Tag Archives: Eat Me Gourmet Cafe

MasterChef SA episode 16: Who will be booted out? Win with The Restaurant at Grand Provence!

MasterChef SA is the talk of the country, and we have only 3 more gripping episodes to look forward to in this season 1. To spice things up a little, we have launched two competitions, the first being a prediction of who will win MasterChef SA in episode 18.

We are also running the last of a weekly lucky draw for the correct prediction of who will be booted out of MasterChef SA every week. For the correct prediction of who will leave MasterChef SA in episode 16 on Tuesday (3 July), Grande Provence has generously offered a 3-course restaurant voucher for two, to the value of R600, to the winner.

Darren Badenhorst is the new Executive Chef at Grande Provence.  He left school in Durban to study marketing, but gave up after a year, because he realised that his passion lay in cooking. He enrolled at the Christina Martin School of Food and Wine, the most prominent culinary school in KwaZulu-Natal, where he did a one year intensive, ‘extremely strenuous’, diploma course.  From there he went to the Benguerra Lodge in Mozambique as Executive Chef, but his stay was short-lived, having to evacuate the island after the worst ever cyclone to hit Africa destroyed most buildings on the island. He was appointed at Zimbali Boutique Hotel as Chef de Partie. He then moved to Eat Me Gourmet Café, a private contract catering company, and to Three Cities‘ One on One Events catering company, promoted to Executive Chef.  Feeling that he had reached a glass ceiling, he moved to the Cape, and joined Gregory Czarnecki at Waterkloof. In this time he met Grande Provence Chef Darren Roberts at one of the magnificent Big Five Multiple Sclerosis charity lunches at which Waterkloof had participated. He started at Grande Provence over a year ago, and has taken over from Chef Darren Roberts, who has taken up an appointment in the Seychelles.

He sees the level of cuisine in the Cape to be far beyond that of any other region, and believes that competition between restaurants brings out the best in them, and is key to creating consistency. Flair and passion must show at all times.  He admires Neil Jewell for his charcuterie, there being no comparison, and Chef Margot Janse from Le Quartier Français, for her creativity and experimentation with the food that she prepares.  Chef Darren Badenhorst says that he will not change the menu drastically, sticking to the fine dining French cuisine with an Asian twist.  The quality will be the same, but he will add his stamp to it.  He has a small team of six in the kitchen, which will grow next summer.  He lives on the Grande Provence farm, and loves his job, rarely taking time off.  He likes to create dishes with balance, in texture and in colour. Coming from the Natal coast, he loves diving and spearfishing, and also therefore preparing seafood. His first new addition to the menu is a delicious soft shell crab starter on pan-fried sushi with sesame seed, with a soft boiled yolk presented in a beautifully crafted kataifi pastry, the colour coming from a red pepper aioli, and finished off with soya and wasabi pearls.  His new Ballontine of Chicken with a bone marrow centre, truffle of pomme duchess, carrot and cardamom pureé, morel mushrooms, cracked black pepper, and fresh Japanese truffle, is an artistic portrait that could have been framed and hung in the Grande Provence Gallery!

Karl Lambour, previously with Holden Manz and Constantia Glen, is the new GM of Grande Provence.

Tweet your prediction of which of the 5 remaining finalists will be booted out of MasterChef SA to @WhaleCottage, or write it as a comment to this blogpost. Closing time for entries is Tuesday 3 July at 19h30, at the start of episode 16.  The winner will be contacted immediately after the show ends. Should there be no correct entry received, the prize will go into the main prize for predicting the winner of MasterChef South Africa.

POSTSCRIPT 3/7: There was no winner of this prize tonight, as no one guessed that Lungile Nhlanhla would be sent home from MasterChef SA tonight. It will be packaged into the main competition prize for correctly guessing the winner of MasterChef SA.

The Restaurant at Grande Provence, R45, Franschhoek. Tel (021) 876-8600.  www.grandeprovence.co.za Twitter: @GrandeProvence  Monday – Sunday Lunch, Monday – Saturday Dinner.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.comTwitter:@WhaleCottage

MasterChef SA episode 11: Who will be booted out? Win with Grande Provence!

MasterChef SA is the talk of the country, and we have eight more gripping episodes to look forward to in the next two months. To spice things up a little, we have launched two competitions, the first being a prediction of who will win MasterChef SA in episode 18.

We are also running a weekly lucky draw for the correct prediction of who will be booted out of MasterChef SA every week. For the correct prediction of who will leave MasterChef SA in episode 11 tomorrow (29 May), Grande Provence has generously offered a 3-course restaurant voucher for two, to the value of R600, to the winner.

Darren Badenhorst is the new Executive Chef at Grande Provence.  He left school in Durban to study marketing, but gave up after a year, because he realised that his passion lay in cooking. He enrolled at the Christina Martin School of Food and Wine, the most prominent culinary school in KwaZulu-Natal, where he did a one year intensive, ‘extremely strenuous’, diploma course.  From there he went to the Benguerra Lodge in Mozambique as Executive Chef, but his stay was short-lived, having to evacuate the island after the worst ever cyclone to hit Africa destroyed most buildings on the island. He was appointed at Zimbali Boutique Hotel as Chef de Partie. He then moved to Eat Me Gourmet Café, a private contract catering company, and to Three Cities‘ One on One Events catering company, promoted to Executive Chef. Feeling that he had reached a glass ceiling, he moved to the Cape, and joined Gregory Czarnecki at Waterkloof. In this time he met Grande Provence Chef Darren Roberts at one of the magnificent Big Five Multiple Sclerosis charity lunches at which Waterkloof had participated. He started at Grande Provence over a year ago.

He sees the level of cuisine in the Cape to be far beyond that of any other region, and believes that competition between restaurants brings out the best in them, and is key to creating consistency. Flair and passion must show at all times.  He admires Chef Neil Jewell for his charcuterie, there being no comparison, and Chef Margot Janse from Le Quartier Francais, for her creativity and experimentation with the food that she prepares.  Chef Darren Badenhorst says that he will not change the menu drastically, sticking to the fine dining French cuisine with an Asian twist.  The quality will be the same, but he will add his stamp to it.  He has a small team of six in the kitchen, which will grow next summer.  He lives on the Grande Provence farm, and loves his job, rarely taking time off.  He likes to create dishes with balance, in texture and in colour. Coming from the Natal coast, he loves diving and spearfishing, and also therefore preparing seafood. His first new addition to the menu is a delicious soft shell crab starter on pan-fried sushi with sesame seed, with a soft boiled yolk presented in a beautifully crafted kataifi pastry, the colour coming from a red pepper aioli, and finished off with soya and wasabi pearls.  His new Ballontine of Chicken with a bone marrow centre, truffle of pomme duchess, carrot and cardamom pureé, morel mushrooms, cracked black pepper, and fresh Japanese truffle, is an artistic portrait that could have been framed and hung in the Grande Provence Gallery!

Tweet your prediction of which of the 9 remaining finalists will be booted out of MasterChef SA to @WhaleCottage, or e-mail it to whalecot@iafrica.com. Closing time for entries is Tuesday 29 May at 19h30, at the start of episode 11.  The winner will be contacted immediately after the show ends. There will be a weekly Restaurant Voucher prize draw per episode for the correct prediction of who will be booted out of MasterChef SA, and voting for the following episode can start as soon as that day’s episode has been aired. Should there be no correct entry received, the prize is rolled over to go to another week.

POSTSCRIPT 29/5: Surprisingly, there was no Pressure Test in tonight’s episode, so the Grande Provence prize will roll over to another week.

The Restaurant at Grande Provence, R45, Franschhoek. Tel (021) 876-8600.    www.grandeprovence.co.za Twitter: @GrandeProvence  Monday – Sunday Lunch, Monday – Saturday Dinner.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.comTwitter:@WhaleCottage

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MasterChef SA episode 7:who will be booted out? Win with Grande Provence and new Chef Darren Badenhorst!

MasterChef SA is the talk of the country, and we have 12 more gripping episodes to look forward to in the next three months. To spice things up a little, we have launched two competitions, the first being a prediction of who will win MasterChef SA in episode 18.

We are also running a weekly lucky draw for the correct prediction of who our readers think will be booted out of the MasterChef SA every week.  For the correct prediction of who will leave MasterChef SA in episode 7 tomorrow (1 May), Grande Provence has generously offered a 3-course restaurant voucher for two, to the value of R600 to the winner.

It is sad to have bid Chef Darren Roberts goodbye, who was at the helm of the Grande Provence kitchen for almost three years and took it to an Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant. He is leaving to take up a new position at a hospitality group in the Seychelles.  Chef Darren Roberts is very talented, and his plating has been most impressive.  Following in his footsteps, and having been the sous chef for the past year, is the new Executive Chef Darren Badenhorst, who takes over the Grande Provence kitchen from today.  The two chefs handed over to each other in the past month already, when Chef Darren Roberts went to Australia.

Chef Darren Badenhorst left school in Durban to study marketing, but gave up after a year, because he realised that his passion lay in cooking. He enrolled at the Christina Martin School of Food and Wine, the most prominent culinary school in KwaZulu-Natal, where he did a  one year intensive, ‘extremely strenuous’, diploma course.  From there he went to the Benguerra Lodge in Mozambique as Executive Chef, but his stay was short-lived, having to evacuate the island after the worst ever cyclone to hit Africa destroyed most buildings on the island. He was appointed at Zimbali Boutique Hotel as Chef de Partie. He then moved to Eat Me Gourmet Café, a private contract catering company,  moving to Three Cities‘ One on One Events catering company, promoted to Executive Chef. Feeling that he had reached a glass ceiling, he moved to the Cape, and joined Gregory Czarnecki at Waterkloof. In this time he met Chef Darren Roberts at one of the magnificent Big Five Multiple Sclerosis charity lunches at which Waterkloof had participated, and saw him as an ‘industry dad’. The two chefs will stay in touch, having been a good team.

He sees the level of cuisine in the Cape to be far beyond that of any other region, and believes that competition between restaurants brings out the best in them, and is key to creating consistency. Flair and passion must show at all times.  He admires Chef Neil Jewell for his charcuterie, there being no comparison, and Chef Margot Janse from Le Quartier Francais, for her creativity and experimentation with the food that she prepares.  Chef Darren Badenhorst says that he will not change the menu drastically, sticking to the fine dining French cuisine with an Asian twist.  The quality will be the same, but he will add his stamp to it.  He has a small team of six in the kitchen, which will grow next summer.  He lives on the Grande Provence farm, and loves his job, rarely taking time off.  He likes to create dishes with balance, in texture and in colour.  Coming from the Natal coast, he loves diving and spearfishing, and also therefore preparing seafood. His first new addition to the menu is a delicious soft shell crab starter on pan-fried sushi with sesame seed, with a soft boiled yolk presented in a beautifully crafted kataifi pastry, the colour coming from a red pepper aioli, and finished off with soya and wasabi pearls.

Tweet your prediction of which of the 14 remaining finalists will be booted out of MasterChef SA to @WhaleCottage, or e-mail it to whalecot@iafrica.com. Closing time for entries is Tuesday 1 May at 19h30, at the start of episode 7.  The winner will be contacted immediately after the show ends. There will be a weekly Restaurant Voucher prize draw per episode for the correct prediction of who will be booted out of MasterChef SA, and voting for the following episode can start as soon as that day’s episode has been aired. Should there be no correct entry received, the prize is rolled over to go to another week.

POSTSCRIPT 1/5: No one correctly predicted that Mmutsi Maseko would be voted out in episode 7 this evening.  The Grande Provence restaurant voucher will go forward to another MasterChef SA week.

The Restaurant at Grande Provence, R45, Franschhoek. Tel (021) 876-8600. www.grandeprovence.co.za Twitter: @DarrenBChef  Monday – Sunday, Lunch and Dinner.

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