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Vicky Gurovich has recently been promoted to Executive Sous Chef at the Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town. It's been a long time coming. She was head of pastry there under Chef Rudi Liebenberg and now runs the kitchen under the steady hand of Executive Chef Luke Barry. Together they've driven innovation in the iconic 'Nellie' Hight Team Tea and have launched a Saturday Braai experience for guests, as well as an extension of the Planet Bar serving a Mediterranean-inspired menu driven by local produce. We chatted about the revered hotel's commitment to working with sustainable local supplier and the importance of this 125-year-old institution's footprint on the culinary landscape of cape Town. Small wonder the 'Pink Lady' was recently named the best hotel in Africa and currently sits at number 28 on the World's Best Hotels list. It was so good to sit and natter with Vicky.
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They call him 'the beef guy' because he knows a lot about beef. Steven Maresh created the Local Grill Group of restaurants in Gauteng and started Beef Club where he raised both consumer and producer knowledge about raising and preparing beef products. Today he consults to beef producers on branding and marketing and works with restaurants to improve both the quality and the profitability of the beef they serve. It was fascinating chatting to him on the show.
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Ivor Jones is one of my favourite chefs, and someone who is often mentioned on the show by his contemporaries. He's all about technique and a pin-sharp dedication to exploring, and getting, the very best out of ingredients in terms of flavour and presentation. I simply can't get to CW Beau Constantia often enough, but when I do, it's always a joy. There as so much to chat about on this episode, especially abut the challenges of seasonality in Cape Town and keeping the engine of a complex operation running, that I never got to chat to him about his recent collaboration with Jason Kosmas from Pot Luck Club and the Meuse Farm lunches. He was the very first guest on this show, so perhaps I can get him back for a third round some time soon. Hope springs eternal... but this was a great chat nonetheless.
Season has started by there may still be space to book on Dineplan
Chefs Warehouse Beau Constantia
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In this episode, I sit down with one of my food heroes - Chef Chris Erasmus. He's now Group Chef of the Newmark Hotel Group, and we discuss his commitment to sustainability and the importance of sourcing from small, family-owned suppliers. We rummaged around in his culinary journey and the philosophy behind his new restaurant, Terrarium, which recently opened at the Queen Victoria Hotel in Cape Town's V&A Waterfront. Join us as we explore how Chris is redefining fine dining with a focus on hyperlocal ingredients and innovative flavors. Chris is such a lekker oke and I really enjoyed chatting to him.
You can book for Terrarium on Dineplan
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In this episode of A Table in the Corner, I chat with Ken Kinsey-Quick, co-founder of Banhoek Chilli Oil, about the journey from kitchen experiments to national success and the opening of a global market. A quest with his brother-in-law Adi Meintjies to develop the perfect chilli oil to use at their dinner table led to the creation of a brand that enhances flavours in food without overpowering them. It also birthed a community farming project run by locals in Banhoek Valley where they grow chillies for the oil. There are some interesting aside about entrepreneurial spirit and focusing applying simple principles to running a successful business. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to Ken and learned a lot from our conversation.
Banhoek Chilli Oil is available on their website and on Amazon USA and UK.
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Lance Gibbons is the CEO of SA Chef Media, and along with other players in the industry like FEDHASA and SA Chefs Association, he's put together the SA Chef Conference & Expo which is happening in Cape Town on November 25 & 26. On the cards are talks by Liam Tomlin, Luke Dale-Roberts and Chris Erasmus, as well as an address by Minister of Tourism, Patricia De Lille. One of the hoped-for outcomes of the gathering is a direction for branding South Africa as a food destination to build on our already robust culinary tourism scene. My chat with lance raised some interesting talking-points and it is great to see an initiative being driven to get chefs collaborating on building our food scene further as a global tourist attraction.
More on the SA Chef Conference & Expo 2024
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Vusi Ndlovu is the mind behind Mlilo at the Time Out Market, Cape Town. His journey to All Star chef began in hotel kitchens and grew through his time at the Greenhouse with Chef Peter Tempelhoff and later at The Saxon with Chef David Higgs. He's also been staging abroad and was a regular on the global culinary competition circuit. With partner Absie Pantshwa, he created Edge to explore his take on contemporary African cuisine in the fine dining milieu, until Mlilo gave him a chance to present simple, delicious street food from across his home continent. This was a great chat with an inspiring and inspired young chef.
Mlilo at Time Out Market, Cape Town
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With a sparkling track record which includes some banging cocktail bars in New York, Tetsuo Hasegawa has brought his brand of precisely crafted cocktails to Cape Town. Anthm Bar in Loop Street is an intimate 35-seater with a fabulous small plate menu where local ingredients and global techniques are explored in both drinks and food. We sat down for an excellent chat about his journey from Japan to New York and thence to the Mother City. Enjoy.
Anthm Bar
Italian WInes and Spirits by Gabba InternationalSend us a text
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Crush! online magazine is a digital food publication that started documenting food and food people in Cape Town way back in 2008. I sat down for a natter with founder, publisher and general creative head Matthew Ibbotson, and while food was at the core of the discussion, it was also about media, publishing and the effect the restaurant scene had and continues to have on the global media scene.
Read CRUSH! here
Cheese from Dalewood Fromage
Italian Wines from Gabba InternationalSend us a text
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Pop-ups fascinate me. I’m interested in the business model - how they work, and the benefits or challenges they present for operators. I’ve seen and heard a lot about Not Sad Food Co. so I reached out to Claudia Alberti for a chat about how (and why) she and her partner Yoraya Nydoo run pop-ups and kitchen takeovers. They’ve developed a fun, funky food brand, free of the constraints of walls and a permanent location - but what’s next?
Not Sad Food Co.
Gabba International - Italian Wines & Spirits
Kaas Club by Dalewood FromageSend us a text
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Limoncello in Gardens was once my favourite neighbourhood eatery. It was always buzzing and fun, the pizzas were fantastic - in fact everything on the menu was. Then it closed. Limoncello became a beautiful food truck for a while and now it’s a much-loved local in Noordhoek. I sat down with owner and chef Luca Castiglione to talk about his food journey and food trucks, then I nearly made him cry when I mentioned putting pineapple on pizza.
Limoncello Restaurant
Gabba International: Italian wine importers
Dalewood cheeses from Kaas ClubSend us a text
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Motherdough was started by Lance Littlefield and his partner Willem van Schalkwyk during lockdown as a source of advice, equipment and a a reliable starter for people caught up in the craze of baking sourdough bread. Lance's starter 'Alfonsina' is over a century old and comes from Piedmont in Italy. He's been her care-giver for over 25 years. When the world started returning to normal after Covid, and people were less focused on baking at home, Lance and Willem made the leap to open their own artisanal bakery with Alfonsina in Franschhoek. Their mission is to bake real bread and a host of other naturally leavened baked goods. I sat down with Lance to chat about Alfonsina, their travels together, and why we should all be eating real bread.
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Ryan Shell is a lekker oke. He kindly and very graciously jumped into the gap when the original Ryan booked for this slot was suddenly called away on family business. It was a serendipitous moment though, as Ryan Shell of Ōku restaurant has been on my target list of people to interview for a while. He's a very capable operator who creates happy teams and runs great restaurants and his perspectives were refreshing and often funny. We also had a couple of good-natured jabs at Ryan Boon who I look forward to chatting to in a future show.
Ōku Restaurant in Franshhoek
Kaas Klub by Dalewood Fromage
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Chef Craig Cormack is completely obsessed with salt. It began when he started reading Mark Kurlansky's brilliant book, 'Salt: A World History' and began a journey into a rich and global culinary past. It has seen him develop entire menus based on the salts of the world, the wines of the Western Cape and recipes that have been knocking around for a couple of thousand years. He has a restaurant called Salt at Waterford Estate with his business partner Beau du Toit, and they are about to open a concept restaurant in Doha, Qatar called The Salt Road. We sat down recently for a fascinating chat about his enduring love affair with one of our most basic and perhaps least-understood culinary pillars.
SALT at Waterford Estate
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
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PJ Vadas once worked for Gordon Ramsay, so he swears a bit. He's also a really clever and successful restaurateur who has an easy and fun approach to what he does. Vadas Smokehouse at Spier Wine Estate is a fabulous place to visit - modelled loosely on Texas BBQ, but with a distinct local signature that PJ can't help stamping on anything he does. We had a great chat and touched on fishing, pasteis de nata, his background in fine dining, his early days interning for Marcus Farbinger at Ile de Pain and, of course, the success of his smokehouse in the winelands.
Vadas Smokehouse & Bakery
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Heleen Meyer is a Cape Town-based food consultant who works across a wide range of disciplines to service companies in the broader food sphere. From recipe development to writing, styling and photography to video content production, she tells stories about food across a range of platforms. The former Sarie Magazine staffer has built a career advising and creating for corporates mainly in the fresh ingredient sector and has become a noted and respected voice in the arena of healthy eating. Chatting to Helen was fascinating and refreshing.
Heleen Meyer Food
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Clarke's Bar & Dining Room is an enduring favourite daytime spot for me. It's a cool, easy spot for a coffee, breakfast or a solo lunch. If I lived in the city, I'd probably prop up their counter on many nights too. Their burgers haunt my dreams, although anything you care to order at that counter is likely to be perfectly executed and delicious. On this episode, I chatted to Lyndall Maunder - creator and owner of the Bree Street stalwart, fashioned in the style of an American diner.
Look out for the new 'Takeaways' segment at the start of the show which is a 5 minute sprinkling of things we like featuring lifestyle writer Kimberley Schoeman. The segment is sponsored by Yardstick Wines who've come on board to help me continue the work of documenting the craft and thoughts of our chefs and food entrepreneurs.Send us a text
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At the water's edge, amid the bustle of a working harbour, Chef Ryan Cole has opened a gorgeous little restaurant simply called COY. While the location is in the heart of the V&A Waterfront, midway between Time Out Market and The Cape Grace, it is also aloof. Isolated from the foot traffic and bustle of the precinct, unassuming but beautiful, COY sits at the entrance to Robinson Dry Dock, the oldest operating dry dock in the world.
Well known for his innovative menus centring African ingredients and techniques, Chef Cole is exploring the coastline of Africa - through his cooking - from its southernmost port where diners have a view of both Table Mountain and the comings and goings of commercial fishing boats and luxury yachts alike.
I don't mind suggesting COY (like Salsify) is set to be one of the great restaurant experiences of Cape Town, if not the world. Meeting with him for the second time on the show produced an absolutely fascinating conversation with a chef I greatly admire.
COY Restaurant, V&A Waterfront
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Lindile Ndzaba is a young man I admire tremendously. He has built a wine brand with nothing but an idea and his drive to do something extraordinary in his community. Khayelitsha's Finest Wines started as a project to bring decent wine to his neighbours 'elokshini', in the sprawling township of Khayelitsha outside Cape Town. Working in the city, exposed to fine wines in his role as a front-of-house staff member, he was frustrated by the shoddy wines on offer in the taverns and eateries around his home.
Working in his spare time he learned about wine and started seeking out unique and interesting wines he could bottle under the KFW label. It's been a long and hard journey, juggling his dream with a full time hospitality position in Cape Town, but it really took off when he was able to resign and focus full time on KFW in 2021.
He's just returned from a trip to the USA where he was promoting KFW and I managed to sit him down for a chat about the road he's walked.
Khayelitsha's Finest Wines
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I initially reached out to Tania Olivier of ATE Eatery when she posted online about working on a cookbook. I've been wanting to talk about cookbooks on the show for a while. Turns out her publishing project is another thing entirely, but we started talking about South African food and how she cooks her experiences of being South African for guests in her home. Tania is fascinating and such an enthusiastic and patriotic cook that this episode could have gone on for hours. Some interesting perspectives on welcoming people into your home and serving them food derived from your own life experiences.
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