Tag Archives: Season 1

kulula and Robertsons #SkyDine demonstrates Partnership Marketing, but is it credible?!

Robertsons #SkyDine 1012150_615996955141343_1635024227_nA workshop held above Truth coffee shop about ten days ago, at which One Up Agency’s Alex Harrington-Griffin and Cape Town Magazine Managing Director Marcus Zandhuis spoke, focused on the concept of Partnership and Collaboration Marketing, and used Robertsons’ recent #SkyDine collaboration with kulula.com as one example of such marketing.

The Robertsons #SkyDine promotion is an interesting if not bizarre example of Partnership Marketing. Chatting to the brand’s Social Media Manager at The Ultimate Braai Master Cape finals on Saturday, he explained that Liquorice, the company he works for, only handled the Social Media aspects of the campaign.  Durban-based ad agency The Hardy Boys, handling the Robertsons’ account, conceptualised the campaign. A planeful of bloggers and food journalists from Cape Town (and Johannesburg) was invited by marcusbrewster, the campaign PR agency, to a surprise flight to Johannesburg, and on the return flight to Cape Town, Reuben Robertsons Riffel introduced the surprise 3-course meal which he had designed, and which was prepared by airline catering company Foodirections. Utilising plane crockery and an airline catering company, food plating and presentation was disappointing.  We recognised Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 2 episode 22: Finalists duck criticism in Chinatown, Deena Naidoo back on the box!

MasterChef 2 22 Chinatown Whale Cottage PortfolioLast night’s episode 22 of MasterChef SA was a tough one, the Finalists being criticised by both the guests who were invited to evaluate the cooking, and by Chef Pete Goffe-Wood.  A surprise was seeing Chef Deena Naidoo, Season 1 winner of MasterChef SA,  back on the screen again!

Having returned from Ethiopia, the six Finalists and the judges made a stop in Johannesburg, at the new Chinatown in Cyrildene.  The first Chinese came to our country during the gold rush in the 1800’s.  Executive Chef Chang an Song from Tsogo Sun, one of the best Asian chefs in the country, Chef Benny Masekwameng said, demonstrated Peking Duck, Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 1 top prize restaurant Aarya under fire…from a MasterChef!

The most bizarre restaurant review I have ever read (other than the weird ones by IntertwEAT) is the one for Aarya at Montecasino, the restaurant which MasterChef SA Season 1 winner Deena Naidoo ‘co-owns’ with Tsogo Sun, which was part of his R8 million prize package last year.  It was not a good review at all.

When Chef Deena was announced as the winner at the end of MasterChef SA Season 1, he was reported to have complained to a City Press reporter about the deceitful prize, in that he would not be receiving the R 7 million restaurant to keep, as was intimated in all the MasterChef SA publicity throughout the Season 1 screening, the restaurant portion having made this the largest prize ever for a South African reality show, M-Net boasted at the time.  Chef Deena, with the help of M-Net’s PR department, quickly issued a media statement, denied Chef Deena’s criticism of Tsogo Sun, and he gushed with delight about his prize.  Embarrassingly for the hotel group, Chef Deena declared that he had no intention of resigning from his job at Nedbank in Durban, or moving to Johannesburg.  Tsogo Sun allowed Chef Deena to take on the restaurant prize on his terms – he would remain working at Nedbank, visiting the restaurant five days a month. He was also allowed to rename the restaurant Aarya, after his daughter (left), and was involved in its interior decor, mainly featuring posters of the Season 1 Finalists.  On Twitter we have seen both praise and criticism of the restaurant since it opened in November. Continue reading →

MasterChef SA Season 1 Guy Clark creates a stir in India, chef at new EuroAfro fusion Uzuri restaurant!

Guy Clark, the best looking and one of the nicest MasterChef SA Season 1 Finalists, has been in India for the past six months, helping to set up a restaurant kitchen, and has just been appointed as one of two chefs to run the kitchen of Uzuri (meaning ‘goodness’ in Swahili), a European/African fusion restaurant seating 90 patrons, which is opening in New Dehli next month.  He returned to Cape Town to renew his visa last week, and cooked a five course meal for his friends and food writers at his mother Di’s house in Bakoven.  Chef Guy’s MasterChef SA experience has taken him a long way, both figuratively and literally! Continue reading →