Exciting news in these Covid Lockdown times is that Tintswalo Atlantic, at the foot of Chapman’s Peak and offering the best restaurant view in Cape Town, is reopening its restaurant tomorrow 29 July, now named Tintswalo Kitchen, specifically focusing on the local market, but serving its in-house hotel guests too. Continue reading →
On Thursday a number of writers were invited to try the new Chefs in Gardens, an eatery which is based on there being as few impediments between the kitchen and the diner as possible. The eatery opened ten days ago. Continue reading →
It is interesting to see Woolworths’ reaction to Banting and the (LCHF) low carb high fat eating plan advocated by Professor Tim Noakes, in how long it has taken the retailer to react to the Banting diet craze, and how it has reacted, in misleading health-conscious consumers with its new CarbClever range.
In essence Professor Tim Noakes, in his book ‘Real Meal Revolution‘, advocates a diet of no carbohydrates, such as South African starch staples rice and potatoes, as well as any wheat products such as bread, pasta, and pizza. He advocates high fat too, suggesting lamb or other high fat meat types, butter, full cream dairy products, and more. Sugar is completely off the Banting list.
While two Banting-focused restaurants have opened in Cape Town already (65 on Main Banting Café and the not-1oo%-Banting The Banting Kitchen), no Banting product range is known to have been launched in the six months since Banting caught the attention of South Africans. Now Woolworths has launched the CarbClever range for ‘Carb Conscious Customers‘, odd in its choice Continue reading →
No restaurants which opened in South Africa from 2010 onwards (with the exception of The Test Kitchen) were judged to be good enough to make the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards 2012, held at the The Westin hotel last night. As predicted, Chef Luke Dale-Roberts’ The Test Kitchen was named the number one restaurant on the Top 10 list, while Margot Janse of The Tasting Room was named Chef of the Year. The Best Service Award went to Rust en Vrede. Stellenbosch now is the Gourmet Capital of South Africa, with four Top 10 restaurants, followed by Cape Town with three, and one each in Franschhoek, Johannesburg, and the Natal Midlands. The biggest surprise of the evening was the ‘slap’ Chef George Jardine of Jordan Restaurant, making third place on the Top 10 list, gave Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly (wearing Gavin Rajah) from the stage, criticising the use of an imported judge for the Awards, clearly referring to the controversial role Bruce Palling played in the Awards. A number of other controversial 
aspects once again clouded the Awards evening.
Lets start with Mr Palling. The relationship between New Media Publishing and its ex-judge went sour after the judging, when New Media Publishing was said by Palling on Twitter to not want to offer him a ticket to Cape Town to attend the Awards last night. Continue reading →