Before visiting Hartford House in August I did not realize that it was located on one of our country’s finest heritage stud farms. I was delighted that owner Mick Goss was my guide to Summerhill Stud, showing me around his ‘largest foreign-owned horse hotel‘ with passion.
We clicked immediately, having the University of Stellenbosch as an Continue reading →
I spent eight days in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) last week, in search of the perfect food experience, in a province I had last visited about ten years ago to attend Indaba, and the well-known Midlands area, which I had last visited more than 25 years ago.
The encouragement to visit the province was made more than a year ago by Chef Jackie Cameron, who is the most passionate proudly-KZNer I encountered on my journey, making it her business to support KZN produce, from the Midlands in particular, in using and in marketing it at every opportunity. Jackie has put KZN on the food and restaurant map over the past twelve years that she worked at Hartford House, making the Eat Out Top 10 Continue reading →
An invitation from Waterford Communications to attend a function of the Guala Closures Group, the European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA), and South African aluminium producer Hulamin sounded interesting in terms of content. Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant shortlist Jardine at Jordan as function venue was an added attraction. A passionate case was made for the benefits of using aluminium closures for wine bottling.
On arrival we received a glass of Jordan The Real McCoy Riesling 2014 and
duck paté canapés, which were served with passion fruit jelly, and prune purée, on brioche. Buffalo milk mozzarella, confit tomato and basil was also served as a canapé. We sat at large round tables, covered with brown table cloths and a white overlay. We received a bread platter, which included ciabatta, Cape seedloaf, and vetkoek, served with porcini butter, watercress pesto (with overpowering garlic), and aoili.
A number of parties with an interest in the use of aluminium in screw caps and closures was present at the Continue reading →
I was invited to attend the opening of The Good Bakery in Muizenberg yesterday by Robert of 6 Spin Street Restaurant, who had tried the bread of the new bakery earlier in the week, and had pronounced it to be excellent. The Good Bakery is focused on a small range of breads, which is baked from an unglamarous garage outlet alongside the railway line. It opened two weeks ago.
Martin Moessmer is the young enthusiastic owner of The Good Bakery, who worked at Jardine Restaurant as an apprentice pastry chef with George Jardine. He spent a year working in the kitchen at Murrayfield Golf Club in Scotland, then returned to South Africa to work at the restaurant at the Botanic Gardens in Pietermaritzburg, and cooked for a BBC crew that was filming in the Kruger National Park.
Martin enjoys baking bread, especially when he has had to endure the poor quality bread generally available in Cape Town. He never baked only one bread, but baked a number at a time, and realised that he is really good at it. His regular customers think so too, and his prices are extremely reasonable: 80 % and 100 % rye loaves cost R 15, ciabatta R 12, focaccia R 22, kitke R 18 and croissants R6 each. Martin supports organic and local products in the creation of his breads, and these include Eureka Mills Stone Ground unbleached wheat and rye, Khoisan salt, free range milk, and Cremelat or Ayrshire butter.
Martin will deliver, on arrangement, and he is working on distribution points in town, to make his breads accessable to Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl customers.
While you are in Milner Street, do pop in at Kitch-Kombuis close to The Good Bakery – it serves excellent cappuccinos, homemade sandwiches, shortbread, apple tarts and many more treats, at Muizenberg prices!
The Good Bakery, 12 Milner Street, Muizenberg. Tel 074 174 5554. No website.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com