Tag Archives: Arnold Tanzer

2014 Mercedes-Benz Eat Out Top 10 Restaurants: who will make it tonight?

Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards logo 2It’s the highlight of the restaurant industry tonight, and 1000 restaurant staff, food lovers, suppliers, and media will be at Thunder City to salute and celebrate the Mercedes-Benz Eat Out Top 10 Restaurants.

It must be one of the most oddball years for the Mercedes-Benz Eat Out Restaurant Awards 2014, the goalposts changing in August and September, as more and more Top 20 calibre chefs left their restaurants of employ, to join other restaurants, or to open their own establishments. Some Eat Out judges had already been sent to evaluate potential Top 20 candidate restaurant before the chef departures were announced, wasting time and money for New Media Publishing and its judges Abigail Donnelly (Editor of Eat Out), Andy Fenner (Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants, supplier to a number of Top 20 restaurants, a Continue reading →

Eat Out names 6 chefs cooking at 2014 Restaurant Awards Gala Dinner, 5 judges confirmed!

Eat Out Cooking-chefs-awards-tableEat Out has announced the names of its six ‘celebrated chefs’ cooking at its 2014 Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards Gala Dinner on 16 November at new (for Eat Out) venue Thunder City.  It has also revealed that five judges will select the Top 10 Restaurants for 2015.

In the past the chef selection for the Gala Dinner has been a sure predictor of Eat Out Top 10 restaurant selection, but when this became too obvious, Eat Out selected a mix of chefs who made the Top 10 Restaurant list, with some that did not.  We have predicted the Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant shortlist for this year.   The ‘decorated chefs’ cooking the dinner are:

*   Neil Jewell of Bread & Wine (a weird Top 20 Restaurant finalist last year), which will definitely not make Top 10.

*   David Higgs of five hundred (last year’s Chef of the Year and the restaurant came second on the Top 10 list), which will definitely make Top 10 – can Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly let go of her ‘darling’ Luke Dale-Roberts, and give the top spot to Continue reading →

Are there enough top chefs left to make up a credible 2014 Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant list?

Chenin Blanc Top 10 Huguenot Cheese Brulee Whale CottageIn the past week three further Top 20 Restaurant candidate chefs have announced their resignation, making the restaurants at which they work ineligible to be nominated for the 2014 Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant shortlist.  This year is the most volatile we have ever seen as far as top restaurant chef departures go, opening up the opportunity for a fresh 2014 Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards list.

The latest chef resignations are the following:

*   Chef Oliver Cattermole left Mondiall Kitchen & Bar two weeks ago, today joining the Leeu Collection as its Executive Chef for its five star Dassenberg Estate hotel and Leeu Restraurants Oliver CattermoleRusthof Country House in Franschhoek, both opening next year.  Chef Oliver has worked locally at Dash at the Queen Victoria Hotel, the Le Franschhoek hotel, and Mondiall, as well as internationally at Ivy Restaurant, La Gavroche, Novelli, and at Cannizaro House hotel.

*   Chef Brad Ball, who helped open Bistro Sixteen82 at Steenberg, leaves in two weeks to start up what sounds like a collective of three restaurants at Pedlars on the Bend in Constantia

*   Chef Christiaan Campbell leaves Delaire Graff Estate, after opening up the main restaurant more than Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 26 June

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Constantia Glen was recognised as Wine Producer of the Year at the recent SA Wine Index (SAWi) 2014 awards, and Beyers Truter of Beyerskloof was named the Wine Legend of the Year, recognised as a pioneer of the South African wine industry. DeMorgenzon won White Wine Producer of the Year, and Kanonkop Red Wine Producer of the Year. Best South African Brandy Producer went to KWV.  Top scoring wines, at 99 out of 100, were Hamilton Russell Chardonnay, Saronsberg Full Circle, Rijks Pinotage, and Kanonkop Paul Sauer.   The event was held at Grootbos, which is exclusively offering the full range of SAWi Grand Wines Collection scoring 93+ points out of 1oo.

*   The Local Grill in Parktown in Johannesburg has won the Wolftrap Steakhouse Championship 2014 for the second year running, with The Godfather from Centurion in Pretoria taking second place, beating 140 steakhouses around the country, and then a shortlist of five, which included two steakhouses in Cape Town.   The judges selected the Local Grill on the basis of its expertise in ‘meat, consistent service, and accurate grilling‘.   The steakhouse opened a branch in Woodstock a few months ago.  Chefs Pete Goffe-Wood, Reuben Robertsons Pop-Up and Pop-In Riffel, and Arnold Tanzer were the judges, all associated with MasterChef SA Season 3. (received via media release from Hazell PR and Wine Consultants).

*   Jordan Estate Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2013 won the Decanter International Chardonnay Trophy, having won the same Continue reading →