Tag Archives: Banc

Leopard’s Leap to make a leap into Franschhoek cuisine scene!

I have the highest regard for the passion and energy of Hein Koegelenberg, who wears a number of hats, including heading up the operation of La Motte, founder of Meridian (a local distribution and sales company for 24 leading wine brands) and Historic Wines of the Cape (a warehousing, labelling and shipping company), and co-owner of Leopard’s Leap with his wife Hannelie Rupert-Koegelenberg.   I was delighted that Hein made time last week to share the planned developments at Leopards’ Leap, which is set to open a Tasting Room as well as a Cookery School in October, next door to La Motte in Franschhoek.

On the 10 hectare farm with its 400 square meter building being built, the Leopard’s Leap brand will have its first home, having been produced at the La Motte cellars in the past.  The brand sells six times as much as La Motte in volume, a total of 600 000 cases of six bottles.   The brand was created eleven years ago, as a second label to the Rupert wine brands La Motte, Rupert & Rothschild, and L’Ormarins.  Originally the brand was made from the left-over grapes from these three properties, but now Hein and his team buy in wine from Perdeberg, Wamakersvallei, Ashton Winery, Darling Winery, Leeuwenkuil and La Motte to create Leopard’s Leap wines.  The wines have been bottled at the KWV to date.  

A recent development is that Leopard’s Leap is bulk shipped to the United Kingdom, where it is bottled under the supervision of the winemaker, to save up to half of his shipping costs, given the Rand risk, Hein said.  Almost a quarter of Leopard’s Leap production has been bottled in the UK.  This is the way in which Leopard’s Leap has reacted to changing market conditions, and Hein’s philosophy is to adapt, saying one must make things work for your business when the external environment changes.   Hein is not optimistic that the strength of the Rand will change in the next 3 – 5 years.  Having withdrawn from the American market for some time, Hein says the time is right to go back into the USA with Leopard’s Leap and La Motte, an agent just having been appointed to sell the brands there.  

The three leopards on the Leopard’s Leap label have energy, and depict the personality which Hein and his wife wish to create at their new Tasting Room.  They have therefore appointed Mokena Makeka, a ‘hot’ young architect from Cape Town, whose Makeka Design Laboratory recently re-designed the Cape Town Station for the World Cup. The interior decor will be handled by Christo Barnard, who did the decor of Pierneef à La Motte.    The design will reflect that the brand’s target market is younger, and enjoy drinking this wine at a lower price point.  The building will have a lot of glass, to bring the outside in, and a large outside sitting area too.   A tasting room, delicatessen offering picnics, and wine sales facility make up the core of the new building.

A cutting-edge demonstration kitchen with 24 state-of-the-art work stations will also be built for the Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School  branch opening at Leopards’ Leap, with owner Liam Tomlin and his wife moving to Franschhoek.  Tomlin has worked in leading restaurants in the UK, Europe and Sydney, including Banc in Sydney, about which he wrote a book with the same name, and another entitled “Season to Taste”. He opened the Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School in Cape Town a year ago. The Cookery School will offer a wide range of classes, presented by Tomlin as well as by top local and international chefs.  The Chef’s Warehouse will sell a wide range of kitchen products, to offer participants the tools to make at home what they have learnt at the Cookery School.

The food to be served at Leopard’s Leap will be picnics. Tomlin and Barnard are currently working on the picnic concept, to develop a unique offering relative to what is currently being served at other wine farms, to create a unique identity for Leopards’ Leap.   Hein described the Leopard’s Leap brand as ‘pastel, earthy, funky, trendy, with energy”, and this will guide the interior decor and personality of the new Leopard’s Leap building. 

The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club  will visit Leopards’ Leap on a Saturday on Saturday 12 November.   Further details can be obtained by e-mailing whalecot@iafrica.com

Leopard’s Leap Wines: www.leopards-leap.com

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

New Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club launched

An exciting new Food & Wine Bloggers Club has been launched in Cape Town, and its first meeting will be held at the Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School on 19 May, from 18h00 – 20h00.

Based on bloggers’ needs to always learn something new about Social Media Marketing, and given that there is no Bloggers’ Manual to teach one about blogging, I decided to start a Bloggers Club, as I too wish to learn more.   As I enjoy writing about food, and enjoyed attending the Food Bloggers’ Conference in March, I decided to form a Bloggers’ Club that focuses on food and wine, and that “pairs” a food blogger with a wine blogger.  Every month a different food and wine blogger pair will address the Bloggers’ Club meeting.

I am delighted that Liam Tomlin, owner of the new Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School in the Cape Town city centre, has come on board as a partner in the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club, and his Cookery School, seating 20 persons, will host the meetings.  He will also make snacks to match the wine that the Wine Blogger will be presenting during his/her talk.

Each of the selected wine and food bloggers will speak for 30 minutes about his/her blog, giving a description of the content, spelling out their goals, and providing guidelines to the other bloggers present about how to be a better blogger.   Bloggers attending will then be able to ask questions, and to meet the other Bloggers present.

Our first food and wine pair to speak, on 19 May, is Michael Olivier of Michael Olivier Blog and Anel Grobler of Spit or Swallow Blog.

Our programme of speakers for future Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting are Pete Goffe-Wood of Kitchen Cowboys Blog, Pieter Ferreira of Graham Beck and Bubbles on Wine Blog, The Foodie of The Foodie Blog, Mike Ratcliffe of Warwick Wine Estate and Vilafonte Blog, Sam Wilson of Food24 Blogs, Rob Armstrong of Haut Espoir, Dax Villanueva of Relax-with-Dax Blog, Hein Koegelenberg of  La Motte and Hein Koegelenberg Blog, Clare Mack of Spill Blog, Simon Back of Backsberg Blog, Jane-Anne Hobbs of Scrumptious Blog, and Emile Joubert of Wine Goggle Blog.

Future Club meetings will be on 1 July, 28 July, 18 August, 22 September, 20 October, and 24 November.  A new speaker list for 2011 will be announced closer to the time.

The Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School opened 3 weeks ago, and is a stockist of the most wonderful  local and imported kitchenware, glassware, crockery, utensils, pots, as well as a broad range of unusual ingredients, oils, essences, and teas.   Chef Liam Tomlin was the co-owner of Banc, Sydney’s top restaurant, whilst he was there.   He consults to British Airways.  For more details about the Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School click here.

To attend a meeting of the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club, or to volunteer to be a speaker, please e-mail me at info@whalecottage.com.  All aspirant bloggers, avid Blog readers wishing to meet their blogging heroes in person, and regular bloggers, are welcome to join the Club!   Entrance is R 150 per meeting, payable in advance by bank transfer or credit card.   Attendance is limited to 20 persons per meeting, so bookings will be taken on a first come, first served basis.

The Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School is at 50 New Church Street.  From Buitengracht Street turn into Buitensingel Street near the Caltex garage, below Bo-Kaap.  Turn first right into New Church Street.  The Cookery School is on the right, just off the corner, diagonally opposite the Protea Fire & Ice Hotel.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Unique Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School opens in Cape Town

The new Chefs’ Warehouse and Cookery School has opened in a renovated Victorian building in New Church Street, off Buitensingel Street in Cape Town.

Chef Liam Tomlim, previously operating in Sydney where he ran the highly rated Banc restaurant (see our previous story on Liam Tomlin here), has opened a Cookery School, where he and local chefs will present cooking courses in a small intimate studio not holding more than 20 persons.  It has a hi-tech look, with lots of stainless steel.   But the little touches make the venue special – against a wall different coloured glass tiles form an interesting pattern, with glass bottles of spices on a shelf in front of each tile.

In the Cookery School Tomlin is planning to host a 20-lecture “The Basic Techniques and Methods of Cookery” course, with the start date now 8 May.   The course, with four hour lectures every second Saturday, has not yet been fully subscribed, and it may be the R10 500 price tag, the start of the quieter and tighter winter season, or the World Cup that falls in the period, that may be causing the slow booking commitment.   Tomlin is passionate about food, being the author of two cookery books, and he is likely to make an interesting cookery lecturer, with his Irish sense of humour.

Guest Chef classes can also be booked, with Neil Jewell of Bread and Wine in Franschhoek talking about “The Pig” on 5 May; Peter Tempelhoff, Executive Chef of the McGrath Hotels, will do a course on 11 May (title not yet confirmed); Alexander Mueller of Pure at Hout Bay Manor will talk about “Pure Food” on 24 May; and Carl Penn of Carne will talk about “Basic Lamb Butchery” on 27 May.  Classes cost R 575 each, and are held from 6.30 – 9.30 pm in the evenings.

A 12-part winetasting course will be presented by Caroline Rillema of Caroline’s wine shops in the city center and in the V&A Waterfront.   Sommelier Mia Mortensson, now with the Winery of Good Hope in Stellenbosch, and Paul Cluver Jnr will also be presenters.  The course starts on 8 June, and costs R 7000 for all 12 lectures, but can be booked in sections as well.

A 6-part Artisan Baking course “Knead to know” will be presented by Tim Faull of the Professional Vision Group consultancy, from 2 June – 14 July, and costs R 3 000.  

Tomlin’s wife Jan rules the roost in the front section, which is the Chef’s Warehouse, which contains a treasure trove of beautiful kitchen and dining items such as glassware, crockery, cutlery, serving dishes, aprons, carving knives, utensils, massive wooden stirring spoons (must get one!), Le Creuset pots, copper pots, cookery books, coffee machines, wine racks and many more products.  The Chef’s Warehouse will give Core Catering and Banks a good challenge, stocking far more beautiful and many imported products, offering better service, and being located in a far more desirable area.   It would be the perfect place to buy a gift for a food or a wine lover.

While the name of the shop implies that it is a massive shop, it is not at all, but the available space has been cleverly used.    Two smaller rooms lead off the Warehouse, the one being a cold room with interesting products which need to remain chilled, and the other being a food shop, which sells Willow Creek and Hamilton Russell olive oil, 100% pure cocoa powder, Spanish and Iranian saffron threads, Calleebaut & Valrhona chocolate, flavoured oils (white and black truffle, pistachio, hazelnut, porcini, walnut), vinegars (12 year Italian balsamic, Willow Creek Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar, Neil Jewell’s smoked red wine vinegar), Nfuse spices, Lavazza coffee, Von Gesau chocolates, Tea Emporium teas (organic Rooibos, Moroccan mint, Kyoto cherry rose, lemon caipirinha, even a chocolate flavoured one!), Khoisan salts (fleur de sel, salt caviar, sea pearls, smoked salt, truffle salt), and products of the Verjuice company (verjuice, vino cotto, preserved ginger in verjuice).  Vanilla syrup, sugar, husks, pods, paste and seeds are also sold, as are vanilla, coffee, rose water, peppermint, almond and orange blossom pure essences.

A beautifully made unit displays 50 fresh spices and dried herbs (including Iranian dried limes, Brazilian pink peppercorns, Indian and Romanian coriander) in small quantities, which will be restocked as they run out, to keep them fresh.   Another display unit contains a wide range of dried fruits, nuts and seeds.  An eye-catching design element is a photograph of Tomlin’s recipe book collection, which he photographed in his home, and had made as a poster for the shop.

What I missed was a brochure of the Cookery courses to be offered, to take home, and the smell of food.  A coffee machine, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee, would signify what the Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School is all about.  Its little veranda would make an ideal spot for some tables for customers to sit at, as The Warehouse does not allow much space for customers to move around in.

The Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School is an exciting new addition to Cape Town, and enhances the city’s reputation as the food capital of South Africa. 

Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School, 50 New Church Street, Cape Town. Tel 021 422 0128. www.chefswarehouse.co.za

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com