Chef Johan van Schalkwyk has left the Stone Kitchen at Dunstone Winery, and has opened his own restaurant Twist Some More in Wellington.

*    Chef Bjorn Dingemans is to open up The Millhouse Kitchen restaurant on Lourensford wine estate in Somerset West.

*   Grilleri (ex-Mediterrea) has closed down, and Chef Shane Sauvage (ex-La Vierge) is now heading the re-named La Pentola restaurant.

*   Ali Baba Kebab (renamed from Laila) has opened as a small beef and lamb kebab take-away and sit-down outlet, next door to Codfather in Camps Bay

*   Gibson’s Gourmet Burger and Smoked Ribs has opened as a 70-seater restaurant in the V&A Waterfront, taking part of the Belthazar space. Owned by the Belthazar/Balducci group.

*   Giorgio Nava is said to be re-opening his Down South Food Bar, previously on Long Street, in the Riverside Centre in Rondebosch

*   Ou Meul Bakery from Riviersonderend is said to be opening a bakery in Long Street

*   Deluxe Coffeeworks has opened a roastery at 6 Roodehek Street to service all its outlets

* The Deli on the Square has opened at Frater Square in Paarl.

*   David Higgs (ex Rust en Vrede) is opening a new 30 seater restaurant in The Saxon in Johannesburg.

*   Big Route Top Gourmet Pizzeria has opened on Main Road, Green Point, next door to Woolworths, serving 52 different pizzas, salads and crêpes.

*   Cousins has opened in the Parliament Hotel, where Il Cappero used to be.

* Aces ‘n’ Spades Bar has opened on Hout Street

*   6 has opened at Schalk Burger & Sons wine estate in Wellington, run by the ex-owners of Oude Wellington

*   Café Dulce is to open a new branch in Tygervalley Centre

*   Gourmetboerie is to open at the bottom end of Kloof Street, where Depasco used to be, in October.

*   Kushi Indian Restaurant has opened a branch on Main Road in Sea Point

*   Abantu Restaurant and Bar has opened on the corner of Wale and Buitengracht Street, where Time & Place used to be

*   Make Sushi Bar has opened in Sea Point

*   Thai Café is opening on Plein Street, Stellenbosch

*   Simply Asia has opened in Paarl

*   Restaurant @ Zomerlust has opened in Paarl

* Christina’s has opened at Van Loveren in Robertson

*   Bellini’s is said to open on Greenmarket Square in October

Restaurant Closures

*   Sapphire has closed down in Camps Bay

*   High Level Restaurant in Bo-Kaap has closed down

*   Caveau on Bree Street and Gourmet Burger on Shortmarket Street, belonging to the same owners, have been closed down.

*   Sabarosa in Bakoven has closed down.

*   Mob Inc Tattoo Bistro has closed down in Sea Point

* Sunbird Bistro in Camps Bay has closed down

*   Limoncello in Gardens has closed down, but is continuing with its pop-up restaurant truck

*   Paparazzi has closed down on St George’s Mall

*   Wicked Treats in Franschhoek has closed down.

*   Casa Nostra has closed down in Sea Point, until it finds a new venue.

*   Bistro on Rose in Bo-Kaap has closed down as a restaurant, continues as an entertainment venue.

*   The Kove in Camps Bay has closed down, its space to be incorporated into sister restaurant Zenzero

Restaurant staff/venue changes

*    Il Cappero has moved from Barrack Street to Fairway Street in Camps Bay.

*  Table Thirteen has reduced in size in Green Point and will open in Paarden Eiland later this year.

*   The V&A Waterfront Food Court is closed for renovations until November.  A sign outside the construction area lists the following businesses moving into or returning to the area: Primi Express, Anat, Carnival, Nür Halaal, Royal Bavarian Bakery, KFC, Boost Juice, Simply Asia, Steers, Debonairs, Subway, Marcel’s, and Haagan Dazs.  Nando’s is also opening.

*   Chef Darren Badenhorst is the new Executive Chef at Grande Provence.

*   Chef Shaun Schoeman of Fyndraai Restaurant at Solms Delta has the amazing honour to be working at Noma in Copenhagen for two weeks.  Fyndraai will move to another building on the wine estate in November, and will offer fine dining.  The current restaurant will serve light lunches and picnics.

*    Reuben’s, which was said to be moving its Franschhoek branch, appears to be staying at its existing venue.

*   Emile Fortuin has been appointed as Executive Chef at Reuben’s Robertson

*   Josephine Gutentoft has left Grande Roche, and has moved to Makaron at Majeka House as Restaurant Manager and Sommelier.

*   The Reserve has changed its name to Reserve Brasserie. Seelan Sundoo, ex Grand Café Camps Bay and ex La Perla, is the new consultant chef and GM.

*   Café Dijon has closed its restaurant on Plein Street in Stellenbosch, and has opened in the Rockwell Centre in Green Point, Cape Town, opposite Anatoli’s, in which Camil Haas once had his Bouillabaisse restaurant.

*   Chef Andrew Mendes from ex-Valora is now at Nelson’s Eye restaurant, where they are setting up a lunch section and cocktail bar upstairs.

*   Miss K Food has closed down in Green Point. The new owner Maurizio Porro, with his chef Ernesto, has kept the staff and furniture, and most of the menu initially. They are now called Guilia’s Food Café Restaurant, and they are open for Italian-style lunch and dinner as well, but have retained some Miss K breakfast and pastry items.

*   Rob and Nicky Hahn have left Proviant in Paarl, and now run eat @ Simonsvlei on the Old Paarl Road

*   Karl Lambour is the new General Manager of Grande Provence.

*   Virgil Kahn is the new head chef at Indochine at Delaire Graff Estate

*   Having bought the farm about 18 months ago, Antonij Rupert Wines has taken over the Graham Beck Franschhoek property. They will re-open the tasting room in October, initially offering all its Antonij Rupert, Cape of Good Hope, Terra del Capo, and Protea wines to taste.  They are renovating the manor house, to which the Antonij Rupert and Cape of Good Hope wines will be moved for tasting at a later stage.

*   Orphanage is expanding into a property at its back, opening on Orphan Street, in December, creating a similar second bar downstairs, and opening Orphanage Club upstairs, with 1920’s style music by live performers

*   GOLD Restaurant has moved into the Trinity building

*   Opal Lounge has closed down on Kloof Street, and has moved into Blake’s Bar building, renaming it Dinner at Blake’s. A wine and tapas bar has also been opened, called Bar Rouge.

*   Mano A Mano has opened on Park Street, where Green’s used to be.

*   MondeVino Restaurant at Montecasino in Johannesburg, the MasterChef SA prize for the next two years, is to be renamed Aarya, and is to be run by Chef Deena Naidoo from November onwards.

*   Chef Ulli Stamm has left Richard’s Supper Stage & Bistro.

*   Bizerca is moving into the ex-Gourmet Burger space in Heritage Square on Shortmarket Street.

*    Co-owner Abbi Wallis has taken over the running of The Stone Kitchen at Dunstone Winery in Wellington.

*   Roodehek Restaurant has changed its name back to The German Club, after the departure of the previous owner.

*   Marcelino has left Marcelino’s Bakery, leaving the control with Mr Zerban.  A Zerban’s style restaurant is being added onto the bakery, and is said to open in September.

*   Chef Chris Erasmus from Pierneef à La Motte is doing a stage with Chef Rene Redzepi at Noma, the number one World’s 50 Best Restaurants in the World, in Copenhagen in September

*   MasterChef SA runner-up Sue-Ann Allen is joining South Africa’s number one Eat Out Top 10 restaurant The Greenhouse as an intern for a month, from 21 August.

*   Vintage India has moved out of the Garden’s Centre to the corner of Hiddingh and Mill Street, around the corner.

*   Nook Eatery in Stellenbosch has been sold, with new owners taking over in September

*   Crêpe et Cidre has closed down in Franschhoek.  Gideon’s The Famous Pancake House is taking over the main road space in September.

*   Liam Tomlin Food is to relocate from Leopard’s Leap in Franschhoek to Cape Town in November.

*   Brampton winetasting bar on Church Street, Stellenbosch, is undergoing renovations to treble its current size, planning to reopen in the first week of September. Also said to be opening a winetasting venue at the entrance to Franschhoek.

*   Juno Café in Paarl no longer belongs to Fairview

*   Noop restaurant in Paarl has new owners

Restaurant breaks

*   Constantia Uitsig is taking a winter break from 25 June - 24 July.

*   The River Café is closing for a winter break from 13 August - 4 September.

*   Nguni in Plettenberg Bay closes from 1 May - 31 July

*   The Kove in Camps Bay will be closed from 1 May - 30 August

*   Olivello at Marianne Estate will be closed from 30 July - 21 August

*   Grande Provence is closing on Sunday evenings until the end of September.

*   Pure Restaurant at Hout Bay Manor will be closed from 23 June - 3 August

*   Pane e Vino is closed from 1 - 31 July

*   Bistro 1682 at Steenberg is closed from 1 - 26 July.

*   The Kitchen at Maison is closed until 3 August

*   Massimo’s Pizza Club is closing from 23 - 31 July

*   Rust en Vrede is closed from 8 July - 6 August

*   Reuben’s Franschhoek is closed from 16 July - 1 August

*   Dear Me Foodworld is closed until 3 August

*   Warwick wine estate’s restaurant is closed from 6 - 20 August

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage

Chef Rene Redzepi’s noma restaurant won the World’s 50 Best Restaurants for the third time last night, the tenth year that the Awards ceremony has been held.  The event was sponsored by San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, was held at The Guildhall in London, and was attended by 600 of the world’s top chefs and restaurant judges. A shock was that, for the first time in many years, no South African restaurant made it onto the Top 50 list.

The Top 20 World’s 50 Best Restaurants are the following (with last year’s ranking in brackets), from The Telegraph :

1 (1) Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark

The Award-winning restaurants were evaluated by 27 panels around the world, each with 30 members.  In South Africa the panel is chaired by Tamsin Snyman, stepping into the shoes of her late mother Lannice Snyman.  Members of the local panel are known to include Jos Baker, MasterChef SA Judge and Chef Pete Goffe-Wood, and owner of GOLD restaurant Cindy Muller.  Panel members had to evaluate four restaurants in their own country and three elsewhere in the world in the past eighteen months.

William Drew, editor of Restaurant magazine, organisers of the awards, said that the trend was to ‘much more diversity, both geographically and in terms of style.  We’ve seen twin trends. There’s globalization, in the sense that if someone in Japan is doing something interesting now, someone in South America may know about it quickly. Yet at the same time there’s a move toward local cooking’.

Attending the event was Ferran Adria of El Bulli, which he closed down last year.  The restaurant was named the World’s 50 Best Restaurant five times in the past ten years.  He said of the award: “There is no doubt the World’s 50 Best Restaurants has changed the history of gastronomy“.

In addition to announcing the World’s 50 Best Restaurants (and the 51 - 100 restaurants bubbling under), three additional awards were made last night. Elena Arzak from Arzak restaurant in San Sebastian in Spain was named as Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef. Thomas Keller, founder of Per Se and French Laundry in Yountville in California, won the San Pellegrino Lifetime Achievement Award.  The Slow Food UK Award went to Steiereck in Vienna, awarded for the first time last night.

What has been interesting over the past years has been the disparity between the performance of South Africa’s best restaurants on the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurants and on the World’s 50 Best Restaurant lists, Le Quartier Français always performing better on the international than on the local restaurant awards list.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage

Two-star Michelin noma restaurant in Copenhagen has been named the top in the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards for two years running. Its founder and chef René Redzepi paid a literal flying visit to Cape Town last week, addressing the Design Indaba conference. It appears that he spent little time in Cape Town and did not connect with local chefs. Delegates that were lucky enough to hear his address were impressed with his passion for food design. ‘Design and food go hand in hand’, he said.

Chef René believes that the food should be served by the chefs who created it, making this the focus of noma, and the interior design is of lesser importance, being simple, reflecting the ‘essential simplicity’ and ‘purity’ of the ‘Nordic gourmet cuisine’ which they serve. His 20-course Tasting Menu costs R2000 a head, and one can expect to eat celeriac and unripe sloe berry, white currant and douglas-fir; dried scallops and beech nuts, biodynamic grains and watercress; pickled vegetables and bone marrow; wild duck and beets, beech and malt; and pike perch and cabbages with gooseberry juice.

Chefs are not as important as the farmers who supply the ‘freshly foraged ingredients’, allowing the kitchen team to create original dishes, he said. His stage prop for the talk was a dead duck, and he asked what ‘was the last image flying through its head’. A chef’s challenge is to create food for now, ‘projecting time on a plate‘. His challenge is to create new flavours, a team effort incorporating the food growers, those that cook the food, and those that present it on the plate.

Last year Chef René organised a MAD Food Camp, and the only South African to attend was Cape Town blogger and urban farmer Matt Allison.  He shared his experience with the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club. Through the Food Camp, noma demonstrated its international leadership in food usage in restaurants, and highlighted to the chefs attending that the more one understands about the history of food and its culture, as well as of the latest food science, the better one will cook.  These views were not only shared with the 250 food lovers selected by Chef René to attend the Food Camp, but with his 25000 Twitter followers too.  Chef René is an active Tweeter, sharing many photographs of his beautifully presented dishes.  He did not Tweet about Cape Town or its restaurants and chefs, only writing about his presentation: “I spoke to a crowd of 3000+ people for the first time today. Thank you South Africans for taking my virginity gently”.

The noma website confirms that this restaurant has left behind foie gras, olive oil, black olives, and sundried tomatoes, focusing instead on the ‘revival of Nordic cuisine’, representing fine produce and the food heritage of the Scandinavian countries, with seasonal and regional foods. So, for example, they have sourced skyr curd and halibut from Iceland; as well as musk ox, berries and water from Greenland.  Not only expensive ingredients are sourced, but also ‘disregarded, modest ingredients such as grains and pulses’, served in unusual form.  Chef René and his team use the base of their culinary heritage to create something brand new.  They experiment with interesting uses of milk and cream, and forage herbs and berries that others wouldn’t bother with, and which are not commercially available.  They salt, smoke, pickle, dry, and grill all their own foods, make their own vinegars, and even an Eaux de Vie, a brandy made from fermented fruit juice.  State-of-the-art kitchen appliances and techniques are used. Instead of cooking with wine, noma uses beers and ales, fruit juices, and fruit vinegars to create freshness and flavour in its dishes. ‘Greens take up more room on the plate than is common at gourmet restaurants’.   Interesting is that noma’s 40-page wine list is classic in predominantly featuring wines from France, Germany and Italy. No South African or New World wines are listed.

Chef René said in an interview that it would be time for him to get out of the restaurant if he could not ‘reboot’, or see things with a new light, or with a breathe of fresh air. He is filled with inspiration, and focused in developing ‘the flavour’. His life ambition is not to make profit, but to keep searching, learning, and teaching.

Ferran Adriá, the owner of the previous top World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards El Bulli, which closed down in July last year, addressed the Design Indaba conference in 2009, at the height of his Modernist Cuisine culinary reign.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage

If it had not been for Cape Town urban farmer, eco-activist and food blogger Matt Allison addressing us at the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meetings in August and September, I would not have known about the MAD (means ‘food’ in Danish) Foodcamp ‘Planting Thoughts’ symposium, which he attended in August, as the only South African in an elite group of 250 hand-picked chefs, food scientists, foragers, microbiologists, and policy-makers.  The workshop resulted in an important appeal to chefs to change the world, by going back to the roots of food growing and sourcing.

The MAD Foodcamp was held in Copenhagen, and was organised by Chefs Rene Redzepi and Claus Meyer, co-founders of Noma (food photographs below from this restaurant), the top S. Pellegrino World 50 Best restaurant for two years running.  Concerned about the projected shortage of food, showing that food production must increase by 70 %, to feed an estimated population of 9 billion by 2050, Redzepi invited applications for attendees at his MAD Foodcamp. Fellow 50 Best Restaurant chefs who presented included Michel Bras from France, David Chang from momofuku Noodle Bar in New York, Alex Atala from D.O.M. in São Paulo, Daniel Patterson from Coi in San Fransisco, Yoshihiro Narisawa from Les Creations de Narisawa in Tokyo, Andoni Aduriz of Mugaritz in Spain, Gaston Acurio from Café del Museo in Lima in Peru, and Ben Shewry from Attica in Melbourne, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

The following key recommendations resulted from the MAD Foodcamp:

*   Sourcing food locally is paramount, and it is available to chefs from their purveyors, and can be grown by themselves too. The impact of rising petrol prices on food prices will ensure that chefs seek more local food supply.  But local food is not always desirable, and nations should become proud of their culinary heritage again.

*   There will be a move away from meat, as it was in past generations.  Meat production impacts on the soil, energy usage, water supply, and carbon output, and therefore a new balance between proteins, cereals and vegetables needs to be found.  Chef Michel Bras said that vegetables should be made to be as important and as desirable as meat in restaurants.

*   Soil plays a role too, and Chef Yoshihiro Narisawa serves a soup made from organic soil.  Ideally, food planted should not have to be irrigated and spayed with chemicals.  Monocultures are destructive to the soil. Rice, wheat, corn and potatoes supply 60% of calories, and chefs are challenged to make something new with them, but should instead look at finding bygone varieties.

*   Food foraging is all the trend, and edible plants could help make up the shortage of food.   Ethnobotanist François Couplan has identified 80000 varieties of edible plants, documented in 65 books he has written. Many of these have greater health benefits than the foods that we know.  Author of ‘The Forager Handbook’, Miles Irving said that wild foods are the ultimate in being seasonal, local and sustainable, and that ‘there is treasure in the woods and fields’. Chefs who forage need to know which plants and other foods are plentiful, and which are scarce and endangered.

*   Urban gardens are an answer to food shortages too, and we have seen Matt becoming a local urban farmer, renting unused land from the City of Cape Town to grow vegetables.  It is estimated that New York could produce 3 million tonnes of food per year on city rooftops, in parks and in private yards.  City beekeeping is being encouraged, and this honey is cleaner and healthier than that from the countryside, less contaminated with pesticides.

*   Insects are a valuable source of protein, and can also be used to address food shortages.  Chef Alex Atala encouraged delegates to eat Amazon ants, tasting of lemongrass and ginger. Other edible insects include ant eggs, grasshoppers, and termites.

*   Farmers should return to the old-fashioned way of hands-on farming.  Chefs are encouraged to connect with farmers, and to buy directly from them, rather than via agents or suppliers.

*   The focus should be on children and to re-introduce them to non-processed food, to teach them ‘what real food tastes like’, said Chef Daniel Patterson.

Matt Allison was interviewed about the MAD Foodcamp by Katie Parla for the New York Times as well as for her Blog.

MAD Foodcamp: www.madfoodcamp.dk

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club was treated to a wonderful feast of Bistro Sixteen82 tapas with five excellent Steenberg Vineyards wines, and informed about their Social Media activities last week.

First to speak was Sales and Marketing Manager Anetha Homan, who has been at Steenberg Vineyards for almost five years, and at Constantia Uitsig for eight years before that.  Graham de Vries was recently appointed to manage Social Media for Steenberg Vineyards, and the ‘Totally Stoned’ Blog focuses on the wine side of the estate, but does incorporate information about Bistro Sixteen82 and Catharina restaurants.  Social Media was first introduced at Steenberg in 2007, and Tweeting and Blogging is done corporately.  Initially Anetha was so enthusiastic about Social Media, that she wanted her GM and the winemaker to blog too.  In 2009 Steenberg Vineyards did its first Twitter Tasting, and it was a creative way for the wine estate to attract attention.  This was repeated on a larger scale a few months ago. Research findings on Twitter trends in 2010 of South Africans (most Tweeters live in Cape Town, most Tweeting is done on Tuesdays, and from 7 - 8 pm) has been implemented in the Social Media strategy of Steenberg Vineyards. Twitter, Facebook, and Blogging has given Steenberg Vineyards a consumer communication channel, to pass on communication in a fun and informal manner, but even more importantly, to receive it back from their consumers.  The GM, winemaker and restaurant receive welcome messages of support. New friends have been made via Social Media dialogue, and these have become Followers and, even better, Brand Ambassadors.  Anetha cited the example of Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club member Andre Pentz, who met Graham at the previous meeting, and has since interacted regularly with Steenberg Vineyards.  The immediacy of sharing information is a major advantage. Anetha shared with bloggers her rules of Social Media engagement:

1.  No one is interested in how you feel

2.  Dare to be controversial, but do not insult. Tweeters prefer to read feel-good Tweets.  It is a shame that wine writers are tearing other writers apart, she said.

3.  Respond when written to.  Tweeters want dialogue.

4.  Show personality and passion, and don’t be too ’sterile’ or ‘corporate’ in writing.  Customers want to be talked to as individuals.

5.   Don’t hard-sell.  Provide information

6.   Don’t do ambush marketing

7.   Add value in sending out information

8.   Re-Tweets are an important means of distributing information, and for adding Followers.

9.  Visuals have become more important, and less copy is read.

The ‘Totally Stoned’ website name was chosen as a tongue in cheek reference to the ’stone mountain’ of Steenberg, from which the wine estate takes its name.  Graham did a fun blogpost about Planking, showing various Steenberg staff ‘planked’ on the wine estate. It was a fun colourful communication which created visual impact for the estate, and doubled traffic to the blog.  It also demonstrated the human side of the business, showing the company as a team of human beings.

Bloggers were offered a glass of Steenberg Brut 1682 MCC Chardonnay 2010 (R120) on arrival, first made by Steenberg Vineyards in 2000.  Initially it contained Pinot Noir as well, but is now 100% made from Chardonnay, with 12 - 18 months on the lees. In 2007 the first Steenberg Brut 1682 Pinot Noir MCC was made, and was launched earlier this month, having spent three years on the lees.  It costs R275.  The Sauvignon Blanc Reserve is what put Steenberg Vineyards on the map, and vintages sell out very quickly. Semillon is one of the oldest grape varieties in South Africa, haviung been planted 200 years ago, and used to make up 96% of planting.  It has reduced down to only 2%, and is often used in making Sauvignon Blanc to give it more body.  It is an excellent pairing with food.  The Steenberg Semillon 2010 comes from a 16 year block, and now spends a longer time in new French oak.  It has a buchu and fynbos character, from the plants growing around it.  Steenberg Nebellio refers to the mist they often experience on the wine estate, and the first plantings were brought in from Italy by the previous GM of Steenberg Vineyards. It has a very earthy character, and also is an excellent wine paired with foods.   Catharina Red is named after the characterful first owner of the wine estate, who had five husbands, and five grape varities have gone into the making of this blend, a more complex wine with a strong mint character coming from the Cabernet Sauvignon.

Brad Ball has been the chef at Bistro Sixteen82 for two years, having opened it at Steenberg Vineyards.  They have appointed Linda Harding as the Social Media consultant for the restaurants and hotel on the estate. Thoughts and experiences of customers are shared, and they look for interaction with guests.  They like the flexibility of being able to promote a particular dish immediately, and not wait for three months or more until they receive coverage in a magazine. ‘Our blog is our press’, Brad said, referring to it as a cost-effective communication medium.   Chef Brad has recently opened his own personal Twitter account (@BradBallBrand), to allow him to Tweet more personally, but he does realise that he still has limitations as to what he says, as he is linked to Steenberg and the Bistro.  He advised that consistency in content is important for the reader of blogs.  He says that one ‘eats with one eyes’, and that is why they post photographs of their dishes on the blog as well as on Twitter, Tweets being carefully scheduled.  The power of Social Media was demonstrated to the Bistro after they re-opened after a three week break at the beginning of the month, to a fully booked first day, and it has been full every day thereafter.  A year ago it took ten days for business to pick up again after their break.  The Bistro did not stop Tweeting while they were closed, and competitions were run, with a count-down to opening day.  The Social Media program for Bistro Sixteen82 positions it as fun, vibey and enticing restaurant to eat at.   Linda did a one-week internship with Chef Brad, and that has helped her with her understanding of the business.  Chef Brad welcomes kitchen help, to share with interested persons how a restaurant kitchen works.   Bistro Sixteen82 has four seasonal menu changes, and Chef Brad sources local produce.  The pork belly and beef tataki are absolute favourites, and cannot be taken off the menu. Produce is sourced from the hotel’s herb and vegetable garden.  Worm composting is used for the large amount of vegetable waste the restaurants generate.  Chef Brad talked about the collegiality that exists between chefs and that they meet regularly.  He would interact with dialogue about other chefs and their restaurants on Twitter, he said.  It is a reciprocal endorsement, and gives credibility.  We commend Chef Brad for being the only restaurant chef to have attended meetings of the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club, demonstrating his dedication to and understanding of the benefits of Social Media.

To close the meeting, Matt Allison, one of the speakers at our August meeting, shared his experience of being the only South African to attend the Mad Food Camp organised by the world’s top restaurant, Noma in Copenhagen, organised by its owner Rene Redzepi last month. It was a huge honour for Matt to have been selected as one of 250 urban gardeners and chefs from around the world.  The Food Camp was the largest Northern European food festival, and alongside it ran the workshop, focusing on the relationship between restaurants and purveyors of fruit and vegetables.  Chefs are encouraged to grow their own produce, if feasible.  He was wowed by what he saw and heard, for example Amazonian ants preserved in gelatine by the chef of South American  restaurant Dom.  Matt is passionate about honouring the value of food.  He has become such an authority on urban farming, working with local Cape Town restaurants and farming his own vegetables and herbs, which he sells on Wednesdays at Starlings Café, that he was featured in the Sunday Times yesterday, and an article in the New York Times is to appear too.

Future Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meetings have been organised as follows:

*   19 October:   Roger and Dawn Jorgensen of Jorgensen’s Distillery, and Anthony Gird and Michael de Klerk of Honest Chocolate, with a chocolate and potstill brandy tasting, at Haas Coffee on Rose Street.

*   12 November: Visit to new Leopard’s Leap tasting room and cookery school in Franschhoek

Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club, Cape Town. Bookings can be made by e-mailing Chris at whalecot@iafrica.com. The cost of attendance is R100.  Twitter: @FoodWineBlogClu  Facebook: click here.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage

The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting, held at Den Anker last night, and addressed by Matt Allison of ImNoJamieOliver Blog and Nikki Dumas of Swirl! Blog, was characterised by PASSION: not only in terms of the blogger speakers, but also in the fantastic food paired by Den Anker with six excellent Jordan wines.

Prior to the speakers sharing their blogging passion, Robyn Martin, the most charming, organised and passionate representative for Jordan wine estate, took us through the tasting of the first three Jordan wines.  Being the organised person that she is, she had prepared a tasting summary for groups of wines.  The first three wines tasted were white: the Jordan 2009 Riesling, being ‘aromatic and appley’, and a winner of the Old Mutual Trophy, SA Terroir, and the Five Nations awards, was paired with just-seared sesame-coated tuna, one of the highlights prepared by Chef Doekle Vlietman at Den Anker.  On the same plate was the sweetest presentation of truffle-enhanced scrambled egg served in an egg shell on a bed of coarse salt, paired with creamy and toasty Jordan 2009 Chardonnay.  Wrapping up the trio was a beer-poached katifi-wrapped prawn, draped in a saffron beurre blanc, paired with the tropical green notes of Jordan 2010 Sauvignon Blanc. 

Nikki Dumas, another highly organised lady, presented each of the attendees with a sheet of her ‘Twenty-one Commandments’ on how to blog successfully.  She passionately expressed her love for wine, and all things related to it.      Nikki’s suggestions for successful blogging are: 1. write something useful  2. write something unique 3. write something newsworthy  4. write something first   5. write something that makes those who read it smarter  6. write something controversial  7. write something insightful  8. write something that taps into a fear people have  9. write something that helps other people achieve  10. write something that elicits a response  11. write something that gives a sense of belonging  12. write something passionately  13. write something that interprets or translates news for people   14. write something inspirational   15. write something that tells a story   16. write something that solves a problem   17.  write something that gets a laugh   18. write something that saves people time or money   19.  write something opinionated  20.  write something that is a resource  21. write something about something ‘cool’.

Nikki’s passion for her own brand ‘Nikki Dumas’ came to the fore, and she is a confident blogger, who knows exactly where she is going.  She has two blogs - Swirl!  is a blog she uses to document information about the wine industry, coming from PR agencies, for example.  She does not allow comments on this blog.  Winestyle.biz is the blog on which she writes her own blogposts, with about 4000 hits since she started it in April. She allows comments on this blog, even if they are controversial, to create debate.  She emphasised that she is not a writer nor journalist, and that she will only write about something she judged to be good.  Everything she experiences in terms of food and wine she evaluates against her career in restaurant management.   She likes using Google’s Blogger platform, saying it is user-friendly.  Her blogpost attracting the largest number of hits is the anonymous survey she conducted on restaurant listing fees for wines.  She said she is a ‘Mac junkie’, and evaluates her blog performance through all the statistics that Google makes available, including Google Analytics, AdSense, and more.  She knows exactly where her traffic is coming from, and which keywords are used to get to her blog (wine, winestyle, wine journal, Nikki Dumas).  Nikki  was asked to share her background, and she told us that she moved to Cape Town from Johannesburg ten years ago.  She started Moyo in Norwood, and opened Vilamoura in Camps Bay, and then moved to Belthazar and Balducci.  Nikki offers restaurant wine training, is a wine consultant in designing winelists for restaurants, assists wine estates in getting better sales in restaurants, and sells branded Wine Journals. Nikki told us that 60 % of wines in supermarkets are by Distell.  She feels that the wine industry should teach the consumer more about wine.

The next stage of the food and wine pairing was a lovely plumy and stylish Jordan Merlot 2008 paired with the most ‘butter-tender’ peppered fillet, and the rich Jordan Prospector 2008 Syrah, which was paired with venison served with sauce bordelaise.  Robyn told us that the power of Social Media was demonstrated when more than 6000 persons protested against the planned mining on the Jordan wine estate.  The threat was withdrawn, and in gratitude Gary Jordan named his new Syrah, launched last year, The Prospector.  With our yummy chocolate ravioli with pomegranate jelly the flagship Bordeaux-style Jordan Cobblers Hill was served. 

Without any notes, Matt Allison spoke from his heart, reflecting his passion and principles.  With careers in the wine trade, as a graphic designer, and first as a musician and then as a music producer, Matt realised that he was spending too much time away from home, not what he wanted with his new baby boy.  He realised he needed a change, and became a rare ‘house-husband’, spending almost all his time with his son at home.  He loves food, and became the cook for the family, and his blog ‘ImNoJamieOliver’ was born a year ago when he decided to cook all 60 recipes of a Jamie Oliver recipe book in 90 days.  He lost twenty days when he had his kitchen redone.   We laughed when he told us that his mother had engendered independence amongst her children, and it was a matter of ‘cook or die’ in their household.   He has since blogged a further 60 recipes from a second Jamie Oliver recipe book.  Matt presented who he is honestly, and described himself as a person with a 30’s nature, a 50’s style, living in 2011.

Matt told us that blogging for him is a means to an end, and he has changed direction in that his interest now is the provenance of food.  He has rented a piece of land from the City of Cape Town, and now grows 40 vegetable and herbs, not counting different varieties.  This has led to seasonal eating, fresh out of his garden.  He does not grow potatoes and corn, as these take too much space.  Matt is critical of Woolworths, for their vegetables sourced from countries such as Kenya.  On a Wednesday afternoon he sells his vegetables he harvested an hour earlier, between 4 - 6 pm at Starlings Café in Claremont.  He told us horror stories about supermarket vegetables being picked unripe weeks earlier, and artificially ripened.   Matt also would not touch fast-food any more, and expressed concern that so many people grab a McDonald’s in-between meetings. There are no TV dinners in his home.  He would like people to question where their food is coming from.  He believes that obesity and diabetes can be fixed via ‘healthy food’.  With his help, Cape Town and Winelands chefs at restaurants such as Societi Bistro, Warwick wine estate, El Burro, and Franschhoek Kitchen at Holden Manz wine estate, are moving to sourcing their herbs and vegetables from small ‘bio-dynamic’ (he does not like the word ‘organic’) producers, or planting their own.   He likes restaurants that serve local, seasonal, and sustainable food, and operate ethically in all respects.  Matt has about 5000 unique readers of his blog per month, and about 1300 Twitter followers, but his readership is of no consequence to him.  He is ruthless in unfollowing and blocking on Twitter.  He recently changed his Twitter name to @MattAllison, to build his own brand.  Given his focus on the provenance of food, he will be launching a new blog “Planting Thoughts” soon.  One of the most exciting experiences for Matt is that he has been selected as one of 250 chefs and urban farmers to attend a symposium in Copenhagen, organised by the chef/owner Rene Redzepi of the world’s number one restaurant Noma, the only South African hand-picked by Redzepi.   The symposium takes place next weekend, and co-incides with the world’s largest food festival, the MAD Food Camp, also organised by Redzepi, with more than 10000 visitors expected!  Matt says we pay too little for our food in South Africa, and told us what it costs to raise a chicken.  He buys his meat from Gogo’s Deli in Newlands, or directly from farmers.  Matt encouraged us to ‘think about your food’, that one should not evaluate a restaurant if one has not been a chef and a waiter, given that most chefs put their heart and soul into their meals.  For him a good restaurant is one in which the chef comes out of the kitchen, offers great service, and has staff who love what they do.   He encouraged one to do one’s own blogging and Tweeting, to reflect one’s personality, and to not outsource social media. 

Dusan Jelic of wine.co.za, who has been a passionate supporter of the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club since its inception, was wished well, who will be returning to his home country Serbia in September. 

The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club was formed to reflect the tremendous growth in and power of food and wine blogs in forming opinion about food, restaurants and wines.  Most bloggers do not have any formal training in blogging, and learnt from others.   The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club aims to foster this informal training, and to serve as a social media networking opportunity.  Each of the two bloggers talk for about half an hour about their blog, and what they have learnt about blogging.  The Club gives fledgling as well as experienced bloggers the opportunity to learn from each other and to share their knowledge with others.  Attendees can ask questions, and get to know fellow bloggers.  The Club meetings are informal and fun.

   Future Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meetings have been organised as follows:

      *   21 September:  Chef Brad Ball of Bistro 1682, and Anetha Homan, Marketing Manager of Steenberg, at Steenberg

      *   19 October:   Roger and Dawn Jorgensen of Jorgensen’s Distillery, and Anthony Gird and Michael de Klerk of Honest Chocolate, with a chocolate and potstill brandy tasting, at Haas Coffee on Rose Street. 

   *   12 November: Visit to new Leopard’s Leap tasting room and cookery school in Franschhoek   

Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club. Bookings can be made by e-mailing whalecot@iafrica.com.  The cost of attendance is R100.  Twitter: @FoodWineBlogClu  Facebook: click here.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Twitter: @WhaleCottage