Last year Chef Isabella Niehaus from Langtafel in Langebaan was recognised as one of our Top Women restaurateurs. This year she is recognised as one of our 2021 Top 10 Women Chefs in the Cape. She wins a bottle of Adhara Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Bella hosts wonderful Sunday lunches from her home overlooking the Langebaan Lagoon, connecting people arriving as strangers and leaving as friends. She has published the award-winning ‘Duinhuis Smake, Geure’, which was named Best in the World in the 2020 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. She also has a new e-Book ‘Isabella’s Mussel Feast’.
Since having created a Facebook Group for Food Delivery and Collection during Lockdown, I have become aware of women restaurant owners, something I had never written about or even thought about, only being aware of female chefs in our part of the world. For Women’s Day I planned this article, to profile the female restaurant owners in Cape Town and the Winelands, sadly only finding a small handful of 12.
On Sunday I attended a Langtafel lunch in Langebaan, invited by The Good Life food truck owner Adele Maartens, at the Duinhuis home of Isabella Niehaus, food stylist and food and beverage market organizer. She organizes a Langtafel lunch once a month, and on Sunday the lunch was paired with Cederberg wines and beers.