Tag Archives: Google

Zest Restaurant in Sea Point loses its zest! Why I resigned!

 

This weekend my resignation from Zest in July has made news in the Restaurant industry.

To date I have not written about how disrespectfully I was treated by Zest, hoping that some degree of decency would prevail by its so-called ‘owner and operator’ Chef Pavel Dimitrov. I referred the matter to the CCMA, as I have not been paid outstanding compensation, and in the proceedings I was treated with the utmost disrespect by the labour relations consultancy representing Zest.

I have decided that the time is right to tell my story, and that of abused Zest staff too!

Continue reading →

SA Butler Academy and Guild Recruitment continues its revenge action with racism allegations!

 

An interaction outside my EbbTide apartment block between an Uber driver and I, which was in part videoed by the driver without my permission, is circulating around Cape Town.

The SA Butler Academy, and its sister company Guild Recruitment, is circulating the video about this interaction, to businesses in Camps Bay and to the media, in an attempt to discredit me. They are using a fake email account ‘JR Williams’. The subject line of the email is ‘The way the tour guide Chris von Ulmenstein treats black tourists in Cape Town’.  Continue reading →

Fine dining Restaurants blackmailed via scam Google reviews!

 

Fine Dining Lovers has reported that scammers based in India are blackmailing American Fine Dining restaurants to remove negative reviews which they have posted without ever having eaten there, in exchange for payment.

The publication quotes the New York Times that Top Restaurants are being awarded 1 out of 5 star reviews on Google, without photographs or a description, and the review writers never having eaten at the establishments. Continue reading →

POPI Act affects every business, including restaurants, every website owner: deadline 30 June!

 

A new word on everyone’s lips is POPIA, short for the Protection of Public Information Act.  Its original deadline was a year ago, and has been extended to 30 June 2021.

Working with restaurant clients, which collect public information when recording Covid-compliant diner temperatures, names, email addresses, and cell phone numbers, it became clear to me that restaurants need to comply with the Act by 1 July, failing which they can face a Fine of up to R10 million. Continue reading →

Panic appears to be setting in at the SA Butler Academy in reaction to Carte Blanche program and student legal action!

 

On 27 December 2020 Carte Blanche broadcast its program about the South African Butler Academy (SABA), featuring former student Lin Yang, who has taken on SABA to get her money refunded, and to prevent potential Butler students from being misled by SABA. I was interviewed too, having identified in 2013 already that the marketing of SABA is misleading its prospective students and their parents.

I  summarised the interaction between SABA and myself, and between SABA and Lin Yang just after the Carte Blanche program was broadcast:

Continue reading →

Corona Virus: Lockdown Journey Journal, Day 68 of Level 1, 27 November 2020.;

 

Friday 27 November 2020, Day 68 of Level 1, Day 247 of Lockdown 😷

Corona Gratitude 🙏

#Grateful for a busy and efficiently planned day; for a warm 26C day after yesterday’s wind; for being able to see the new Camps Bay Police Station crime victim support unit, which was launched today; for an amazing Black Friday, my first time ever making use of discounts offered; for cleaning up the stream with the Camps Bay cleaners this morning and in Bakoven this afternoon; for an interesting talk on Consumer Insights at Whitespace Creative, invited by Tania Harrison; for a Christmas shop at the German Food Shop above Dinkel Bakery, Dinkel keeping some poppy seed rolls for me, and I seeing a must-have Berliner; for an always friendly shop at the Continental Butchery on Upper Kloof Street; for dancing to Kfm 💃; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙 Continue reading →

Cape Town celebrates the 30th anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela from prison after 27 years!

 

Yesterday it was the 30th anniversary of the release of the late Nelson Mandela, after being incarcerated in three prisons in Cape Town and Paarl over a period of 27 years. The celebration of the anniversary of the monumental event on 11 February 1990 is a memory for many of us Capetonians who stood outside the City Hall, to hear Mandela address us on that day. The anniversary celebrations took place inside and outside the Cape Town City Hall yesterday. For many it was a sad reminder that much of South Africa remains divided, perhaps more so than it was on this date 30 years ago.  Continue reading →

Little-known hospitality consultancy Hospitality Counsel announces Top 10 Chefs and Restaurants 2019!

It was a Facebook post by Chef Jan-Hendrik van der Westhuizen of South African/French restaurant JAN in Nice that alerted me to the Hospitality Counsel 2019 ranking of our countries top ten Restaurants as well as Chefs, when he thanked them for being included in the Top 10 Chef List. No other restaurant or chef on the two lists appears to have announced the accolades from the Hospitality Counsel, awarded at an event called the 2019 Luxury Tourism Awards! Continue reading →

Twelve Apostles Hotel introduces unique Vegan High Tea, beautifully presented!

While I am very conscious of my weight, and focused on maintaining or even reducing it further, I have not become a Vegan or Vegetarian eater, although my eating pattern largely excludes meat and bread. It was therefore interesting to receive an invitation from the hotel’s Food & Beverage Manager Hilton Ruch, to try the new Vegan High Tea last Friday. Continue reading →

Eating with the locals in a Ligurian village square in Italy, celebrating Ferragosto!

Yesterday evening I ventured up the steep lane to the square in the village in which I am living in Liguria province, celebrating not only the Catholic religious holiday of Ferragosto, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, but also a successful first two days of writing my book.  Continue reading →