Tag Archives: Giorgio Nava

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 30 November/1 December

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*  Restaurant news dominated the list of most read blogposts on our WhaleTales blog in November, the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards write-up being by far the most popular blogpost:

1.  Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards: best event ever, some highs, some shocks!

2.  Mother Nature hits Mother City and the Winelands!

3.   South African hotelier slates TripAdvisor and its blackmail power!

4.   Mediclinic Vergelegen Sweet Service and Giorgio Nava Sour Service Awards!

5.   Restaurant Review: La Parada Bar de Tapas Bree Street is Espanol puro!

*   A new hospitality consulting company PMR Hospitality Partners has been created by industry stalwarts Tony Romer-Lee and Euan McGlashan.  Their newest venture is PMR Hospitality Partners.  The media release describes the company as a ‘ boutique African hospitality management company based in Cape Town, South Africa and Atlanta, USA, through its sister firm, Valor Hospitality Partners (www.valorhospitality.com)‘.  Romer-Lee has worked for McGrath Hotels, and before that both partners worked at the Cape Grace, and Halcyon Hotels, which previously owned the Bay Hotel.

The focus will be on quality customer service, driven by PMR’s on-time Continue reading →

Vergelegen Mediclinic Sweet Service and Giorgio Nava Sour Service Awards!

Medi Clinic Somerset WestThe Sweet Service Award goes to the Vergelegen Mediclinic in Somerset West, its staff, the City of Cape Town Disaster Risk management team, as well as local residents for their amazing work in evacuating more than 100 patients from the hospital after the dreadful flood caused by the severe rainstorm last Friday.  The news spread via Twitter, and assistance was called for.  Patients were relocated to other branches of Mediclinic. Odd was that Mediclinic ran an advertisement in the Cape Argus this week, to thank everyone for their assistance. The ad seemed to be in reaction to Continue reading →

Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards 2014: Best event ever, some highs, some shocks!

Eat Out magazine cover Whale Cottage PortfolioAfter two disastrous years, New Media Publishing was brave enough to take stock earlier this year, and asked the industry what it wanted in the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards.  Last night that hard work paid off, with a new venue for the event, a slick and short presentation, new Awards introduced, and three new restaurants making the Top 10 Restaurant list.  The surprise was the emotion which the chefs expressed when receiving their plaques, challenging MasterChef SA Season 2 on tears!

We were one of the interviewees, meeting with Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly, its GM Aileen Lamb, MD Bridget McCarney, and Director Irna van Zyl.  We were forthright in our feedback and suggestions, including that a team of judges would be needed again (we suggested Garth Stroebel, and have yet to meet him!). We fed back that the preferential relationship with Luke Dale-Roberts in TASTE magazine (also published by New Media Publishing, and of which Abigail is the Food Editor) was unfair towards all other chefs, by featuring him every month – we were told that Woolworths had a contract with him, and therefore he received the coverage in the magazine.  This contract was terminated earlier this year, which is excellent news.  Other recommendations can be read here.  Flowing from the interviews and discussions with previous Top 20 chefs and restaurant managers, owners, and suppliers, as well as media representatives and bloggers, New Media Publishing allowed restaurants to apply to be included in the Eat Out Top 500 Restaurant List, which was selected by a Continue reading →

Restaurant Review: Emily’s lost without Chef Peter Veldsman, has sold its soul to Coca Cola!

Emily's Interior 2 Whale Cottage Portfolio (2)Emily’s restaurant is 21 years old, and has recently opened at its third home on Kloof Street, having spent ten years each in Woodstock and in the V&A Waterfront.  The restaurant has lost all of its previous charm, and its main attraction (Chef Peter Veldsman) is nowhere to be seen.  It has sold its soul to Coca Cola, its branding seen throughout the restaurant, not befitting an establishment of the stature of Chef Peter and his partner Chef Johan Odendaal.

Chef Peter once was the most high profile food editor of Sarie magazine, and was known and loved by all, the doyen of food writers in his heyday. He has written eleven cookery books, and has contributed to many others too. He has won numerous food awards. He started the Culinary Arts Institute of Africa Restaurant School at the same time as opening Emily’s restaurant in Woodstock in 1994, long before the suburb became trendy, and it was extremely popular for a decade.  I remember its quirky decor, inside an attractive building, and being particularly popular amongst Afrikaans Capetonians, it being their first real Afrikaans restaurant.  Chef Johan ran the cookery school, and his students were the servers.

Surprisingly Emily’s moved to the V&A Waterfront, badly Continue reading →