Yesterday I had the goosebump experience of being introduced to the new-in-the-making Gåte at Quoin Rock restaurant at the Quoin Rock winery outside Stellenbosch, which is destined to become a superlative Fine Dining dinner experience, probably the best this country has ever seen! Continue reading →
Tag Archives: French Laundry
Gauteng Restaurant winelists achieve inaugural Diners Club Winelist Awards ICON status, the ‘peak of wine presentation’!
While the wine industry is centered in the Western Cape, and the province has the reputation for having the country’s best restaurants, it is two Gauteng restaurants which won the inaugural 2018 Diners Club ICON Winelist Awards. Continue reading →
WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 3 December
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Business confidence reached a 7 month high last month, good news for the economy, and reflecting a more stable exchange rate, higher share prices, and reduced impact on production due to strikes. In November the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (SACCI) Business Confidence Index (BCI) increased to 90.8 in November. Loadshedding by Eskom, and a retraction of the economies that our country trades with may reverse the positive trend.
* The second Veritas Young Wine Writers Competition has been won by Sandile Mkhwanazi, assistant winemaker and acting viticulturist at Elsenburg Agricultural College, and winning R15000. He enjoys to communicate about wine in a fun way, rather than academically. His two articles ‘The South African Wine Continue reading →
Top Spanish Chef Andres Condé moving to Cape Town, joining Harbour House Group!
Amazing news for the restaurant scene in Cape Town is that Chef Andres Condé , who worked at the former elBulli, the former number one restaurant on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, is moving to Cape Town in June, and joining the Harbour House Group of restaurants belonging to Michael Townsend, as Group Executive Chef.
As his first priority Chef Andres will focus on La Parada, the two tapas restaurants based in Kalk Bay and on Bree Street, and will revamp their menus. If La Parada weren’t already the most Spanish tapas restaurants in Cape Town, they will now become super-Spanish and genuine tapas restaurants. He will also work with the Harbour House restaurant teams in Kalk Bay and in the V&A Waterfront. He will not be involved with the Lucky Fish restaurants in the Harbour House Group.
Chef Andres won an award as best young chef in Navarra, a Spanish wine region. His prize was an internship at the former elBulli near Roses in Catalonia, a Michelin 3-star restaurant run by Chef Ferran Adrià, who many would say is the world’s most creative chef, being associated with Molecular Gastronomy, and having written cookbooks. The internship was for two months, but Chef Andres stayed for more than six years! He worked in Continue reading →