Tag Archives: Jodi-Ann Pearton

Eat Out: who decided on inclusion in the 2015 Eat Out 500 Restaurant guide?

Burrata 'Pick me Up' dessert Whale CottageLast year New Media Publishing changed its annual Eat Out magazine, having featured 1100 restaurants in earlier years.  Last year the Eat Out Top 500 restaurant guide was based on applications sent by restaurants themselves, and the top 500 selected by 50 food and restaurant writers and lovers.  This year the Eat Out 500 top restaurants could be nominated by anyone, mainly the public, and chosen and reviewed by a panel of 30, mainly food writers.

Earlier this week Eat Out announced the Top 20 Restaurant shortlist, which will guarantee those restaurants a space in the 2015 Eat Out Top 500 Restaurant Guide.

The selection and evaluation of the Eat Out Top 500 is sketchy: ‘...a list of candidates was selected (how, on which criteria?), rated (on which scale, on which criteria?), and reviewed by the panel‘ (the criteria for reviewing are mentioned as food – defined as menu composition, seasonality, and presentation – and ambiance, service, and wine/beverage selection).  Surely they mean that a particular member of the panel reviewed a particular restaurant?  The end result is described by Eat Out (twice in its media release) as a ‘power list of great restaurants‘! Someone alerted me to the hard sell to new restaurants by Eat Out to be listed on Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 6/7 September

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Cape Town Tourism CEO Enver Duminy’s response to the axing of Virgin Atlantic’s London – Cape Town flights is embarrassing and appears unprepared, with poor wording, likely to have been a telephonic interview: ‘The slight (sic) cuts will definitely impact on tourism to the destination, especially if you look at Summer where the demand for Cape Town is quite great (sic), especially from the UK market’ !

*   ‘Chefs who Share’ is adding two further Auction lots for its charity Gala Dinner on Thursday 11 September, the culinary highlight of the year in Cape Town.  The proceeds go to the MAD (Make a Difference) Charity and Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. The additional Auction lots are attendance at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at pit lane level, and VIP tickets to attend the Laureus World Sports Awards in Shanghai. (received via media release from Amplicon PR)

*   Col’Cacchio is again giving back to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital this year, in donating R 5 of sales per pizza in its Continue reading →

Flavour marriages make “good chefs great”

New Hotel & Restaurant  Foodservice guest columnist, Jodi-Ann Pearton of The Food Design Agency, has written in the most recent issue about ‘Flavour Banks’, and has presented a list of five new flavour marriages.   Some of the new trendy flavour marriages sound like bizarre combinations, but will become commonplace over time, as they are increasingly experienced in restaurants and at dinner parties.

Pearton writes after a recent trip to France and Italy, where she attended Bocuse D’Or 2011, “the most prestigious individual culinary competition in the world”, according to her.   Her trip inspired her, and she says that it opened her eyes to a “whole new world.  A world where food is president, where freshness is perilous and where flavour is paramount”.   Flavour was the central focus of her impressions, being “the make or break component of any dish”, a combination of taste and smell.    She writes quite technically about adding and mixing flavours as if one is ‘withdrawing and depositing from a flavour bank”.   So a chef cooks by using the unique flavours of the individual ingredients, and then combines them and even spices them up.  Basic seasonings and fragrant vegetables create a masterpiece on a plate, she writes, creating a “flavour bank”. 

Pearton saw the reality of this focus on flavour in the European markets, where every supplier knows his/her fruit, vegetable and spice, as do the shoppers at these markets, and this knowledge is shared amongst those that one is cooking for too.   “The open channels of communication result in a high level of dining in these communities” as a result.   Flavour combinations create an extra dimension to a dish, says Pearton, and experimenting chefs are the ones coming up with unique flavour combinations.  “The palate is an unworked canvas and as cooks we have the ability to create masterpieces upon it as long as we are not afraid to be creative”, she concludes.

In the article the top five traditional flavour combinations are listed as Tomato and basil, Lamb and mint, Beef and horseradish, Chocolate and orange, and Fish and lemon.

The “Top Five new flavour marriages” are the following, according to Pearton: 

*   Kumquat and cranberry

*   Fresh water trout and sweet corn

*   Lemon verbena and wild mushrooms

*   Lime leaf and pink peppercorn

*   Cabbage and toasted coconut.

Hotel and Restaurant, March 2011.   www.hotelandrestaurant.co.za  www.jodi-ann.co.za

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

Col’Cacchio Pizzeria goes gourmet again

Col’Cacchio Pizzeria is running the second Celebrity Chef series from this month onwards, for the next six months, once again linking a celebrity chef to a pizza once a month, but this time around, a country is linked to the chef as well, in honour of the World Cup.  

Interestingly, despite FIFA’s strict ambush marketing rules, the Col’Cacchio newsletter ‘grazie!’ is initially shy in referring to the “World Cup”, yet has a box in the newsletter that states boldly: “The perfect place to gather pre, post or during the 2010 FIFA WORLD CUP…   We take the hassle out of organising your soccer party”!

This month chef Michael Broughton of Terroir in Stellenbosch, a Top 10 restaurant, is representing Italy with his Michelangelo pizza, containing an interesting mix of figs, potato, garlic braised rocket, fontina cheese, parma ham, a drizzle of truffle oil, and fresh origanum.

In May another Top 10 chef, David Higgs of Rust en Vrede in Stellenbosch, will represent Mexico with his Nacho Libre pizza, containing ‘jerk spiced chicken breast strips, home-made guacamole, freshly chopped tomato chilli salsa, fresh coriander & sour cream’.

In June Jodi-Ann Pearton of The Food Design Agency, a catering company, food consultancy and cookery school in Johannesburg, represents South Africa with a Bunny Chow Calzone,  which is a folded pizza containing tandoori chicken and tomato chow, served with fresh coriander and Mrs Ball’s chutney.

The names of the gourmet pizzas that the chefs will present in July – September have not yet been released, but the names of the chefs and the countries they will represent are available.   Franck Dangereux, owner of The Foodbarn, and a previous Top 10 chef whilst at La Colombe, is the gourmet pizza chef in July and represents France.   Chef Nicky Gibbs, from The Westcliff hotel in Johannesburg, will represent Argentina in her gourmet pizza in August.   In September Top 10 chef Chantel Dartnall, who came second in the Eat Out Top 10 restaurant awards in November, of Restaurant Mosaic in Pretoria, will represent Denmark.

For every gourmet pizza sold at R 95, R 5 of the price goes to the Children’s Hospital Trust, the fundraising charity of the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, and to its Burns’ Unit in particular.  Last year Col’Cacchio ran a similar Celebrity Chef promotion, and the R 120 000 which was raised was donated to the Hospital for the purchase of specialised surgical equipment for the new operating theatre.

Col’Cacchio has eight franchise outlets in the Cape, including Franschhoek, Stellenbosch, Camps Bay, Canal Walk, Cavendish, Willowbridge and Blouberg, as well as eight outlets in Gauteng and one in KwaZulu-Natal. 

For more details about Col’Cacchio’s Celebrity Chef series, see www.colcacchio.co.za

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