Tag Archives: restaurateur

Restaurant Review: Hemelhuijs still as heavenly as when it opened!

 

I invited my friend Jenny Stephens to a Birthday Breakfast at Hemelhuijs, not having been to the restaurant for a couple of years. Despite it being a wet and cold Saturday, the restaurant was full, and I was grateful that the manager had advised me to book when I popped in a day ahead.

Hemelhuijs opened almost eleven years, and remains a firm favorite, despite being under the radar.

 

 

 

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Journalist and Restaurateur Jacques Pauw apologises for his Daily Maverick article about wrongful arrest after Waterfront meal!

 

Investigative journalist Jacques Pauw had the Cape Town restaurant industry abuzz about an opinion piece he wrote in Daily Maverick last week about his arrest by the police in the Waterfront in 6 February 2021,  after his credit card payment for the balance of his R1600 restaurant Hill was declined. The article was shared in the Cape Town Restaurants: The Good, Bad, and Nastyyyy Facebook Group, and attracted more than 400 comments, almost all expressing outrage.  I and others called for the restaurant and its manager to be named and shamed!  Restaurant lovers were speculating as to which restaurant it could have been.

Today Pauw Tweeted a correction and apology to everyone involved, blaming himself for the events.

Pauw’s 360 degree turnaround story of the events sounds suspicious, as if he struck a deal with the Waterfront and the police. As a minimum his reputation as a journalist is severely affected.  Continue reading →

Extraordinary Chef Prim Reddy starts a new chapter with Indian Chapter Restaurant!

 

Yesterday I met Restaurateur and Chef Prim Reddy for the first time in her new Indian Chapter in Blouberg, on my way to the West Coast. She recently moved into smaller premises across the road from her former venue, grateful for this fortunate misfortune, focusing on her 20 diners with even more care and personal attention. Chef Prim is a kind restaurateur without any ego, yet strong and has exciting future plans. Continue reading →

Chef Reuben Riffel: 2014 was a very busy year! More MasterChef to come!

Reuben Riffel Whale CottageYesterday I met Chef Reuben Riffel for a Day of Reconciliation coffee at Crisp in Franschhoek, around the corner from his Reuben’s restaurant, a follow-up from our reconnection at the Mercedes-Benz Eat Out Restaurant Awards.

As he sat down, Chef Reuben apologised for not feeling 100%, starting a cold, and expressing that he is exhausted after a very busy year, but seems to have enjoyed every minute of it. Ironically he and his wife Maryke had planned 2014 last year, wanting it to be a less busy year than 2013, but looking back, he said it was even busier. In the past year he has done the following:

*   filmed MasterChef SA Celebrity Edition, a series we are yet to see, in January 2015, in which he cut his MasterChef judging teeth, apologising that he was still new at being a TV cooking show judge.  Food24 reports that the 10 celebrities, cooking for a prize to be donated to  charity, are Singer Patricia Lewis, Comedian Chris Forrest, Comedian TolAss­Mo, Continue reading →