How does Chef Jenny Morris do it? In one week she has launched her new series of ‘Jenny and Reza’s Fabulous Food Academy on Food Network, launched her new ‘World Atlas of Food: 100 countries, a world of flavours’, and has launched her new Jenny Morris Giggling Gourmet range of wines made Continue reading →
Tag Archives: Cook’s Playground
Marine Stewardship Council ecolabel shows restaurants care about seafood sustainability
I have only recently become aware of the (South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI) and its good work in trying to retain and enhance endangered fish and shellfish species, through a consumer awareness campaign which helps fish shoppers and restaurant patrons to identify which of the fishes they eat are green, orange or red, depending on their degree of endangeredness. Last week I spent a most interesting day with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an international organisation that encourages seafood sustainability by conducting audits of seafood products, from the catch until it appears in the supermarket or on the restaurant table. Each of these steps is audited, which results in being awarded the MSC’s ecolabel, guaranteeing fishlovers that the fish they are eating is sustainable in its availability, as well as its fishing method, its processing, and transport to and use in restaurants as well as sales in supermarkets.
The Mission statement of the MSC is as follows:”to use our ecolabel and fishery certification program to contribute to the health of the world’s oceans by recognising and rewarding sustainable fishing practices, influencing the choices people make when buying seafood and working with our partners to transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis”.
The South African branch of the MSC, with the pay-off line “The best environmental choice in seafood”, hosted the workshop, which was held at Giggling Gourmet Jenny Morris’ Cooks’ Playground in De Waterkant last week. The MSC “is a global non-profit organisation promoting solutions to the problem of overfishing”. Its blue ecolabel is an environmental standard reflecting “the world’s leading sustainability certification for wild-caught fish”. Consumers are encouraged to choose MSC ecolabel fish products when shopping, to help in reversing the decline in fish stocks. In South Africa brands such as I&J and Sea Harvest carry the MSC ecolabel.
Restaurants have been slow in coming on board the sustainability boat, and we are only aware of WildWoods in Hout Bay and Blowfish in Blouberg that actively promote SASSI on their menus, particularly the latter. Those restaurants buying their fish from MSC certified fish suppliers are encouraged to display the MSC ecolabel on their menus. This will require an annual audit by independent auditors. At the workshop the Shoreline Café at the Two Oceans Aquarium won a free MSC sustainable seafood audit. The work of the MSC internationally has already changed the habits of a leading chef such as Jamie Oliver, who only selects sustainable fish from the MSC website for his dishes now. Raymond Blanc, Chef Patron at Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons in the UK, says about MSC: “I passionately believe that it is up to each of us, be it consumer or chef, to make a responsible choice. By supporting MSC, I am ensuring that as a chef, I am helping to ensure fish stocks will be replenished for generations to come. I also hope that many more chefs will join this worthy cause”.
Internationally, the following companies have become involved in the MSC seafood sustainability programme: Walmart and Asda (pledged to be 100% certified for fresh and frozen fish by next year); Carrefour; the Dutch Retail Association, representing 99% of retailers in Holland, has committed to 99% of wild seafood sold will be MSC certified by next year; Sainsbury’s; Marks and Spencer; Aldi; Dansk; Compass; Sodexo UK; Iglo; Bird’s Eye, John West; KLM; and many more.
Internationally 5500 product lines from 1100 companies carry the MSC ecolabel, in 66 countries, at an estimated retail value of $1,5 billion. In July 92 fisheries around the world were MSC-standard certified, representing 4 million metric tons of fish, with another 120 fisheries undergoing assessment, representing a further 3 million metric tons.
The MSC certification programme has helped SASSI in its work, according to Dr Samantha Petersen of SASSI: “The MSC certification provided a platform and an incentive for us to work together. Prior to that, the industry was more suspicious of us. Once MSC status was on the cards, it gave us a common goal and opened up a dialogue that was not there before.”
After some demonstrations by Jenny, the workshop participants grouped into teams, and I was lucky to be paired with Ingrid Gold from Caxton Magazines and Eat Out reviewer Greg Landman. Greg is clearly a creative cook, especially when I saw him add honey to the hake he prepared for our team! It was delicious, and it was a good way to get involvement by the participants. Jenny’s team had prepared the most amazing seafood and salad buffet, with salmon and mussels, and we were spoilt with the wonderful looking display and tasty food. I loved Jenny’s paper thin crispy fried butternut slices. Then followed the most delicious seared tuna, as well as a dessert. 
What made the lunch really special was the mix of persons at our table. Martin Purves, the Southern Africa Programme Manager for the MSC; Odette Herbert, a photographer and blogger; chefs from Bodega at Dornier wine estate, the Arabella at Kleinmond and the Shoreline Café at the Two Oceans Aquarium; and Ingrid and Greg.
Marine Stewardship Council. www.msc.org Tel (021) 551-0620. The MSC also has offices in the UK (its head office), as well as in Japan, Australia, and the USA.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
Restaurant Review: Lazari Foodgallery is a passionate pink place!
There are two Lazari Foodgallery restaurants in Cape Town. The Cape Quarter branch is a passionate pink place, focused on the colour pink, perfect for its location in and therefore attraction to the residents of De Waterkant, known as the pink capital of South Africa. It makes the most fabulous thick and foamy cappuccinos, and is a “European café-style restaurant offering hearty easy meals”.
My first experience of Lazari (named after its owner Chris Lazari) soon after opening a year ago was not a positive one, with poor food quality and service. I did not bother to review it at that time. A cappuccino enjoyed earlier last week after the Marine Stewardship Council workshop at Jenny Morris’ Cook’s Playground across the road led me to return for brunch on Sunday. The place was heaving, with families, couples, and De Waterkant residents enjoying themselves. I received perfect service from a character called Willie. Willie was focused on wearing as much pink as possible, including a pink T-shirt, pink watch, pink slip-slops, pink bangles, with a pink and a white striped dishcloth over his shoulder, a self-made name tag in pink, and offering a pink pen with the bill! He is a graphic designer, he told me proudly. Willie’s colleagues wore pink or white T-Shirts, without the other pink additions, all wearing white pink-branded Lazari aprons. Sugar stick holders are pink. 
The furniture is a mix of white and …. yes, pink chairs, looking like kitchen chairs of the ‘Fifties, around white square tables. The outside black chairs with see-through plastic backs looked very modern and chic. Lazari has two terraces, a smallish non-smoking one, and a large smoking one, a good call. Some walls are painted pink, and others red. I wasn’t sure about the addition of red in the paint and curtain colours to the pink interior dominance, but it all works somehow. The entrance wall from the centre has “flower power” wallpaper. Raw cement walls are a contrast, but one of them has been used as specials board. The cutlery is “cheap and cheerful”, rolled in paper serviettes.
What is great is that breakfast is served until 15h00 at Lazari. The menu is an unimpressive poorly photocopied page, so badly copied that all the prices on the right hand side of the menu were cut off. Breakfast options are fruit and yoghurt (R37); French Toast (R49); Flapjacks (R46); Health muesli, fruit and yoghurt (R45); eggs and bacon (R39); a most reasonably priced and lovely generous 3-egg omelet at R28, served with wholewheat toast, to which one can add 15 fillings, priced between R 9 – R14 each; croissants with cheese and preserves (R28), or with scrambled eggs and additions (R35 – R52). Eggs Benedict with spinach costs R38, and R52 with salmon. Lunches consist of interesting salads (a range of R48 – R65); a meze platter of four with toasted pita costs R65; pitas can be ordered with numerous additions, even bacon and eggs (R38); and ciabatta can be ordered with haloumi (R48), sweet Thai chilli chicken (R50) and as the “Ultimate Club” (R58). At night soup can be ordered at R35; camembert (R40); as well as mains such as schnitzel (R65); pasta (R60); lean beef, chicken and veggie burgers at R60; and pork and beef bangers (R50). Desserts are unusual too, and lemongrass, coconut and vanilla pannacotta costs R 34 and yummy sounding molten chocolate cake R50. 
I loved the Italian-made beautiful cappuccino cup design, with the words “Collezione Portioli” written inside the cup. No one seemed to know the origin of the cups, and it was thought that they were supplied by the coffee suppliers Roastwell. Pink cupcakes eaten by patrons reinforce the colour scheme of Lazari.
A week ago I went to the Gardens branch of Lazari, and had exactly the opposite experience. I stopped there because it was only one of few restaurants open in the area. I sat outside as it was a beautiful summer’s day. A waiter grumpily told me to come inside if I wanted to order, and refused to tell me what was on the board, so that I could stay seated. I decided to leave, and so found The Sidewalk Cafe, subject of a future review.
Lazari will be my new favourite cappuccino stop, when I am in town.
Lazari Foodgallery, Cape Quarter, Napier Street, De Waterkant, Cape Town. Tel (021) 419-9555. www.lazari.co.za (Website is short and sweet, and contains the menus for both Lazari restaurants). Twitter @Lazari_CQ. Mondays and Tuesdays 7h30 – 17h00, Wednesdays – Sundays 8h00 – 22h00.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
S A Food Bloggers’ Conference a sizzling success!
The first ever Food Bloggers’ Conference in the southern hemisphere was held in Cape Town on Sunday, and was attended by some 60 food bloggers, so dedicated to their craft that they gave up a whole Sunday over a long weekend to attend the Conference.
One of the attractions to attend the Bloggers’ Conference was meeting bloggers and Twitterers that one has read or one follows. JamieWhoSA, Michael Olivier, Sam Wilson (speaker) and CookSister (speaker) were in the audience. At the end of the day, a number of friendships had been formed, and new followers were added to Twitter accounts.
The key lessons learnt throughout the day were the following:
1. Decide whether you are a cook who likes to write, or a writer that likes to cook. This will guide one’s writing style and content
2. Bloggers love an audience, so they must write for them, and not for themselves. That means that one must research one’s audience, and find out what they like to read and why. Measurements may have to be “translated” to suit the American market, for example. Alternative product/fruit/vegetable names may have to be provided for names used in other countries.
3. “Find your inner voice” – you must love writing to blog. If you are struggling, change direction.
4. Punctuation, spelling and grammar accuracy are of paramount importance
5. Have focus about what you are writing, and it can be as wide or narrow as you like
6. Keep motivated – 60 % of new blogs close down after one month
7. Photograph everything you eat or prepare or are served, so that you can use the photographs at a later stage
8. Take inspiration and motivation from comments, and delete and ignore the negative comments
9. Evolve the blog, “shake it up” and make it better all the time, to keep it fresh
10. One’s blog writing is a permanent record on the internet, and therefore can be a reflection of one and one’s brand for many years to come.
11. Recipes should be treated with reverence, to show respect to women who came before
12. Not all celebrity chefs can write recipes, e.g. Jamie Oliver, and they have a team of food editors, stylists etc that do that for them
13. The headline or title of the blog must be snappy, interesting, mouth-watering, evocative and say “bite me”. It also is important for Google searches, more so than the blog content.
14. The first paragraph must summarise what the post is about. It should not be too long. It should not contain any whining, complaints, excuses or excessive bragging. It must want to make the reader read the rest of the post.
15. The picture must go in the top half of the post
16. Ingredients in recipes should be listed in order of usage, can be categorised in sections, and must be accurate. The method should be written with precise instructions, to realistic serving sizes, without the use of jargon
17. Natural light is the best light to use to photograph food. Use a muslin cloth to soften it if the light is too bright. Avoid using the flash.
18. Choose a blog template that suits you and your needs, i.e. ability to accept comments, to have RSS feeds, to have links to Twitter and Facebook. The template will influence what your blog looks like.
19. Be realistic about the time blogging takes, and the blogging frequency you can keep up with.
20. Don’t write about what everyone else writes – be the first to write about a new topic.
21. Check the appearance of the blog on different computers, as it can be influenced by browsers. Avoid light type on a dark background. Check the font size and type. Avoid clutter.
22. “You are the heart of the blog, it is about you, show yourself, be yourself” (CookSister). Stay in touch with your readers.
23. One’s Facebook, Twitter and blog persona must match. Decide upfront how much to reveal of oneself.
24. Use YouTube, Ning, BlogHer and Stumble It!
25. A picture creates read-appeal. Contrast dark and light colours in styling food for a photograph. Less is more. Props must be photographed out of focus. Tag photographs.
26. Copyright is a consideration. Ingredients cannot be copyrighted, but the preparation method can. Add a copyright sign to the blog and each post.
27. Do not be too intimidated by a lawyer’s letter re defamation and copyright, but don’t fight it if they are serious.
28. Free products/meals must be transparent in a review
29. It’s OK to make money out of one’s blog, as it costs money (e.g. restaurant visits, ingredients) to write it. Do not slant the blog to sponsors’ products or services if they take an ad. It will blow one’s credibility.
While many improvements can be made to a Food Bloggers’ get-together in 2011, the Conference was enjoyed by all, and all were delighted by the many give-aways, as well as heavy-weighted goody-bags they received. It was R 430 well spent. The Giggling Gourmet, Jenny Morris, served a very generous and delicious lunch in her new Cook’s Playground test kitchen on Napier Street.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com