Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

The Sweet Service Award goes to Michelle Ladewig, from Leechie Marketing, the Whale Cottage designer.   Michelle was asked if she could finalise the WhaleTales newsletter on Sunday evening, for it to go out early on Monday, but to incorporate the winners of the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards, which were only announced at about 22h00 that evening.   The Top 10 list was sent to Michelle by sms from the function, while the paragraphs summarising the evening were e-mailed after the event.  By midnight the newsletter was completed and proofread, ready to be sent out the next morning!

The Sour Service Award goes to the Westin Grand Hotel, at which the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards took place.   Problems encountered by guests paying R 650 per ticket were warm sparkling wine served on arrival, warm white wine and water served at the table, no ice buckets brought to the tables to keep the wine and water cold, staff not respecting one’s space, squashing past one, red wine requested instead of white wine did not arrive, and worst of all, the airconditioning did not work properly, making it unbearably warm in the ballroom.  As New Media Publishing was not addressing the problems, the F&B Manager was called, and the problems explained.   He made an improvement as far as wine temperature and supply of red wine was concerned, but could not fix the aircon problem.   It seemed that the staff were untrained for the event, and that there was no senior management staff on duty (it being a Sunday, a favourite day for senior hotel staff to take the day off!).   Luckily the food preparation was done by the top chefs attending the function, and their food could not be faulted at all.  Eben, the F&B Director of the hotel, called early on Monday, after reading the WhaleTales blog post about the Eat Out evening, and apologised for the problems.  He explained that it was a difficult function to service, and admitted that the airconditioning was not operating effectively, and that they could not get it fixed the previous evening.   The Westin Grand Hotel had the top chefs and food lovers from around the country attending the function, who were being lauded for their food quality and service excellence, yet they themselves could not deliver, which was a poor reflection not only on the hotel but also on New Media, Eat Out and its sponsors Prudential and Veritas wines.

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

The Prudential Eat Out Top 10 restaurant list can make, or break, restaurants, and so the tension in the ballroom of the Westin Grand Hotel in Cape Town was high when the top restaurant awards were announced last night.

Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly indicated that the choice for this year’s Top 10 was very tough, and clarified that a chef owning more than one restaurant (e.g. Reuben Riffel) could be eligible for an award, as could a chef who will spend more time away from his namesake restaurant (George Jardine), at his new Country Restaurant at Jordan winery in Stellenbosch.   In recent years a Top 20 list is announced a few months prior to the November highlight, and this year the new players on this list were The Round House in Camps Bay (who bravely stated at their inception that they want to be the best restaurant in Africa, and who are very Big Brother as far as observing their patrons is concerned), the Green House in the Cellars Hohenhort hotel, and Carne.

The scoring for the restaurants was 70 % for the food, 20 % for the service and 10 % for the ambiance.   Restaurants had to have operated for a minimum of a year to be considered, the owner and the chef had to show a passion for their business, they had to show a dedication to uplift the industry, they had to show that quality sourcing of their supplies is important, and consistency and excellence had to be their foundation.

The winners of the 2010 Prudential Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards are as follows, in order of rank:

1.   La Colombe in Constantia
2.   Restaurant Mosaic in Pretoria
3.   Rust en Vrede Restaurant in Stellenbosch
4.   Terroir in Stellenbosch
5.   The Roundhouse in Camps Bay
6.   The Restaurant at Grande Provence in Franschhoek
7.   The Green House at the Cellars in Constantia
8.   Roots in Johannesburg
9.   9th Avenue Bistro in Durban
10. Overture in Stellenbosch and the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français in Franschhoek.

The tension, excitement and shock was felt by all when the winners were announced. The first surprise of the evening was that Abigail Donnelly, the editor of Eat Out magazine, had created two new Award categories, in which only she had a say in the winners. The Best Country Kitchen Award went to a perennial favourite - Marianna’s in Stanford - while, very surprisingly, the other new category was Best Bistro, which was won by Bizerca Bistro in Cape Town, a top 20 Award finalist. This made it clear that Bizerca would not make the Top 10 Eat Out Awards list for 2010. Many heads were shaking, and it sounded as if Bizerca had won a consolation prize.

The next shock was that the 10th place winner was a jointly placed Overture and the Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais, once again sounding as if the judges could not decide which of the two restaurants to drop into 11th position, making both these restaurants joint 10th winners, and thus creating an Eat Out Top 11 Restaurants Awards this year! The list also created a stir in that Jardine fell out of the top list completely (from number 2 last year), as did Hartford House.  La Colombe, 9th Avenue Bistro, Mosaic, Terroir, The Tasting Room, Roots and Overture were all on the Top 10 restaurant list last year.   Restaurants that were on the Top 20 list, but which did not make the Top 10 list, are Reubens, Carne, Aubergine, Bread and Wine, The Food Barn, Hartford House, Zachary’s, Bizerca Bistro and Jardine.

Chantel Dartnall of Mosaic won the Chef of the Year award.   Rust en Vrede won the Service Excellence award.

Cape Town and the Winelands retain their reputation as the gourmet centre of South Africa, three awards going to Cape Town and Stellenbosch restaurants each, and two to Franschhoek restaurants.  

The 5-star Westin Grand Hotel disappointed hugely as the venue hosting an awards evening recognising the best of gourmet cooking and service in South Africa.   Its standards have dropped significantly compared to the slick function a year ago.   Luke warm waters and white wines were served, the service staff were initially unable to cope, and the airconditioning did not operate at an acceptable level.

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