Tag Archives: SAB

Franschhoek Cellar undergoes complete image transformation, pity about design and poor service!

Franschhoek Cellar exterior 2Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Franschhoek, and used the opportunity to visit the completely transformed Franschhoek Cellar, for which re-opening I had received an invitation, but could not attend the Monday evening function last month.  The redesign led to the closure in October and November last year, and the Franschhoek Cellar re-opening in December.  What has emerged is a monster, not suited to brand ‘Franschhoek’ at all!

For the first time I noticed yesterday that one can no longer park in front of the building, an area which was shared with that for The Stall.  There is no entrance into the wine tasting centre off the R45 entrance to Franschhoek anymore.  Instead the walkway to the centre has been turned into a garden, with a rose garden, another with protea varieties, and a fountain wall.  To the left of the building are some unusual looking ‘umbrellas‘, as if they are Continue reading →

Beer and food pairings new trend, and it’s healthy too!

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Toffie Food Festival, held at the City Hall last month and sponsored by South African Breweries, was the Food and Beer Pairing workshop, presented by SAB’s Trade Brewer Denis da Silva and Kitchen Cowboys Chef Pete Goffe-Wood.  It demonstrated that many of our perceptions about beer drinking in general, and about specific brands of beers, are shaped by societal norms and packaging, and that beer pairs perfectly with food.

In notes that we were given, it was stated that one needs to know how a beer is made when deciding on a food pairing, in that a beer’s flavour comes from the ‘cooking process’ during the malting phase, when barley converts to malt. The flavours this creates is similar to the flavours created by cooking food.  We were given the following Food and Beer pairing tips:

*   Beer and food flavours should be compatible, and have some elements in common. The herby bitterness of hops is well matched to lightly spiced food

*   Beer strength should be matched with food strength.  As with wines, light foods should be paired with lighter beers, while full-bodied beers should be matched with more strongly flavoured foods

*   In wine terms, a lager is white wine and an ale a red wine.  Hoppy beers can play the role of an acidic wine in pairing consideration.

*   In deciding on the food pairing, beers’ sweetness, bitterness, carbonation, heat, and richness should be considered

*   The more hop bitterness the beer has, the more the food needs to be lively and hearty to hold its own

*  The food and beer combination does not only have to be complimentary – contrasting flavours work well too

*   More fully flavoured foods can be paired with beers with a higher alcohol content.

We were given suggestions for some food and beer pairings, to embody these pairing principles: green salad and vinaigrette with hoppy Brown Ale, roast beef and gravy with Scottish ale, Chicken Kiev and Pilsner Urquell, oysters and Castle Milk Stout, tuna and olives with Peroni Nastro Azzuro, black tiger prawns and scallops with Grolsch, and an interesting sounding pairing of chocolate and Castle Milk Stout.

The difference between beer types was explained, lagers made by fermenting yeast which is subjected to cold maturation. Taking longer to ferment than ales, lagers are cleaner, less sweet, more rounded, have a less complex flavour, less fruit aroma, and usually have grass on the nose.   They are clear and light in colour. Ales are fermented at a warm temperature, with a short maturation period. They have complex flavours, and a more pronounced fruity aroma and palate.  They are served at room temperature, and have a lower carbon dioxide content.  Pilsners, originating from Pilsen in the Czech Republic, are gold in colour and clear, and have a bitter taste and hop aroma.  Stouts are almost black in colour, with a roasted taste, coming from roasting the malt, making them flavourful and given them a strong hop character.  SAB makes its beers from water, yeast, hops, malted barley, and maize, making them nutritional too, in containing vitamins, potassium, soluble fibre, with little sodium, reducing cholesterol, and slowing down digestion.  Beer has no additives, unlike wines.

In taking us through the beer and food pairing, Denis said that a beer should be evaluated as one does a wine, but with additional aspects, looking at its colour, clarity, foam, sound of the bubbles, aroma on the nose, and taste.  We tasted a ceviche of line fish with fennel, chilli and avocado, prepared by Chef Pete, paired with Castle Lite.  Containing only 4 – 5 % alcohol, it allows one to drink more beer than wine when one eats.   A spiced black urid lentil bunny chow was paired with Carling Black Label, a lager containing 5,5 % alcohol, and with a banana nose, slightly sweeter, not so hoppy, and often chosen as a favourite in blind tastings by women, Denis said, despite its masculine marketing focus.

Toulouse sausage and bacon, served with lentils and a mustard sauce, was paired with Pilsner Urquell.  Denis told us that Urquell was the first clear beer made, being more golden in colour, and being quieter on the ear in containing less carbon dioxide, and undergoing ‘triple decoction’, the name for the caramelisation process.  It has toffee, honey, citrus and spicy aromas.  They use the very aromatic saaz hop.  It is a serious beer, good to pair with goulash and steak tartare.  The Czechs are the largest beer drinking nation, Denis said. I enjoyed the pairing of Chef Pete’s delicious sticky toffee pudding (the only toffee we had at the Toffie Food Festival!) with Castle Milk Stout, called that due to its addition of lactose.  This beer has caramel, milk, molasses, and butterscotch on the nose, with a hoppy, malty and burnt taste.

The health benefits alone would be a good justification to drink a lot more beer, and the workshop proved how well different beers can be paired with a variety of foods.

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

Toffie Food Festival: ‘Julie & Julia’ highlight, mix of conference, workshops, mystery meal!

The Toffie Food Festival and Conference, to be held at the City Hall on 3 and 4 September, attracted my attention due to its low-key marketing, odd as it is run by an (unknown) communication agency The President, and as its organisers have had no prior visibility as bloggers or ‘foodies’.  Information about the event has been scant, yet I booked immediately when I saw that Julie Powell, of the movie ‘Julie and Julia’ , is the key speaker. 

The movie ‘Julie and Julia’ ran in Cape Town in my early days of blogging, and I loved it, for its humour in presenting the trials and tribulations of blogging. Julie Powell’s blog ‘Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen’ was published as a book in 2005, and that led to the movie being made, and released in 2009.  Ms Powell has written a second book ‘Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession’, which was published two years ago.

I asked Hannerie Visser of The President why they were organising the Toffie Festival, with no credentials in the food industry.  This was her reply: “Toffie is a series of conference festivals and because food is so linked to cultural heritage it allowed for an interesting conference that everyone can relate to”. Other speakers are:

*   Kobus van der Merwe, chef/owner of Oep ve Eet in Paternoster, and previous web editor of Food24 and Eat Out.

*   Eloise Alemany, ex-editor of ID magazine and now cookbook specialist, from Argentina (leading a Toffie food tour of Buenos Aires in October).

*   Dr Anna Trapido, editor of ‘Hunger for Freedom’, the book that documented Nelson Mandela’s food likes and dislikes in the different phases of his life, is organising a lunch inspired by the book, in association with Woolworths’ TASTE magazine.

*   Lin Tung-Yuan of Café GABEE, ‘multi-award winner of the Taiwan Barista Championship, who is renowned for the delicacy and finesse of his coffee and coffee-inspired dishes’

*   Renata Coetzee, winner of a 2010 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for her book  ‘Koekemakranka: Khoi-Khoin Kultuurgoed en Kom-kuier-Kos’

*   Tammy Frazer, a perfumist (an odd link to a food conference!)

*   Wolfgang Koedel of Paulaner (a last minute addition, only announced on Twitter yesterday)

Running alongside the Conference are a number of events (oddly this programme has only just been finalised, a week before the Festival), which are free of charge, unless otherwise indicated below:

*   Spier vertical tasting

*  a SAB beer and food pairing led by Chef Pete Goffe-Wood of Kitchen Cowboys and Denis da Silva

*   a workshop by Eloise Alemany (R250)

*  a perfume workshop by Tammy Frazer (R350)

*   Tung-Yuan Lin barista workshop

The Toffie Festival, with a price tag of R 1710, also includes a Braai lunch, as well as a ‘secret home dinner’, breakfast and two Woolworths coffee vouchers.  The home dinners will be held on 3 September, and one will be allocated to dinner at the home of one of the following:

*   Cameron Munro from Superette

*   Gerhard Greyvenstein and Herman Lampen of Grey Lamp, a ‘pop-up’ supper club

*   Sumien Brink, editor of Woolworths’ TASTE magazine, and Cara Brink

*   Callie Maritz and Mari-Louis Guy of Cakebread boutique bakery

*   Alma Viviers, managing editor of VISI magazine and Kobus van der Merwe, chef/owner of Oep ve Koep in Paternoster

*   Tina Bester of Queen of Tarts

*   Cleon and Kate Romano of Maria’s Greek Café/Restaurant

*   Philip and Lisa Key of African Relish

*   Laureen Rossouw, editor of ELLE Decoration

*   Will Hobson of fieldoffice, a sandwich-maker

*   Aletta Lintveld, food editor of Weg magazine

*   Fabio and Luan Lauro of House of Pasta

*   Brendon and Suzette Bell-Roberts of art south africa magazine.

Toffie Food Festival and Conference delegates receive a copy of Cape Town ‘MENU’, an interesting book of restaurants and recipes, and is a listing of the Toffie Festival’s ‘guide of the best meals in Cape Town’. Included, for example, is:

*   Greek and African food: recommending Maria’s, and Bebe Rose

*   Portuguese and Italian food: recommending The Villa Tavern, Giovanni’s, Pizzeria Napoletana, House of Pasta, Hildebrand Restaurant, Chop, Fork Tapa, Meloncino, and Il Cappero.

*   Asian food: recommending Hesheng Chinese Takeaway, Chef Pon’s, Yindee’s, Mr Chan Chinese Restaurant, and Takumi

*   Cakes and desserts, recommending C’est La Vie, Keenwä, Arno Arpin, Biesmiellah, Queen of Tarts, Cassis Paris, Bird’s Boutique Café (may no longer be relevant with new chef opening with new menu on 1 September), Cakebread, Giovanni’s, Willoughby’s, fieldoffice, Lindt Chocolate Studio, San Julian, and Il Cappero.

Worrying is the low key marketing of the event, which is not yet sold out, and that speakers are still being added to the programme.  The printed programme delivered on Friday looks different to the one on the website, and some international speakers seem to have fallen off the programme. There appears to be no theme to the Conference, and it looks like a randomly thrown together collection of speakers.  Surprising is that no local foodies are on the programme, be they food bloggers or journalists.

POSTCRIPT: The Toffie Food Festival was all about over-promise and under-delivery.  Read our report.

Toffie Food Festival and Conference, City Hall, 3 – 4 September. www.toffie.co.za

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