Tag Archives: Brett Garner

Feast at Cape Leopard Trust charity auction 10th anniversary lunch at Leopard’s Leap!

Leopard Trust cover Whale CottageYesterday The Cape Leopard Trust’s celebrated its 10th anniversary with a Charity Auction lunch at Leopard’s Leap, a perfect synergy between the good work done by the Trust, and the winery’s focus on leopards.  We were treated to a fine feast prepared by three chefs, and all left happy that R519000 was raised for The Cape Leopard Trust.

Barbara Lenhard and Florian Gast of Opulent Living are an amazing powerhouse couple in organising events, in addition to publishing their Opulent Living magazine.  They managed to attract 180 guests, at R1500 per head, to attend the Charity Lunch on a picture perfect day in Franschhoek.  Outside Marco Cianfanelli’s sculpture of a leopard welcomed arriving guests. We were offered a glass of Leopard’s Leap Culinaria Brut MCC on arrival, and were shown to our seats, where we were lucky to have great company, including Darryl from The Light House in Paarl, and Dr Tracey and Brett Garner.  Elana Afrika-Bredenkamp of the Expresso Show and her husband Ian Leopard Leap Elana and Ian Bredenkamp Whale CottageBredenkamp of Kfm and Cape Talk were the MCs, keeping a steady pace for the proceedings throughout the afternoon, interviewing chefs, the performers, and sponsors, which included Mercedes-Benz, FNB, and cennergi.

The outgoing CEO of the Cape Leopard Trust, and its founder, Dr Quinton Martins, became very emotional when he spoke, close to tears in seeing so Continue reading →

‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa’ episode 4: Franschhoek food and wine highlight, Fairview moves to Franschhoek!

Hayden Quinn 4 Huguenot Monument Whale CottageLast night’s episode 4 of ‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa’ was good marketing for Franschhoek, known for its food and wine, combined with its beauty, being filmed on a perfect summer’s day.  There was minimal, if any, Woolworths punting in the episode!

Hayden started his Franschhoek journey at the Huguenot Monument, erected in honour of the French Huguenots, ‘exiles‘ who picked Franschhoek to grow vines viewers were told, a bit of creative licence, as they were given the land.  Hayden explained that the village name, which he pronounced close to perfectly, means ‘French Corner’.  He  said that the monument represents peace, agriculture, and viticulture, copywriting nonsense, as the monument (erected in 1948) represents religious freedom, something the Huguenots could only experience in Franschhoek, having to flee France.  The village was previously called Olifantshoek, after the elephants roaming in the valley. The main road of Franschhoek was shown, and Hayden referred to it as having buildings with ‘French style architecture‘ (sic)! Continue reading →

Brett Garner Sweet and Franschhoek Food Emporium Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to Brett Garner from Franschhoek, editor of The Month newspaper, owner of Franschhoek IT, and co-owner of The Traveller’s Lodge. Brett came to the rescue in not only bringing a network cable to our Whale Cottage Franschhoek within 15 minutes of my call to him (I had offered to fetch it), but he also invited me to keep it.  The network cable was needed to fix a faulty router, to allow me to do my e-mails and to blog. Brett’s responsiveness and generosity demonstrated village friendliness and collegiality, something we have not seen in Franschhoek often.

The Sour Service Award goes to the Franschhoek Food Emporium. On my last visit to the deli a few weeks ago, the Manager Danielle Rittel greeted me, but she was engrossed in doing her month-end accounts at the counter.  She did not get up to serve me, and instead left me to be served by her (very new) assistant, who was incredibly slow, forgot to charge for all my purchases, and did not look at me when she spoke to me. She stood directly next to Danielle, who did not react to this at all.  She did nothing to take over or to apologise for the poor service delivery when I expressed my irritation.  Financial irregularities and staff management problems have led to the closing down of the deli last weekend.

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.