I love eating cake but am not a Cake Baker by any means.
Yet my eye caught an article about the Pudding which won The Platinum Pudding Competition in honour of the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Competition was created by Fortnum & Mason especially for the Platinum Jubilee celebration.
I was recently contacted by Ideas Cartel owner Schuyler Vorster, and invited to experience it. We have never met. I had to Google the directions to find the venue, and was surprised to see that it was the former Beluga, which closed down during Lockdown.
Subsequently I returned to the restaurant twice, for a dinner invitation, and then for an ice cream and gin pairing.
Misfits is a restaurant, entertainment venue, event venue, Inverroche Gin Academy, work space, coffee bar, wine shop, and indoor golf putting area.
Yesterday I was spoilt by my friend Katie Friedman, who took me to lunch at The Hinds Head in Bray, one of three restaurants owned by Chef Heston Blumenthal in this tiny Berkshire gourmet village.
Bray first attracted attention when the Roux brothers Michel and Albert opened The Waterside Inn in the village in 1972, and have held a three star Michelin rating for the past 25 years. Chef Heston, whose father grew up in South Africa, was attracted to the village too, Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Despite the disaster in Cape Town harbour earlier this week, our country has a lucrative future as far as cruise tourism goes. Nine cruise ships have scheduled stops off our coast for 2015, in Cape Town, Durban, Richard’s Bay, Port Elizabeth, and East London, a 70% increase in cruise liner passengers. A number of the cruise ships are returning to the country, after previous visits. The Queen Mary 2 will return for a second visit next year, and the Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth will visit in 2016. Vital to the expansion of cruise tourism is world-class terminals in ports, and Cape Town’s inefficiency as far as Customs staff goes was in the spotlight this week. Cape Town is one of the most popular stops in the region, for American tourists in particular.
* National Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom will lead a local delegation representing our tourism industry to World Travel Market (WTM) in London this coming week, one of the largest (after ITB in Berlin) tourism trade exhibitions in the world. More than 50000 tourism players are likely to attend WTM. The Minister said: ‘The WTM is one of the premier events where South Africa engages with the global travel trade. Besides maintaining excitement about our destination, and all that we have to offer, this platform is about doing business and growing international tourist arrivals to our country. We will be promoting the variety of experiences we offer in South Africa, and build on our reputation as a unique, diverse, friendly and accessible destination‘. The Minister will address a summit relating to mega-events and tourism at WTM, based on our country’s FIFA 2010 World Cup experience.
* Due to a cracked silo storing 10000 tons of coal, Eskom has announced load-shedding from today onwards, which is Continue reading →