Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* The announcement last week of the discovery of a new hominid species Homo Naledi at The Cradle of Humankind at Maropeng, and its international media coverage by National Geographic in particular, could give Tourism to our country a much-needed boost.
*. The 31st Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild will be held at Spier on Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* A Global March for Rhinos and Elephants will be held on Saturday 4 October, with South Africa, the USA, Germany, Botswana, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Italy, and Mozambique being some of the countries participating. World Travel Market (WTM) Africa staff will also participate in the march in Cape Town, as one of its social responsibility projects. The march calls for a total ban on the trade of ‘wildlife body parts’. WTM Africa runs from 15 – 17 April.
* The Bureau of Economic Research quarterly survey has found a sharp drop in the expectation of business growth for the Accommodation sector in the third quarter (July – September), at 9%, compared to the previous winter period of April – June, which showed a 22% growth expectation. For the last quarter of this year, growth of 16% is expected. All other business sectors surveyed are showing negative growth expectations. The overall Western Cape business growth expectation in the second quarter was 15%, is an estimated 20% for the third quarter, and 31 % for the 4th quarter, whereas all other provinces show negative growth experience and expectations. (received via e-mail from the Bureau of Economic Research)
* Luvey ‘n Rose is offering an interesting Cigar Appreciation Evening on 7 October, with Roque, a professional cigar roller from Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries have signed an agreement to create a New Development Bank, reports The New Age. The Bank’s first loans will be made in 2016, from its pooled resources of $50 billion. South Africa is reported to have contributed R 5 billion to the establishment of the Bank. In addition, a $100 billion ‘contingency reserves pool‘ will be set up, to safeguard any of the five countries from being hit by ‘an exodus of foreign capital‘. The Bank headquarters will be in Shanghai, reports Mail & Guardian, while Johannesburg will be the regional centre of the Bank for Africa.
* SAA has been named Best Airline Africa for the 12th year running, and won the Best Airline Staff Service Africa award for the third time, presented at the Skytrax World Airline Awards in London. The airlines were evaluated on the basis of customer surveys conducted amongst 18 million travelers. SAA has a 4-star rating from Skytrax, the only airline in Africa to have achieved the service quality rating.
* SA Tourism is working on improving Indaba, its Chief Marketing Officer Jan Hutton has said, adding that she is taking Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Agricultural Tourism is a new opportunity for our country, reports Southern African Tourism Update, offering a learning opportunity for international farmers, according to Margi Biggs, MD at Specialized Tours & Events, Marius Botha, Owner at Guttera Tours, and Eugene Booysen, MD of Cape AgriTours. Farmers from other countries want to learn about new farming products, to network, and to meet farmers to learn about techniques, to apply in their home countries. The top source markets for agricultural tours include the UK, Germany, Brazil, France, Austria, India, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Canada, Ukraine, Chile, and the USA.
* Champagne sales are bubbling in the UK, reports Decanter, almost doubling. Best sellers include Dom Perignon 2004, Taittinger 2002 and 2004 and Pol Roger Winston Churchill 2000.
* South Africa has 14 million internet users, representing 39% of adults, according to research conducted by Digital Media & Marketing Association. Continue reading →
The publicity for the start of Season 2 of MasterChef SA is still surprisingly low key, with little PR for the new series having been seen to date. A number of changes relative to last year’s Season 1 can be expected when Season 2 kicks off on M-Net tomorrow at 19h30, the biggest being that the value of the winner’s prize package has dropped dramatically to about R1 million, from R8 million in Season 1:
1. There will be two shows a week, for 13 weeks on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, at 19h30, with 26 episodes in total.
2. The show content will be less focused on cooking, and more on the human drama, with in-depth interviews with the contestants, video diaries, fun moments and ‘extended storylines’. Interviews with experts, guest chefs, and the judges will also feature. There will be more masterclasses, and more rewards, M-Net Publicist Ingrid Engelbrecht has told the Sunday Times.
3. There is a ‘significantly higher’ standard of cooking than in Season 1, according to Ms Engelbrecht, as the Season 2 participants had a better understanding of what was expected of them from having watched Season 1, reports the Sunday Times.
4. There are fewer Finalists, now called ‘contestants’: 16 instead of 18.
5. Season 2 was filmed at Nederburg at the beginning of this year.
6. The same judges Pete Goffe-Wood, Andrew Atkinson, and Benny Masekwameng are involved, and Chef Arnold Tanzer is the Culinary Producer once again.
7. One episode (9 July) will feature food bloggers, including Andrew Lieber from Gourmet Guys, Ishay Govender from Food and the Fabulous, Candice Bresler from The Gorgeous Gourmet Blog, and Sam Linsell from Drizzle and Drip. We have been told that Jane-Anne Hobbs, Anel Potgieter, Nina Timm,and Andy Fenner were also invited to participate in the episode filmed at Maiden’s Cove, between Camps Bay and Clifton, but were cancelled in the last minute, as were we.
8. Gordon Ramsay is a guest chef and judge, a Tweet by Chris Whelan has indicated.
9. Nederburg is the wine sponsor again, and is offering eight ‘online master classes in food and wine pairing’, conducted by its cellar master Razvan Macici, a new clip posted on the Nederburg website every two weeks, its PR consultancy De Kock Communications has announced.
10. Fledgling Bakoven restaurateur Zahir Mohamed of Baked Bistro auditioned for
MasterChef Season 1 and 2, and he features in the first fifteen minutes of the first episode tomorrow, an interview in yesterday’s Sunday Times has revealed. Mohamed is the son of Shawn MacLachlan, who owns a catering company looking after Manchester United and its fans. Other contestants are Cape Town based Zane Jacobs, Tiron Eloff from Randburg, Alta Wasson from Stilbaai, and Khumo Twala from Johannesburg, according to the Sunday Times.
11. The winner’s prizes offered by the official sponsors have been announced by M-Net: R400000 cash from Robertsons, a VW Golf 7 (new sponsor replacing Hyundai), five nights at the Maia Luxury Resort & Spa in the Seychelles from Tsogo Sun, one year’s free shopping to the value of R100000 at Woolworths, and a year’s supply of Nederburg wines plus a sommelier course. The modest Tsogo Sun prize is a surprise, given the generous two year restaurant contract which Season 1 winner Deena Naidoo received at Montecasino! We have been told that the hotel group does not expect as high a viewership of Season 2, and that the controversy surrounding the Montecasino restaurant prize led Tsogo Sun to drastically downscale its contribution to the winner’s prize package.
12. The bar has been raised for MasterChef SA Season 2, relative to MasterChef Australia, the producers wishing to exceed the standard of the latter. Lani Lombard, M-Net’s Head of Communication, has said about Season 2: ‘The first Season of MasterChef South Africa definitely inspired amateur chefs to get more creative. We noticed very early on during the Audition phase that the contestants’ standard of cooking was significantly higher this year and because of that, the show provides pressure-cooker entertainment right from the start’.
12. MasterChef SA Season 3 is likely to follow.
In January I was the only blogger to be be invited to a Media Day on set at MasterChef SA at Nederburg. Our blogpost (edited by M-Net) of the Media Day provides more background information.
MasterChef SA Season 2 starts cooking on Tuesday 11 June at 19h30, after the last episode of MasterChef Australia.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @Whale Cottage
It is interesting to analyse how successful MasterChef South Africa has been, its final 19th episode being broadcast this evening, the winner of the first season being announced in the special 90 minute Grande Finale. It would appear that the reality TV cooking program has been enjoyed by many South Africans, yet some aspects about it were disliked.
To judge the success of MasterChef SA we looked at quantitative information:
1. Audience Ratings (ARs) are used by the South African advertising industry to quantify the success of a TV program. ARs = Reach x Frequency, or the % of the Target Market reached. It was explained by a media strategist that the AR statistics do not reflect viewership of M-Net repeats, and therefore they do not reflect the full number of viewers. The AR of 0,8 achieved for MasterChef SA exceeds the expectation of 0,5 on an ‘All Adults’ target market filter, she said, and described the program as ‘world class’, ‘professional’, and with good production values. A food TV producer felt the opposite, saying that M-Net must be very disappointed with the viewership achieved, its ultimate goal having been to sell more decoders.
2. On Twitter the @MasterChef_SA account has grown to 11253 Followers. One may have expected more Followers, for the stature of the programme. When one reads the Timeline after an episode, the mix of South African Tweeters is evident, attracting commentary from male and female viewers, and from different language groups. @RobertsonsSpice has only achieved 733 Followers, a very poor performance. @Woolworths has 33 466 Followers, an exceptional number, but had embraced Twitter prior to its MasterChef SA sponsorship. @Nederburg only has 1265 Followers, also disappointing for this sponsor.
3. On Facebook the MasterChef SA page has 8511 likes, Robertsons Herbs and Spice has 1373, Nederburg 7544, and Woolworths an amazing 193676 likes!
4. The YouTube videos of the Robertsons’ Masterclasses by Chef Reuben Riffel show the viewership, and it is understandable that some of the earlier videos would have the highest viewership. The first Masterclass in week 1 (16 March) was for a ‘Cheesy Garlic Bread’, and has achieved 4154 views in the past four months. ‘Stuffed Chicken Breast’ (30 April) has 3335 views to date. ‘Crepes’ (20 March) achieved 3201 views. ‘Pepper Sauce’ (19 March) was seen by 2882 viewers. ‘Chocolate Braaied Bananas’ (16 March) has achieved 2864 views. ‘Milktart’ (2 May) has 2732 views to date, and ‘Roast Chicken’ (15 May) has 2252. The other videos have had lower viewership, some extremely low. The viewership figures must be disappointing for Robertsons, and we could see a sharp drop-off in viewership growth two months ago, midway through the series. The dishes demonstrated by Chef Reuben were hardly of a ‘Masterclass’ stature!
5. Arnold Tanzer was the leader of the MasterChef SA culinary team of eleven, which included Chef Vanie Padayachee from Le Quartier Français too, working behind the scenes in testing every recipe that the Finalists had to prepare, often more than once, checking the preparation times, and making sure that the challenges were ‘doable’. Interesting was the article in the Sunday Times, detailing the quantities of food and liquid that the 19-series programme went through, supplied by Woolworths in the main: 62 kg mussels, 300 kg fish, 500 kg beef, 400 kg lamb, 165 kg chicken, 2592 free-range eggs, 250 kg of cheese, 215 kg of fresh herbs (mainly mint, thyme, and dill – there is no mention of Robertsons’ herbs and spices, which are not stocked by Woolworths), 100 kg mushrooms, 100 kg butter, 600 l Ayrshire milk, 200 kg onions, 240 l sunflower oil, 144 l olive oil, and many more ingredients. These quantities used benefited the suppliers of these products.
6. Twitter was a new social medium to most MasterChef SA Finalists, and they were encouraged
to open Twitter accounts. Deena Naidoo has by far the largest number of Followers at 1986, followed by Sarel Loots (1331), Jade de Waal (1254), Ilse Fourie (1019), and Lwazi Mngoma (1018). The other Finalists have very much lower Follower numbers.
Qualitatively, it was interesting to observe:
1. Initially, no one went out on Tuesday evenings, being glued to their TV screens. From Twitter one could see that after the first four weeks life started getting back to normal, and event organisers were not afraid to schedule functions on Tuesday evenings any longer. The hype about MasterChef SA never reached that of the Australian series when flighted locally.
2. Many TV viewers, especially men, were initially not interested in watching the program, but the talk on Twitter and in social circles enticed them eventually to watch the program. Towards the end of the series we saw fewer proactive Tweets about MasterChef SA, and fewer people talking about the reality series socially.
3. Most restaurant staff were unable to watch, as they were working at the time of the program. If they had access to a PVR, they watched a recording afterwards. Most of them do not seem to own a M-Net decoder, and seemed surprisingly uninformed about the reality TV series, or were not interested in it, most chefs seeing it as ‘amateurish’.
4. Viewers expressed their extreme dissatisfaction with the judges’ decision to eliminate Guy Clark and not Jade de Waal in episode 9. There was talk on Twitter about the elimination choice being a ‘production decision’, and many said that they would no longer watch the program due to the perceived rigged choices made.
5. The program sponsorship will have benefited Woolworths and Nederburg, but the impact on Robertsons’ sales is not expected to be significant:
* Woolworths has run superb food advertising during the MasterChef SA episodes, well matched to the theme of each episode, and creating amazing appetite appeal. In the episodes too the Woolworths Pantry was well-branded when the Finalists had to source their ingredients. Significant discounts offered to Woolworths card holders must have brought more feet into their stores. The sponsorship is said to have taken attention away from the embarrassing Frankies beverages debacle. Surprisingly the in-store branding of their sponsorship of the reality TV series was low key, with small banners at the tills. The initial uproar caused by two recipes of the Woolworths Pantry guest food bloggers appeared to have blown over quickly. The Woolworths sustainable seafood commercial linked to the seafood episode shot at Paternoster caused controversy, because the content of the advertisement was not reflected in its stores.
* A media strategist interviewed for this blogpost fed back how she had started buying Nederburg wines again, now finding it trendy to do so, as a result of watching MasterChef SA. Despite the show being filmed at the wine estate, there was little Nederburg branding in the episodes. Its commercials were less impactful than those of Woolworths, and many say that the ‘ingredient’ composition of the Nederburg wines shown in its commersials, to demonstrate the flavours of the wines, may have been taken literally, if viewers did not know better. Surprising was the low key product placement of Nederburg wines, given that the MasterChef SA kitchen was built for the show on the wine estate. A bottle of Amarula received prominence in a Mystery Box for a dessert, one episode focused on food and Nederburg wine pairing, which highlighted that Deena had little wine knowledge, and one episode featured the celebration of the harvest at Nederburg. Disappointing for Nederburg would be Deena Naidoo winning MasterChef SA tonight, as he does not appear to be a wine drinker, given that the prize includes a sommeliers’ course, and a year’s supply of their Winemasters Reserve range wines.
* Robertsons went through the Social Media wars since MasterChef SA started in March, its endors
ement by Chef Reuben Riffel having raised credibility and advertising honesty questions, and its Social Media Manager Sonia Cabano having been dismissed soon after she took on the job. The end result is that Chef Reuben’s Robertsons’ endorsement has cost him credibility as a chef, and he appears to now be written out of the Robertsons’ advertising, only one of the five or six spice brand TV commercials featuring him in each of the last few episodes. A further blow to Chef Reuben’s credibility is his very recent endorsement of Rama margarine, also a Unilever brand. Robertsons did not manage its sponsorship well, in that registered ‘members’ of their Masterclass page were sent recipes unrelated to the previous day’s MasterChef SA episode, a marketing failure. In general, Robertsons went through a torrid time, and ‘MasterChef SA‘ must be a swearword inside its hallowed halls! Its attempt at Social Media was a miserable failure in many respects, and appeared poorly managed, despite its use of the Liquorice social media marketing agency.
6. The MasterChef SA series benefited sponsors Woolworths and Nederburg, jointly creating two wine brands specifically for the series (Grenache 2010, and a Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay blend). It also opened the door for Nederburg to sell its Winemasters Reserve range in Woolworths stores over the four month MasterChef SA broadcast period. There was no cross-benefit between Woolworths and Robertsons, the retailer having to publicly admit on Twitter that it does not stock Robertsons spices and herbs.
7. Initially the response to our competitions to predict the overall winner of MasterChef SA and the weekly Finalist leaving the show was surprisingly low, but increased the closer it got to the Finale, and the fewer the options for elimination and winning the grand prize became. The readership of our weekly MasterChef SA episode summary the day after the show saw an increase week by week. Restaurant staff working on Tuesday evenings, international readers, and local non-subscribers who cannot view M-Net, and surprisingly even viewers of the program, fed back that they read our MasterChef SA weekly write-ups. We got hooked onto MasterChef SA, loving writing up each episode, and will miss the Tuesday evening programmes.
8. MasterChef SA dislikes focused strongly on the judges, particularly the expression on Chef Andrew Atkinson’s face
, his dress, and his stare at the Finalists when judging their dishes. Chefs who have met him, however, say that this is not him at all, and praise his culinary skills. Chef Pete Goffe-Wood attracted negative criticism from the second half of the series onwards. Chef Benny Masekwameng was the most loved judge by far, always kind and supportive to the Finalists. In general chefs felt that the chef judges should have worn chef outfits, and not worn earrings and piercings, to set a good example to young chefs. Interesting is that every guest chef wore a chef’s outfit in the series. Initial feedback at the start of the series was critical of all the chef judges being male. After Chef Margot Janse’s appearance, she was judged by Twitterers to have been an ideal judge.
9. The program series has been criticised for the poor quality food that the Finalists prepared for many weeks, although this criticism subsided in the last few programs, when the Finalists had to replicate dishes made by top chefs Michel Roux Jnr of La Gavroche, Peter Tempelhoff of The Greenhouse, and Margot Janse of Le Quartier Français. Linked to this is the chefs’ criticism about the prize of a year-long (now extended to two years) contract at MondeVino restaurant at Montecasino, saying it is irresponsible, as none of the Finalists could step into the shoes of a restaurant chef, who has had years of training and experience, and said that it is demeaning to their career to imply that little or no training is required.
10. There is no doubt that MasterChef SA has stimulated an interest in cooking, and in trying out more complicated dishes. It probably has stimulated interest in eating out at restaurants such as Terroir, The Greenhouse, Biesmiellah, Sel et Poivre, and The Tasting Room, all featured in the series.
11. The most gratifying end result of MasterChef SA has been the growth in the Finalists’ cooking skills, in what they learnt from the judges, and the Masterclasses held by the visiting chefs. They also grew vastly in confidence. Chef Arnold Tanzer fed back in the Sunday Times that ‘you could see the change in people as the series went on, particularly how their perception of food changed‘. He added that he was surprised that even the film crew members were excited about what they had filmed, and wanted advice on how to make some of the dishes. A number of the Finalists have made the best of their MasterChef SA participation: Berdina Schurink has opened Bella Sophia Culinary Café in Pretoria; Thys Hattingh has changed jobs, now working at the Compass Group as a staff restaurant consultant; Guy Clark changed careers, and now is a chef for the Madame Zingara group, at Café Mozart and at Bombay Bicycle Club; Charles Canning and Samantha Nolan have a stand at the Old Biscuit Mill market on Saturdays,
following in the footsteps of Chef Pete; and Lungi Nhlanhla is now deputy food editor at Drum magazine. There is not one Finalist that has not benefited from his or her participation in MasterChef SA, being a springboard to living their passion for cooking. Tonight it will be Sue-Ann Allen or Deena Naidoo who will walk off with the MasterChef SA 2012 crown, and one of their lives will change forever! We wish them both the best of luck.
POSTSCRIPT 28/7: A furore has been created by The Citizen, reporting yesterday that MasterChef SA winner Deena Naidoo was unhappy about the misrepresentation of his Tsogo Sun MondoVino restaurant prize, damaging the image of the reality TV series, M-Net, its sponsors, Finalists, and chef judges.
POSTSCRIPT 28/7: Times Live has published audience figures, to highlight the success of MasterChef SA TV series: MasterChef SA had the 5th highest viewership on M-Net between its start in March and 24 July, beaten by ‘Carte Blanche’ (265939 viewers), ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ movie with Matthew McConaughey (221411), ‘CSI Miami’ (202102), and ‘Idols’ (196698). The reality cooking show beat ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ on viewership. M-Net had capitalised on the trend to viewership of cooking programs in producing the local MasterChef SA TV series. No decision has been made about producing a Season 2 of MasterChef SA next year.
POSTSCRIPT 29/8: If the article from Channel 24 is correct (it is part of the same media group that owns M-Net), there will be a season 2 of MasterChef SA, another measure of the success of the reality TV series. M-Net has not confirmed this.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
The highlight of my week two weeks ago was being able to sit down with Chef Benny Masekwameng, one of the three MasterChef SA judges, and Tsogo Sun Executive Chef. He is incredibly nice, and overwhelmed about how his own career and life has changed since participating in MasterChef SA, much like that of the Finalists.
Chef Benny was in Cape Town for the official launch of the Southern Sun rebranding to Tsogo Sun, which was held at The Cullinan hotel. Previously Executive Chef of the MondoVino restaurant at Montecasino in Johannesburg, Chef Benny has been promoted to Executive Chef, responsible for promoting all the restaurants at the Tsogo Sun’s 95 hotels and 15 casinos around the country. Tsogo means ‘rising’ in Tswana, Chef Benny told me. Applying his MasterChef SA judging skills, Chef Benny challenged the Cape Town guests to participate in an ingredient test, identifying the 13 ingredients of the curry he had prepared.
I asked Chef Benny about the MasterChef SA prize offered of running the MondoVino restaurant at Montecasino, taking over his previous job. The MasterChef SA winner will receive three month’s training in people and financial support he said, and his/her hand will be held by a mentor as well as by Chef Benny. He said that the MasterChef SA reality TV show builds up the Finalists in what they learn, giving the winner a ‘crash course’ in running a restaurant kitchen, including ingredient pairing, budgeting, and food and wine pairing.
Chef Benny’s role in MasterChef SA was to support the contestants, many having made significant sacrifices to participate in the show. He said that he feels privileged to have been part of their journey, it mirroring his own journey of humble beginnings, and giving up many things to pursue his dream to become a chef. He grew up in Alexandra township in Johannesburg, and was strongly influenced by his mother. She started her own business, after taking a cooking course, selling pap, stew, salad, as well as vetkoek, outside nearby factories. While his dream was to become an Electrical Engineer, it was a visit to Durban to visit his friends that led him to Technikon Natal, and he decided to study a 3-year Catering Management course in a city that gave him some space from home. On graduating he was appointed as a Trainee at the Hilton Hotel in Durban, where he worked for more than six years, promoted over this period. The job took him overseas regularly, to promote local food at events held at South African embassies, and it was these events that taught him ‘showmanship’, in interacting with the guests. He moved to the Elangeni Hotel, his first Southern Sun appointment, and he has stayed with the group since then, moving back to Johannesburg as Executive Sous Chef at the OR Thambo Southern Sun. The promotion to Executive Chef at MondoVino restaurant happened 16 months ago, and since the completion of Season 1 of MasterChef SA he is in charge of promoting all the Tsogo Sun restaurants, being its ‘face of food’.
MondoVino restaurant is Italian-themed, but with an African influence, also serving bobotie, oxtail, pap and wors, chakalaka, and its design is ‘modern, young, and hip’. It is ‘casual dining‘, and offers ‘3 – 4 star service‘, he said. It has shifted in its focus on being family-orientated, with a special menu for the children.
M-Net has a five-year licence for MasterChef SA, and there is talk of a Season 2. Chef Benny said it is a bonus for him that Tsogo Sun is a sponsor. His own kitchen staff is watching MasterChef SA, and it gives them hope that they too can develop as he has done, and they are proud to work with him. For him it has been special to meet all the young aspirant chefs, and to inspire them. He is keeping up to date with many of them, and he is delighted about the encouraging messages he is receiving, and the promotion and growth it has given him personally, much as the MasterChef SA Finalists have grown and succeeded too. Just after MasterChef SA started airing, his first baby daughter Dimakatso was born, named after his mother. We laughed about his ‘TV flirt’ with Lungi Nhlanhla, about whom he says that ‘she knows how to combine her flavours’, and that ‘she can cook’. With fellow Finalists Deena Naidoo and Manisha Naidu, Lungi knows her flavours. Yet, he said, all eighteen the Finalists had the potential of getting to the top.
Fellow judge and Chef Andrew Atkinson is a natural ‘clown‘, he said, always making jokes on set, and these kept the energy flowing. But, jokes aside, he knows his food. Chef Pete Goffe-Wood was full 
of jokes too, but he was ‘tough on camera, telling it like it is‘. He praised his fellow MasterChef SA judges, who had more cooking experience than he does, but always treated him as an equal and made him feel part of the judging team, even though Chefs Andrew and Pete had worked together at the Beverly Hills hotel many years ago. He was inspired by them, and are two of our country’s best, he added. He can exchange information with them now, and pick up the phone to them, being ‘brothers’ now! He assured me that there were no production influences in the judging of the dishes and elimination of the Finalists, and confirmed that the Finalists eliminated simply were those that made the most mistakes in a particular challenge.
To tie in with its sponsorship of MasterChef SA as a ‘Hospitality Host’, and Chef Benny’s involvement in the show as a judge, Tsogo Sun has launched Wednesday Night Dinners, a ‘themed dish of the week inspired by the show, and you be the judge’! The hotel group is advertising this in the Sunday Times Food Weekly.
Chef Benny has grown as much as his Finalists on MasterChef SA have, and he said that initially it was ‘terrifying’ to be on TV, surrounded by nine cameras, but now he is used to it, and he would love to do more of it, having discovered a new side of himself. Meeting with Chef Benny for about an hour reinforced what a nice person he is, the reason why he is so well-liked by the MasterChef SA TV viewers.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
MasterChef SA is the talk of the country, and we have 14 more gripping episodes to look forward to in the next four months. To spice things up a little, we have launched two competitions, the first being a prediction of who will win MasterChef SA in episode 18.
We are also running a weekly lucky draw for the correct prediction of who our readers think will be booted out of the MasterChef SA every week. For the correct prediction of who will leave MasterChef SA in episode 5 (17 April), I ♥ my Laundry has generously offered a food and wine pairing voucher to the winner. Last week the trailer for episode 5 hinted that the sixteen finalists were divided into two teams, and each team had to choose which member they were eliminating, meaning that two finalists may be booted out.
I ♥ my Laundry opened a month ago. The back section is on two floors, and contains the laundry, with washing, dry cleaning, ironing, and collection/delivery (within the City Bowl initially) services
offered, not visible from the coffee shop/restaurant on the ground floor. It has been beautifully transformed, with a 14-seater silver grey concrete table top resting on steel legs, comfortable white and black high-back chairs, a wooden counter, and wooden shelving. On the mainly brickwork walls are artworks, which will be rotated over time. The inspiration for the name and concept for I ♥ my Laundry, which is co-owned by Clayton Howard and Mico Botha, comes from The French Laundry in New York, which was first started by a husband and wife team, running a restaurant and a laundry first as two outlets next door to each other, and then opened up to become one entity. The Buitengracht branch is the third to open in the past four months, with branches in Durbanville and Kenridge too.
Free wifi is offered, and a coffee machine makes perfect cappucinos from Brazilian-imported beans by Joga Joga Café, exclusively stocked in South Africa by I ♥ my Laundry. Cupcakes and chocolate pops are for sale, as is delicious Dim Sum all day long, at the most unbelievable value of R40 for eight pieces and a cup of coffee or a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. An exciting subsidiary business is I ♥ my Wine, for which Clayton and Mico host interesting corporate events in which they bring together an alcoholic beverage supplier and a chef or restaurant to create magical food and wine pairing evenings.
Tweet your prediction of which of the 16 remaining finalists will be booted out of MasterChef SA to @WhaleCottage, or e-mail it to whalecot@iafrica.com. Closing time for entries is Tuesday 17 April at 19h30, at the start of episode 5. The winner will be contacted immediately after the show ends. There will be a weekly Restaurant Voucher prize draw per episode for the correct prediction of who will be booted out of MasterChef SA, and voting for the following episode can start as soon as that day’s episode has been aired. Should there be no correct entry received, the prize is rolled over to go to another week.
POSTSCRIPT 17/4: Berdina Schurink was voted out in episode 5 this evening. No correct prediction was received. The prize from I ♥ my Laundry will be rolled over to another week.
I ♥ my Laundry, 59 Buitengracht Street, Cape Town. Tel 084 660 0777 (Clayton)/083 6020291 (Mico) www.Ilovemylaundry.co.za Twitter:@ILovemyLaundry, Monday – Sunday, 7h00 – 19h00.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.comTwitter:@WhaleCottage whalecot@iafrica.com
The opening of Burrata at the Old Biscuit Mill (in the previous B-Lounge) at the beginning of the month had been eagerly awaited, with its owner Neil Grant coming from 2011 Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Rust en Vrede (he was the sommelier when he ran the restaurant with chef David Higgs). Burrata is not a pizzeria, and it’s not an Italian restaurant, and not all its dishes contain Burrata mozzarella! It is a unique, friendly, and welcoming restaurant, which with its neighbours The Pot Luck Club and The Test Kitchen make the Old Biscuit Mill and Woodstock an increasingly exciting restaurant destination.
At night, most of the restaurant is not brightly lit, and therefore the red pizza oven imported from Naples catches one’s eye immediately. It is unlike any pizza oven seen locally, with a more modern design, weighing 2,6 tons, and having necessitated the widening of the doors to get it inside the restaurant. It is lower in size, concentrating and therefore intensifying the heat inside the oven, at about 460°C. Logs are stored inside the black-tiled pizza oven stand, as well as against a window in another section of the restaurant, creating an interesting circular design effect, letting in light from outside, but giving diners inside some privacy. The pizzaiolo, one of the new names I learnt, being the male pizza makers, use peels imported from Italy: the loading peel is used to stretch the pizza, to create the correct shape and to place it in the oven; the turning peel turns the pizza around once it is in the oven, to ensure that the pizza is equally cooked, explained Cameron. Burrata backer Barry Engelbrecht is a pizza aficionado, and has attended pizza-making courses around the world, and he trained the staff in pizza-making, none of them having come from a pizza restaurant. 
Interesting were the wine bottle lights, with LED lighting inside, which Neil had made from a design he had seen overseas.
Mozzarella, and the Burrata (a mozzarella which is shaped into a pouch filled with left-over bits of mozzarella and cream), are sourced from local Italian-owned Puglia Cheese, the cuputo pizza flour and tinned tomatoes are imported from Italy, the prosciutto comes from a Johannesburg supplier and Neil Jewell in Franschhoek, and other ingredients are sourced from the Wild Peacock Food Emporium in Stellenbosch. The pork belly came from Sachs butchery.
The red pizza oven creates the decor colour foundation, and the use of red and black extends into the staff uniforms, Maxwell Williams salt and pepper grinders, material serviettes into which the Forum cutlery is rolled, the sugar bowls, and on the menu and winelist covers. Beautiful Italian Luigi Bormioli glasses made in Parma enhance the special wines served. A red meat slicer has a place of honour inside the restaurant. The kitchen is open plan, behind glass, and visible to diners. There seemed to be a large staff complement, almost as many staff as diners. A charming front-of-house hostess is Swiss national Isabella Immenkamp, who was a sommelier at the Grande Roche previously (her partner Joakim Hansi Blackadder recently won the Bollinger Sommelier competition, and has taken Neil’s job at Rust en Vrede). She was very attentive, and European in her service delivery. Neil came to the table regularly, almost timed to coincide with a next question I had! Chef Annemarie Steenkamp comes from Le Quartier Français, where she spent five years.
The menu and winelist are each bound in fine Burrata branded black leather, printed on quality paper, with the striking red Burrata branding. 
Starters start at R28 for olives marinated with oregano, garlic and chilli, peaking at R125 for a shared antipasti platter served with pizza bread. My son ordered bruschetta with prosciutto, rocket and grated walnut (R58), and the two slices were generously covered with the ham. Puglia burrata is served with olive oil, oryx desert salt with crostini (R55). The four pasta options are unusual, and range in cost from R78 (fried auricchio gnocchi with peas, fine beans, green olives and baby spinach) – R98 (pappardelle slow cooked short rib, roasted red pepper and crispy onion). Five main courses include risotto with caramelised onions,
bone marrow, and lemon (R68), pan seared line fish (R125), roasted rib eye (R135), chicken polpette (R84), and the most tender Tuscan-spiced braised pork belly with butter roasted cauliflower and glazed brussel sprouts (R115), but which did not overwhelm me, from its lack of colour and taste.
Pizzas make up almost half the menu. They are introduced as follows: ‘at Burrata, we strive to create the best possible neapolitan style pizza. this style of pizza has a puffy, flame blackened crust with a light crispness. we use only the the very best quality ingredients including flour and tomatoes exclusively imported from Italy. our italian oven cooks our pizzas at 480°C in less than 90 seconds. The menu explains that to maintain quality standards, ingredients cannot be changed nor ordered ‘half-and-half’. The ingredients are interesting. Tomato-base pizzas start at R52 (Marinara, with garlic, oregano and olive oil), and the Di mare pizza costs R109, with prawns, squid, garlic with coriander and chilli aioli. The prosciutto e arugula pizza sounds good too, with fresh mozzarella, parmagiano reggiano, prosciutto and rocket. Pizza bianca 
(i.e.without tomato sauce base) include Ficci (mozzarella, gorgonzola, fresh figs and prosciutto), Delre (with a truffle spread, mozzarella, mushroom, and prosciutto), at R98. My son’s Delre pizza base was burnt, and Isabella immediately offered to redo it. It was much better the second time around. Four dessert options are peach and amaretto tart (R42); Lime Zabaglione with fresh strawberries and blueberries was served with Madeira cake 
which jarred in its dryness (R44) and a most attractively designed Forum spoon; sweet honey pizza with ricotta, caramelised apple, honey and roasted almonds sounds delicious and costs R58; while cioccolato pizza comes with a homemade chocolate and hazelnut spread, banana and treacle sugar (R64). Coffee is by Origin. Burrata’s lunch menu is slightly reduced relative to the dinner menu, with one item removed per section. No pasta dishes are available over lunch.
Tap water is served in a wine bottle, a clever touch. The winelist is extensive, and lists very neatly the region, country, and vintage of each of the roughly 100 wines served by the bottle, with an additional 14 wines by the glass. Grant writes in his introduction to the winelist: “welcome to burrata, where we pay mutual respect to food and wine. you will notice that our wine list does not contain any descriptive notes. one of our sommeliers will gladly assist you throughout your experience with us. i hope you will take pleasure in browsing through the list and please feel free to ask any questions you may have”. 
Champagne brands Pol Roger, Philipponat, Salon, Torresella, Billecart Salmon, and Jean Veselle range in price from R195 – R3500. Only two local MCC’s are served: Silverthorn (R60/280) and Colmant (R230). White wines by the glass cost R30 – R45, and red wines R33 – R68. About ten wines per variety are offered. Shiraz prices range from R195 (2008 Tamboerskloof) to R950 (2008 De Trafford). The winelist cautions that wines and vintages ‘are subject to availability‘.
Burrata is friendly, welcoming, with reasonable prices, and a most impressive winelist. After eight days since opening, things ran smoothly, with the exception of the pizza. The service and personal attention is exceptional, the best we have experienced in a very long time. There were speakers on the wall, but no music, which would have been a good finishing touch. The very new team, who have never worked together before, will gel over time, and the menu will evolve. The dissonance between menu and wine list will probably be reduced over time, the exceptional and extensive wine selection dominating the relatively more ordinary menu.
POSTSCRIPT 7/4: Enjoyed the mozzarella, fig and prosciutto pizza at Burrata on a rainy
pizza-eating Easter weekend Saturday, the best pizza I have ever eaten! The pizza base is good enough to eat without the topping. Exciting news is that a 3-course food and wine pairing menu will be launched in the next two weeks.
POSTSCRIPT 14/4: Back at Burrata, and tried the Delre pizza, with prosciutto, mushrooms, and mozzarella. It became a three hour lunch, in the (unplanned) 
company of Ursula and Davide Ostuni of Puglia Cheese. They supply Burrata with mozzarella cheeses, and were most complimentary about the pizzas at Burrata.
POSTSCRIPT 21/6: Lovely evening at Burrata, with guest house
colleagues Rainer and Greg. The charcuterie and cheese platter was a good match with the pizzas. Delicious chocolate mousse, vanilla panna cotta and lime.
POSTSCRIPT 9/7: What amazing news: after only having been open for 4 months, Burrata has been named the Middle East/Africa winner of the Birra Moretti Best Emerging Italian Restaurant Award, ahead of Ristorante Armani in Dubai and Carne, also in Cape Town! What makes the Award even more prestigious is that it is affiliated to the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards.
Burrata, Old Biscuit Mill, Albert Road, Woodstock. Tel (021) 447-6505. www.burrata.co.za Twitter: @BurrataSA Tuesday – Saturday, Lunch and Dinner.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage
I haven’t been to Catharina’s restaurant on Steenberg estate for a number of years, and an e-mail notification of a food and wine evening at the restaurant, pairing a 5-course meal with three Graham Beck and two Steenberg wines, and presenting a meal prepared by the two chefs of the Steenberg estate, attracted my attention. It was an interesting evening, and reflected a number of marriages.
In speaking to Steenberg winemaker JD Pretorius on arrival, he shared a number of interesting changes with me. 
The most significant is that the two wine-producing wine estates Graham Beck Wines and Steenberg Vineyards, both of which were owned by the late Mr Graham Beck, merged on 1 July, to become Graham Beck Enterprises (Pty) Limited, with its hospitality portfolio of the Steenberg Hotel, the two restaurants Bistro Sixteen82 and Catharina’s, two stud farms in Robertson, and two wine farms in Stellenbosch, all incorporated into the new company. JD also told me that Gary Baumgarten, who had headed up the overall wine production of both estates, will be leaving at the end of October, and that John Loubser will be taking over the leadership. Graham Beck winemaker
Erika Obermeyer, based at the Franschhoek estate currently, will move to Steenberg Vineyards, where she will be making Graham Beck wines, given the sale of the Franschhoek Graham Beck property to neighbouring Antonij Rupert Wines, which becomes effective mid-2012. Even more exciting is that Graham Beck will create the ‘Gorgeous’ Bubbly Bar at what is currently a separate function room just outside the main restaurant at Catharina’s, with its own menu, along similar lines to the Raw Bar of Bistro Sixteen82, and paired with a flight of the five Graham Beck MCC’s, Steenberg Hospitality GM Gabi Gramm told me from the table next door. The Gorgeous Bubbly Bar is expected to open in December.
To get back to the food and wine pairing evening at Catharina’s: I asked consultant sommelier Higgo Jacobs why the Top 100 SA Wines 2100 logo was so prominent on the menu. He explained that all five the wines selected for the evening had appeared on the prestigious list of 100 finest South African wines, a competition that wine estates with better wines had voluntary chosen to enter. Higgo is involved in the organisation of the competition, having previously been the full-time sommelier at Catharina’s. He is now involved as a Sommelier consultant to the restaurant, assisting with the compilation of the winelist, and the training of its staff. He also serves on the Board of the recently formed Sommelier Association of South Africa. He trained as a sommelier in the United Kingdom, having left South Africa to broaden his experience, having worked in wine retail, as well as in wine sales and marketing, and having made his own wine . Higgo introduced the evening, and requested each of the two wine estates’ winemakers to introduce each individual wine per course, talking to the pairing with the food as well. JD has worked at Steenberg for three years, while Erika has been at Graham Beck Wines for six years.
Catharina’s is a large T-shaped restaurant, that can be closed off into smaller sections with thick wooden doors. Wood is the decor theme, with wooden tables, logs stacked on each side of the large fireplace playing a decorative as well as a functional role, and a wooden lino cut by Cecil Skotness fitting in with this theme. The historic origin of the building comes through in the windows, but glass doors leading outside are modern. The marriage of old and new is visible on the table too, with a wooden holder on which a glass candle holder, a vase with beautiful red roses, and two small beautifully designed modern stainless steel salt holders, one each containing Himalayan rock salt and the other Maldon organic salt. The tables have overlays in a grey colour, which match the colour of the comfortable upholstered chairs. The ceramic Willowcreek olive oil and balsamic vinegar containers did not match the table décor. Good quality serviettes are folded whenever one leaves the table, and cutlery is attractive German WMF Hotel. The very modern bathroom, with lost of stainless steel too, has mirror frames made from oval-shaped vats, adding the same decor marriage. The ceiling has reeds, with discreet downlighters. Music was a lot of Michael Bublé. Staff wear black pants, white shirts, and grey aprons.
It was interesting to hear that the two chefs on the estate had never collaborated or worked in the same kitchen before, and after the dinner they said that they had enjoyed the experience. Chef Brad Ball has been at Bistro Sixteen82 since it opened two years ago, while Chef Garth Almazan of Catharina’s has worked at the hotel for the past twelve years, clearly loving his job. The first course was prepared by Chef Brad, being a Leek velouté served with a Franschhoek trout brandade (a purée of salt cod, olive oil, and milk) and a tomato crisp.
To this starter JD had paired his Steenberg Vineyards HMS Rattlesnake Sauvignon Blanc 2010, which was made with grapes from Darling, Durbanville and Steenberg, and named in honour of the ship used in the Battle of Muizenberg in False Bay close by. 
Chef Gareth prepared an Asparagus and goat’s feta risotto served with ciabatta crumbs and shemeji mushrooms. Erika had paired the Graham Beck ‘Pheasants Run’ Sauvignon Blanc 2010 with the second starter, and it was interesting how different the two Sauvignon Blancs were. The grapes come from the Durbanville Fisantekraal wine estate as well as from Darling, picking up the closeness to the ocean, and hence the name given to the wine.
Chef Brad prepared the Roast Cape Whiting, served with a crab beignet, sweetcorn purèe, pommes Duchesse, and harisssa (made from chillies, garlic and coriander) oil, and I was impressed that this 
dish came with a fish knife, not being common in restaurants serving fish. To this dish JD had paired his Steenberg Vineyards Semillon 2010, and he explained how this grape variety had been the most prominent variety planted originally, but that it only makes up a small proportion of grapes in South Africa. Herman Hanekom, ex-GM of Steenberg VIneyards, had ‘smuggled’ some Semillon from Bordeaux into the country, and it was planted at Steenberg, Boschendal and Vergelegen, all initially properties that were owned by Rhodes Fruit Farms. It is a niche wine for Steenberg, and is also used in the making of its Sauvignon Blanc. The Semillon is matured for nine months, and is a good wine to pair with food.
I was impressed that all food came out of the kitchen on piping-hot plates, the photography and Tweeting time not cooling down the food greatly. Chef Garth prepared an excellent rare Chalmar Beef fillet on cauliflower purée, served with crumbed veal sweetbread, pomme Maxim, and a red wine jus, which came with an excellent steak knife.
Erika paired the steak with Graham Beck ‘The Ridge’ Syrah 2006, and asked Mr Baumgarten to talk about the challenge he set himself to make an excellent Syrah wine from Robertson grapes, when sceptics said it could not be done. Mr Baumgarten and Graham Beck cellarmaster Pieter Ferreira visited Australia, to study their red wine-making. They have not made The Ridge every year since the first bottling in 2006, having skipped 2009 and 2010, due to climatic conditions.
It was interesting to change back to a white wine for dessert, being the Graham Beck ‘Bowed Head’ Chenin Blanc 2009, made from a block of 45 year old vines, that can withstand the heat well. It comes from Agter-Paarl, the grapes having had a little botrytis, is matured in barrel for nine months, and has honeysuckle and citrus notes. The Spring Berry and Mascarpone Soufflé, served with a chenin and berry jelly, was the highlight of the evening, Chef Garth not making it easy for himself in his choice of dessert in baking sixty soufflés. The LavAzza cappuccino, which I ordered with the dessert, was a surprise charge of R15, and was not mentioned by the waiter when ordered, something one would have expected to be part of the R390 price tag.
I will certainly be back to try Gorgeous when it opens in December. The Steenberg Estate is beautiful, an interesting marriage of history and modernity, and decorated with excellent local art. The marriage of Graham Beck Wines and Steenberg Vineyards is one of two outstanding wine brands.
Catharina’s, Steenberg Hotel, Constantia. Tel (021) 713-2222. www.steenberghotel.com. Monday – Sunday, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage
