I have never written about a family member on my Blog before, but today I salute my son Alex von Ulmenstein in his success in receiving a The Caterer Acorn Award 2019, as one of the 30 best in the UK Hospitality industry under the age of 30. Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Relais & Chateaux
Chewton Glen offers a variety of cuisine for its guests, made with ingredients from its Kitchen Gardens!
I have visited Chewton Glen in the New Forest annually since my son Alex started working there five years ago, moving over from Delaire Graff Estate to the fellow Relais & Chateaux property. Over time I have tried out the various eating options at the hotel, and tried them all out again on my most recent visit last week. Continue reading →
Chef Peter Tempelhoff marriage to Ellerman House two months after divorce from The Liz McGrath Collection!
Just two months after the termination of the ten-year relationship between Chef Peter Tempelhoff and The Liz McGrath Collection, and with it Top Ten Greenhouse restaurant, it has been announced that he has been appointed as Culinary Director at the prestigious Ellerman House in Bantry Bay, Cape Town. Continue reading →
Restaurant Review: Mirazur French foraging restaurant in Menton, 6th World’s 50 Best Restaurant, Michelin 2-star!
A visit to Europe became more exciting when I decided to add a visit to France, dining at one Michelin star JAN restaurant in Nice, and continuing my World’s 50 Best Restaurants journey, eating at Mirazur in Menton (6th best), and at L’Arpège (19th best) and Septime (50th best) in Paris. Mirazur is the most highly ranked French restaurant, and has two Michelin stars. Mirazur means ‘look at the blue sea’. Last year I ate at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in New York, and in London. Continue reading →
Restaurant Review: Daniel old-school French icon, Michelin 2 star!
It was on Facebook that Jacqui Jones, now living in New York, saw that I was in the city, and invited me to join her and partner James for dinner at New York icon restaurant Daniel last week. Daniel is a Michelin two star restaurant, and is Relais & Chateaux accredited. Continue reading →
Restaurant Review: Eleven Madison Park thanks its success to Miles Davis, 3rd Best in World, serves New York on a plate!
The night before our lunch at Eleven Madison Park, a Michelin three-star restaurant and named in June as third best in the World’s 50 Best Restaurant ranking, I could barely sleep from excitement, the reason for my trip to New York. Of the seven top restaurants I am booked for in New York and London Eleven Madison Park tops them all in stature, a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. Continue reading →
Restaurant Review: Seafood at The Plettenberg not 5-star Relais & Chateux standard!
I have been to The Plettenberg hotel a number of times to eat at its former Sand and now renamed Seafood restaurant. Given that the hotel is five-star graded, a Relais & Chateux property, and under the supervision (long distance) of Eat Out Top 10 Chef Peter Tempelhoff, my expectations are high of the restaurant in being the best in Plett, yet sadly are Continue reading →
Communal Dinners at Salushi on #WolftrapWednesdays launched!
Last night I attended a Communal Dinner at Salushi Asian restaurant in Claremont, the first trial dinner to which 20 writers had been invited. They will be held every Wednesday evening, and are called #WolftrapWednesdays, the wine being sponsored by Boekenhoutskloof’ Winery’s The Wolftrap.
Coming from the other side of the mountain, I struggled to find Salushi, which I could not see from Protea Road, being set back. Continue reading →
Why do hotel restaurants not have better patron support and win awards?
It was a recent article by Nick Lander, husband of renowned wine critic Jancis Robinson and restaurant critic in the UK, about restaurants in hotels he had visited in Dubai that made me consider once again why hotel restaurants fare so poorly in patron support and in the Eat Out Top 10 restaurant awards in our country.Lander writes that specific rules about restaurants and liquor licences force restaurants to be linked to hotels in Dubai. In our country no such rules apply, and as a service to guests, hotels have over the years added dining facilities, in early days being the only restaurants offering tea and cake, and lunch and dunner. My parents drove us with overseas visitors to Franschhoek’s Swiss Farm Excelsior (now the Le Franschhoek Hotel), the benchmark of restaurants in those years.
Will Mondiall survive the departure of Chefs Peter Tempelhoff and Lauren Case? Appoints Chef Riaan Burger!
What a surprise to read this morning that Chef Peter Tempelhoff, co-owner of Mondiall Restaurant with Patrick Symington, is leaving his own restaurant, to focus more time on The Greenhouse and the other restaurants in the McGrath hotel portfolio!
The announcement was made via Eat Out, and Chef Peter is quoted as saying: ‘Along with the sudden death of one of my greatest mentors, Liz McGrath, a few weeks ago, 
has come a change of thinking and a new challenge. My role in the three Relais & Chateaux hotels of The Collection by Liz McGrath has become more important than ever before, as I have been offered a more significant role within The Greenhouse and the company… a challenge I cannot ignore. Continue reading →