On Thursday, the hottest day of the year to date, a number of writers was invited to attend the launch of the new Willow Creek Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Virgin Coconut Oil Blend, held at the Sky Bar at the Grand Daddy Hotel in Cape Town. Continue reading →
Tag Archives: TASTE
Winelands Chocolate Festival at Blaauwklippen this weekend!
The second Winelands Chocolate Festival takes place at the Blaauwklippen Wine Estate this weekend, celebrating all things chocolate! Continue reading →
New Media Publishing wins international awards for VISI, Taste, and Spaces magazines!
New Media Publishing has won awards for three of its publications at two American magazine award ceremonies. VISI, Taste, and Spaces have been honored internationally.The Awards which its magazines have won are the following:
‘Brand-new look’ Woolworths TASTE magazine copies 2012 Washingtonian cover!
Last week New Media Publishing, publishers of TASTE magazine for client Woolworths for the past twelve years, announced in a media release published on bizcommunity.com that ‘Woolworths TASTE has a brand-new look!‘ Its look may not be as new as it would like Woolworths’ shoppers to believe! Continue reading →
New Restaurant openings in Cape Town and Winelands continue!
Even though we are halfway through the summer season, new restaurants continue to open, and more are planned before summer ends. This list of restaurant openings and closings and restaurant staff movements is updated continuously, as we receive new information:
Restaurant Openings
* Michael Townsend (who owns the Harbour House emporium, with La Parada, Lucky Fish, and Harbour House restaurants) has opened Tiger’s Milk in Muizenberg (photograph). The Lucky Fish on Long Street will be transformed into Tiger’s Milk.
* Kokkedoor judge and Chef Nic van Wyk and Roxy Laker have opened bistro 13 at Stellenbosch Vineyards (Welmoed)
* Idiom Wines is said to be opening a restaurant.
* The Butcher Shop & Grill has opened next to Sotano in Mouille Point. Continue reading →
New restaurant openings awaited in Cape Town & Winelands!
An unusually high number of new restaurants has opened or will do so in the next month or two. There have never been so many chefs leaving their employers to start their own restaurants, or to join other employers! This list of restaurant openings and closings and restaurant staff movements is updated continuously, as we receive new information:
Restaurant Openings
* Kokkedoor judge and Chef Nic van Wyk and Roxy Laker have opened bistro 13 at Stellenbosch Vineyards (Welmoed) (photograph)
* Idiom Wines is said to be opening a restaurant.
* The Butcher Shop & Grill has opened next to Sotano in Mouille Point.
* Michael Townsend (who own the La Parada, Lucky Fish, Harbour House emporium) has opened Tiger’s Milk in Muizenberg, the venue having previously been earmarked for a steakhouse.
* Neil Grant and his business partner Barry Engelbrecht (of Burrata) have opened new restaurant Bocca on the corner of Bree
Continue reading →
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 16/17 November
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Nando’s, Prince Harry’s and Beyonce’s favourite chicken take-out in London, will be opening its first store at Gatwick airport.
* Heathrow needs a third runway to deal with the estimated doubling of traffic by 2030. One plan is to build a floating runway on an estuary of the Thames, instead of demolishing houses in a village close to Heathrow.
* Wide-spread flooding hit Somerset West, Franschhoek, Hermanus/Stanford, Strand, and Cape Town on Friday evening. The Franschhoek Pass, Chapman’s Peak, Betty’s Bay/Gordon’s Bay road, and Victoria Road* between Camps Bay and Hout Bay are still closed.
* Eben Sadie of The Sadie Family Wines is the winemaker featured in the weekly Terroirist blog interview!
* Not only is Stellenbosch famous for its many wine estates producing excellent Continue reading →
Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards 2014: Best event ever, some highs, some shocks!
After two disastrous years, New Media Publishing was brave enough to take stock earlier this year, and asked the industry what it wanted in the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards. Last night that hard work paid off, with a new venue for the event, a slick and short presentation, new Awards introduced, and three new restaurants making the Top 10 Restaurant list. The surprise was the emotion which the chefs expressed when receiving their plaques, challenging MasterChef SA Season 2 on tears!
We were one of the interviewees, meeting with Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly, its GM Aileen Lamb, MD Bridget McCarney, and Director Irna van Zyl. We were forthright in our feedback and suggestions, including that a team of judges would be needed again (we suggested Garth Stroebel, and have yet to meet him!). We fed back that the preferential relationship with Luke Dale-Roberts in TASTE magazine (also published by New Media Publishing, and of which Abigail is the Food Editor) was unfair towards all other chefs, by featuring him every month – we were told that Woolworths had a contract with him, and therefore he received the coverage in the magazine. This contract was terminated earlier this year, which is excellent news. Other recommendations can be read here. Flowing from the interviews and discussions with previous Top 20 chefs and restaurant managers, owners, and suppliers, as well as media representatives and bloggers, New Media Publishing allowed restaurants to apply to be included in the Eat Out Top 500 Restaurant List, which was selected by a Continue reading →
Delaire Graff makes history in Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards!
For the first time in the history of the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards two restaurants belonging to one owner have been nominated for the honoured list. Both Delaire Graff Restaurant and Indochine, under the direction of Chef Christiaan Campbell, made it onto the Top 20 shortlist, which Eat Out announced yesterday. We are delighted with our best ever Top 20 Restaurant shortlist prediction score, in correctly guessing 18 out of the Top 20 shortlisted restaurants.
The Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant Awards shortlist contained a few surprises, leading one restaurant representative to comment that despite the new judging system and panel, little had changed in the shortlist, with only two newly opened restaurants included, being Camphors at Vergelegen (Chef PJ Vadas) and five hundred (Chef David Higgs). Surprises were the following:
- The non-appearance of Terroir and Mosaic at The Orient, both restaurants having made the Top 10 Restaurant list last year. We have been critical of Terroir’s perennial appearance on the Continue reading →
Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant Awards 2014 shortlist: a prediction!
It’s that time of the year again, and this week Eat Out will announce its shortlisted Top 20 Restaurants for the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards 2014. The judges have been furiously eating their way around the country, and top restaurants are licking their lips in the hope of cracking the Top 20 list, from which the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurants will be announced at the gala dinner in the V&A Waterfront on 10 November.
Given the turmoil in the judging of our country’s Top 10 restaurants in the past two years, Eat Out publisher New Media Publishing communicated with the industry, and invited past Top 20 chefs and some restaurant owners to chat about what they want in restaurant awards. The overwhelming majority of respondents requested a panel of South African judges (British blogger ‘judge’ Bruce Palling used last Continue reading →