Tag Archives: Kevin Joseph

‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa’ – who is he, are SA viewers being misled, Woolworths pushing its Australian investments ?

Hayden Quinn Title page sunflowersThe question on the lips of many South African viewers of ‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa’ is: why Hayden Quinn?  Why choose a MasterChef Australia top 3 finalist (no, not winner) of 2011 (no, not even 2013) to promote the beauty of South Africa and its abundance of sustainable foods amongst South Africans? We did some research, and found that South African viewers are being misled about the TV show host, and that Woolworths appears to have a hidden agenda in pushing its Australian investments!

I started with the Cardova Group, the production company of ‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa‘, and of the ‘Expresso Morning Show’ and ‘Top Travel‘ too, all flighted on SABC3.  A random e-mail landed in my Inbox from LinkedIn, asking me to congratulate Mark Bland as newly appointed Producer of ‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa’, just as the series kicked off and my interest in it was piqued.   I got Mark’s cellphone number via LinkedIn, and asked him for more information about the food series.  He was extremely hesitant in talking to me, even though we have known each other for  a good two to three years.  He is a regular reader of my blog, and has commented on it on occasion.  I was taken aback about his hesitancy to meet, to talk about the new show, stating that he had just been promoted, and did not want to jeopardise his new appointment in case I wrote something that could land him in trouble. As a regular reader he would have known that I can only write what I have been told.  As the producer of the show, one would have thought that he would have wanted information about the series to be shared, or expected that he would have referred me to a PR person within his company, or at Woolworths, SABC3, and/or Nedbank, the major sponsors of the series.  The best he could send me was this bland (pardon the pun) media release: Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 30 April/1 May

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Table Mountain National Park is offering South African residents free entry to its Silvermine, Oudekraal, Perdekloof, and Newlands Forest picnic spots today, in celebration of its 16th anniversary.

*   SAA has announced that its three weekly flights to Beijing are departing at a more passenger-friendly time of 20h35 from today, four hours earlier than in the past, for the 15 hour flight from Johannesburg to China.

*   Only 40% of British men would order a bottle of wine in a pub, compared to 90% of them enjoying wine in their homes, for fear of being ridiculed by their mates.   Half of male drinkers would order wine in a restaurant. Male hosts to dinner parties at home would be more likely to choose a wine that could be a talking point to serve their guests, while women hosts are very unlikely to choose such a wine.

*   Chef Chantel Dartnall of Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient up north is a magnificent plater and creative Continue reading →

Twelve Apostles Sweet Service and Cape Town parking guard Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to The Twelve Apostles Hotel for their The Spa launch function earlier this week.   Guests received a personally delivered invitation, were given directions as to where to park some distance from the hotel, were driven in courtesy cars to the function venue, received a generous gift pack of Elemis, B.AFRICA and Dermalogica product samples, and met the charming hosts Toni and Victoria Tollman, all on a picture perfect afternoon.  Delicious and healthy light snacks were served with champagne and water.  The three local Red Carnation Hotel chefs Henrico Grobbelaar from The Twelve Apostles, Kevin Joseph from the Oyster Box (he says that Princess Charlène and Prince Albert look really happy when the cameras aren’t around), and Floris Smith from Bushmans Kloof did the food preparation.

The Sour Service Award goes to the Cape Town parking marshalls, who are becoming increasingly cheeky, rude and even aggressive, as I experienced in Sea Point outside SPAR recently.  After parking, I was followed by a parking marshall, who touched my arm, and told me that I was not allowed to ‘f…ing’ park where I had parked in a legitimate parking bay.  He refused to give me his name, and had removed his name badge when I had returned to my car.  The rude behaviour of parking marshalls is a major deterrent to doing business at shops and restaurants in the city centre, in Sea Point, and in other suburbs of Cape Town.  Sharing the Sour Service Award is the City of Cape Town, which did not react to a Tweet, in which I asked for a contact person to report the incident to!

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

SA wedding reception with oysters for Prince Albert and Princess Charlène at The Oyster Box!

Prince Albert and Princess Charlène will be hosting a second wedding reception for not only South African friends and family, but also for some of the dignitaries attending the 123rd International Olympic Committee session, at the Oyster Box in Umhlanga later today.

While the details of the wedding menu and the attendance at the cocktail function have been shrouded in secrecy, some information about the wedding meal and its 450 guests have been found.  The guests at the lunch will include FIFA President Sepp Blatter, FIFA ex-President Joao Havelange, International Association of Athletics Federation head Lamine Diack, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg (who both attended the Monaco wedding), Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Princess Anne, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, IOC member Sam Ramsamy, King Mswati of Swaziland, and Vivian Reddy, report The Times and Sowetan.  The couple was invited to lunch with President Zuma at King House, the presidential residence in Durban, yesterday.

Executive Chef Kevin Joseph of the Oyster Box Hotel will prepare the meal, saying it is not the largest event that he has catered for, but certainly the most high profile.   With nine years at the hotel, and previous experience at Raffles in Singapore, the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta and the Milestone in London, he is confident that he and his team will do a great job today.  Asked why Princess Charlène had chosen the hotel for the reception, he said that her father “is part of the horse-racing fraternity and the Oyster Box has always been a big part of that world”, reports the Sunday Times.  Earlier this year, Princess Charlène stayed at the hotel, and loved its Indian food.

The menu is a secret, but Chef Kevin says that he was given carte blanche for it, but with the specification that it should contain both South African and French cuisine.  The colour theme for the decor is the Monaco red and white.  Local produce will be organic, and fish, meat and cheeses will come from KwaZulu-Natal. All breads, pastries and ice creams will be made in-house.  An oyster bar will offer oysters prepared in different ways, a butler service keeping guests topped up with ‘beautifully plated’ food.   Boerewors and mealie pap will be on the menu too, as will sardines.  Dombeya Chardonnay and Samara will be served, and Haskell winemaker Rianie Strydom will be one of the reception guests.

“Of course I hope the bridal couple enjoy it, but I really want the guests, international and local, to leave with the conviction that South African hospitality is amongst the best in the world. I want our guests to go home and say, ‘You’ve got to go and experience South Africa – and particularly Durban!”, he said.

Princess Charlène flies to Cape Town tomorrow, to attend a function of the Giving Organisation Trust with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Noordhoek, and visiting the Cotlands HIV/AIDS hospice and the Fynbos Project at Lourensford, both in Somerset West.

POSTSCRIPT 8/7: A special Oysters Charlène dish was created by The Oyster Box for the function, reports AFP, being oysters baked with creamed spinach, curried lentils and asparagus.

POSTSCRIPT 9/7: Princess Charlène’s visit to Cape Town was low-key, but her acceptance of the trusteeship of the Giving Organisation from Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a highlight.

POSTSCRIPT 11/7: Now that the reception is over, and confidentiality agreements no longer apply, more details of the reception menu have been made available by The Sunday Independent.  A total of 60000 canapés, prepared for the 500 guests by a team of 30 chefs, included crayfish with lime and palm sugar glaze and wasabi egg puree; seared tuna loin with Japanese seven spice, crisp seaweed salad, soya and mint dressing;  ostrich bobotie and raisin spring rolls; Dargyl duck liver and truffle paté; mini raspberry and honey Pavlovas; a duo of opera chocolate slices, mini chocolate and bitter orange éclairs; French apple tartlets with frangipani topping; and malva pudding.  Moët et Chandon was served, as well as Dombeya and Bouchard Finlayson wines, the latter wine estate owned by the owners of The Oyster Box.  The wedding cake was a lighthouse, the icon of The Oyster Box.  Sad if true, is the report in The Times today that Prince Albert and Princess Charlène stayed in different hotels whilst in Durban. 

Quick to make capital of the most high profile event The Oyster Box has ever hosted, parent company Red Carnation Hotels has launched a “You’re One in a Million” R1 million wedding package at The Oyster Box and sister hotel The Twelve Apostles in Camps Bay.  The two night stay at The Oyster Box includes a Rolls Royce transfer, accommodation in the Presidential Suite on the wedding night, a microlight trip, ‘free-flowing oysters, champagne, strawberries and chocolate fountains throughout their stay’, use of the spa, a pre-wedding spa party for the female guests, a Zulu dance welcome, a gourmet seafood evening, champagne breakfast, golf for the groom and three friends, hair and make-up for the bride, flowers for the wedding, horse-drawn carriage, the services of a photographer and videographer, a parting gift of an oil painting of The Oyster Box, and two nights at Phinda.  The Twelve Apostles package includes a return business flight, a silk Madiba shirt, champagne, canapés, rehearsal dinner, South African smorgasbord and seafood barbeque, entertainment by Cape Minstrels and a jazz band, champagne breakfast, hair and make-up, manicure and pedicure, barber service for the groom and best man, as well as massages and mini manicure and mini-pedicure, scenic drive for waiting wedding guests on Harley Davidsons or vintage cars, the wedding ceremony, a music trio, butterflies, marriage officer, photographer and videographer, a cheetah for photographs, venue decoration, seven-course banquet, Bouchard Finlayson wines, champagne, wedding cake, a jazz trio, a one hour scenic helicopter flight, a half-day cruise, and a two-night stay at Bushman’s Kloof.

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