Tag Archives: Singita

USA Design Queen Stewart flops at Design Indaba in Cape Town

What was Ravi Naidoo, owner of Interactive Africa and ‘Mr Cool’, who boasts FIFA as a client, and organiser of 13 Design Indaba’s to date, thinking when he decided to put Martha Stewart on the programme for the 2010 Design Indaba, which ended this weekend?

Billing Stewart as the lead Design Indaba speaker on its website, Stewart was described as speaking about “Food Design” at the Conference part of the Design Indaba, about “the creative principles and practical ideas that have made her America’s most trusted guide to stylish living.  Millions of consumers rely on Martha Stewart as their arbiter of style and taste and their guide to all aspects of everyday living – from cooking and entertaining to decorating and gardening, and much more”.  Stewart’s profession is stated as : entrepreneur, TV host and author.  

None of these “credentials” would have necessarily made Stewart eligible as a speaker at a conference addressed and attended by the world’s top designers.  So what went wrong? Firstly, through Twitter, one could track Stewart’s movements around the country, from the time she left New York on SAA, praising the airline highly (sponsored ticket?), she was met in Johannesburg and taken on a safari to Singita (sponsored?), and then arrived in Cape Town, where she stayed at the One & Only Cape Town (sponsored?).  Stewart’s talk was mid-morning on day three.  From her Tweets, it was clear that she had made no effort to attend any of the other talks on the first two days, choosing rather to go sightseeing and winetasting, but here her brand endorsements stopped.   It is the owners of the wine estates (which included Warwick and Graham Beck) that made one aware of her stops there on Twitter.  She did Tweet about her lunch at Waterkloof, mistakenly referring to it being in Stellenbosch!  Given that she has close to 2 million followers on Twitter, this would have had a good marketing benefit for the Cape.

At Design Indaba, the conference organisers as well as bizcommunity.com, were Tweeting from the conference.   Here is the take on Martha Stewart’s talk by Louise Marsland, ex-editor of and writer for bizcommunity.com and editor of AdVantage magazine, who Twittered the whole Conference every few seconds:

‘The always spectacular Design Indaba will this year be remembered, not only for the fabulous speakers such as Harry Pearce, Bruce Nussbaum, Priyush Pandey, Stefan Bucher, Mokena Makeke, etc, but for the worst presentation it’s (sic) ever hosted – by famous ‘homemaker’ Martha Stewart. Who will also now be credited with launching the first local “twitcom”. [view twitterfall)   Delivering a presentation more suited to the Krugersdorp Vrouefederasie or the Belville (sic) Housewives Scrapbooking Circle, she managed to inspire a mass walkout in both auditoriums – practically unheard of in the history of Design Indaba, which is the industry’s premier conference and expo showcase in the creative industries and an inspiration destination annually.  And so we get another twiord (twitter word): she was ‘twitter slapped’ (twitapped?) by the twitterverse. Twerrible.  The complaints centred around that fact that she used her presentation as a sales pitch (given how she is about to launch her ‘Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes’ in South Africa) and spoke to these highly creative and key delegates with a lack of awareness that was astounding. With the likes of local agency heads and creative directors and world-renowned designers and architects in the audience, you don’t talk about doing ‘glitter by numbers’ pictures and show 29 pictures of yourself holding various farm life (unless that’s part of your creative installation!). The laughter was cringe worthy indeed. The result was a walkout.  Basically she was boring and out of touch and self-promotional. Everything that Design Indaba is not. Design Indaba is about collaboration, sustainability, social entrepreneurship, less conspicuous consumption and looking towards redesigning a new world where product has less impact on the environment. General opinion was summed up by the biting comment of MC Michael Bierut as Stewart left the stage: “Dr Craig Venter is to the human genome as Martha Stewart is to paint chips.” Ouch!The subtle quips continued through subsequent speakers in the afternoon on Friday with references to the ‘millions’ to be made out of design (not) and pleas for people not to put gold glitter on their food, or anything else for that matter. Speakers following her were thanked profusely for “showing us what Design Indaba is all about” by Bierut. Groans and laughter greeted each aside.  Delegates who walked out gathered around Bizcommunity.com’s live ‘twitterfall’ screen outside the main auditorium which live-fed the deluge of tweets to delegates. “It was hysterical,” said one executive creative director of a leading SA ad agency. “The tweets were hugely entertaining, much more so than her speech!”  Another creative director pointed out that the real story was how fantastically social media worked in this case. “People didn’t like her… so they said so. That’s the real story. Brilliant.”   Delegates and journalists attending didn’t pull any punches, with scathing references to her ‘lack of a glittering performance’ and the fact that she could write a book on ‘How to clear a room’, rather.’

Interestingly Design Indaba, which ran its own Twitter feed, did not Tweet about Stewart after she arrived in the country, almost as if they could see a problem coming.   Every other speaker’s content was Tweeted about by them.  There was a deathly silence surrounding Martha Stewart on @designindaba and Naidoo has not been seen to make any statements in the newspapers that have run prominent stories on this flop (Sunday Times, Weekend Argus)!

Yesterday Stewart addressed a less distinguished audience, who paid R 250 to attend a breakfast session sponsored by Woolworths.   From the blog and Twitter feedback it appears that Stewart used the same talk, but attendees had lowered their expectations, given the feedback about her talk the previous day.   Some comments seemed self-justifying, others remained critical: read Cape Town News Blog’s report here.

Stewart appeared unaffected by the furore, happily continuing her Tweeting about beautiful Cape Town and hoping that she could get up Table Mountain, after the gale force southeaster winds had prevented her from accessing this design icon of the city.  In fairness to her, she did not make any negative comments on Twitter about her visit to South Africa, and was gracious to her hosts and sponsors in acknowledging them, the main ones at least!

Martha Stewart’s visit to Cape Town will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

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

Cape Town 8th favourite travel city

Cape Town has been voted the 8th best city in the world by Conde Nast Traveller readers, behind New York, Paris, Rome, Sydney, Barcelona, Venice and San Francisco.

South Africa has been voted the 8th favourite country in the world by the Conde Nast Traveller readers, after Italy, New Zealand, Turkey, Australia, France, Egypt and the USA.   The main attraction to South Africa as a holiday destination is its variety of attractions.

In the Leisure Hotels in the Middle East, Africa and Indian Ocean Island category , South African properties did exceptionally well, with Bushman’s Kloof near Clanwilliam having been voted 3rd best Leisure Hotel, followed by the Twelve Apostles Hotel in Camps Bay in 4th place, Singita in 10th place, Ulusaba Private Game Reserve (which belongs to Sir Richard Branson) in 16th place, and Sabi Sabi in 19th place.

The Pezula Spa in Knysna won the top vote for Spa in an overseas country, while the Sanctuary Spa at the Twelve Apostles Hotel was voted 11th best spa in the same category.

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

maze not quite a-maze-ing yet!

Since the opening of the One&Only Cape Town last week, Capetonians are coming to check out the hotel, and are having dinner at its two branded restaurants, Nobu and maze.

maze is a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, the first to merge maze Tapas and maze Grills, which are separated elsewhere in the maze world.    Sol Kerzner, the One&Only owner, encouraged Ramsay to add a South African touch to the menu.   The touch is most visible in the dessert menu.

But, to get to the beginning.   We had dinner five days after the opening day.  We were greeted with confusion as to what we should do with the car.  Mistakenly we had assumed we could just drive in at the low key entrance (at night), and a lit up One&Only sign was the only branding one saw upon entering the grounds, surprising for one of the world’s leading hotel operations.   The car problem was quickly solved, when it was valet parked, organised by a most impressive looking and charming doorman, wearing a waistcoat with leopard print over his smart black suit – it looked superb.   Unfortunately this dress theme was not carried through once one steps inside the foyer.  One’s first impression is the stunning chandelier in the Vista Bar.  The Bar has a magnificent view onto Table Mountain in the day, but it is not visible at night.   Staff were on hand, proactively assisting in providing directions for the two restaurants, to the left and right of the bar.

As one comes down the staircase to maze, a manager comes to greet his guests with the reservations list, and one is quickly seated.   The menu is cream-coloured, and its cover understated, with the zen-like maze logo on the outside.   The menu pages number three in total, with a surprising small selection of starters, mains and desserts.   The pleasant surprise was the affordability of the dishes – not inexpensive, but on a par with the more expensive restaurants in Cape Town:  R 160 for a 250 gram South African or Namibian fillet, Karoo lamb at R 130, kingklip at R 90, and dessert prices range from R 60 – R 90.   All side dishes for the main course are charged extra, at R 25 – at that price, the portion sizes are small.   Interesting is that a side order of bobotie can be ordered with one’s steak or fish.   In addition to chips, one can have side orders of sherry mushrooms, mash, braised carrots, french beans, etc.    We learnt that the signature dish of maze is the beetroot salad.

Staff in the hotel wear uniforms designed by local fashion designer Jenni Button.   A strong turquoise blue is used throughout – in the waistcoats of the bar staff, the ties of the male managers, in the scarves/sashes of the female managers.   The less blue the staff member wears in the uniform, the more senior he/she is.

The restaurant interior is very brown, earthy, chocolatey and darkish, with dark woods, and oval-shaped orange lights.  With only a little tea light on the table, it was very hard to read the menu.   Special clip-on reading lights are available, but this was not communicated in advance.   Turquoise is not reflected in the decor at all.   The restaurant carpet had massive geometric blocks on it – garish, hotel-like, but fortunately one’s attention is not on the floor.   Tables for two are on the side, with one person sitting on a fixed bench, not well matched to the height of the table, making this an uncomfortable seat.    The cutlery is beautiful and new, and no table cloths or overlays decorate the tables.    The use of slate as coasters and underplates is unusual but practical.

The winelist is impressive, with 35 pages of varietals of 150 international and  450 local wines, and more than hundred wines-by-the-glass.   Irritating for a winedrinker preferring wines by variety, is the winelist that is arranged by Wine of Origin region.   So, for example, one has to check every region to find a preferred Shiraz.  Complicating this further is the Wine of Origin grouping, so that  Boekenhoutskloof will be found under Paarl, and Franschhoek does not appear at all.   The prices are reasonable – R 590 for the Boekenhoutskloof Shiraz 2006, Meerlust Rubicon is available per vintage, ranging in price from R 560 for the 2004 to R 1 850 for the 1993.

If one compares the service from the superb One&Only sommelier Steven Towler with the waiters at maze, the former wins hands-down.  His personal approach,  extensive knowledge, and ability to assist in selecting a suitable wine could not be matched by his maze counterparts.   The recommendation of a Rijk’s 2004 Shiraz, which had been enjoyed by Nelson Mandela and Sol Kerzner at their lunch in the hotel last week, was spot on, and was priced at a reasonable R 320.   After the main course, a special invitation was extended to show the customers the Wine Loft, with 6 000 beautifully displayed bottles of wine on silver racks in a glass-enclosed space, with its own tasting table, and wines cooled at 18 C.   The cherry on top was the complimentary Joostenberg Chenin Blanc sent to the table with the desserts. 

On the maze side, things were a little slow.   The crayfish starter, priced at R 65 per 100 gram, was beautifully presented on ice, with the meat displayed on the open tail.   It took an hour after the starter was cleared (2 hours after arrival) to be served the main course of a steak and kingklip.   The kingklip was very bland and boring, and served with the skin side up, not very attractive.  It had bones, which was an immediate no-no.   The steak was juicy and good, but served on a Spur-style wooden board that captures the juices.   The main course certainly was a disappointment, in terms of the reasonably small portions, and the bland display of the food, by comparison to the attractive presentation of the starters and desserts.

The dessert list is interesting, with unusual combinations, and almost overdone-South African touches (“melktert, pink grapefruit granite, lemon curd” and “malva pudding with poached apricots, gingerbread ice cream”).   The most interesting sounding dessert was the “maze peanut butter and cherry jam sandwich with cherry sorbet”.   A delectable range of sorbets (including lime, cream cheese, basil) and ice creams (including gingerbread, honey and milk, smoked salt and almond) can also be ordered, costing only R 15 for three small scoops.   The melktert dessert was disappointing, in that the milk part of it was soft and runny, and not set, as one is accustomed to in South Africa.  Ramsay’s chefs will have to learn how to make their South African dishes.  

The maze waiters are supported by local waiters, and the gap between the service levels is understandable, and will need more training to reduce.   It was encouraging to learn that former Grand Roche sommelier, and ex-Steenberg and Singita staffer Kent Scheermeyer is the Food & Beverage Director of One&Only Cape Town.

The food preparation is largely done inside the restaurant, and electric equipment is used, sounding just like a vacuum cleaner, disturbing the ambiance of the restaurant.

The bill took a long time to come, and had a price error for the crayfish, it being charged at R 500 instead of at the R 130 for the 200 gram ordered.    It took two revisions to get the bill fixed to reflect the correct amount.

The cloakrooms are bizarre, with a glass panel on one wall, and blown-up photographs of a woman’s fishnet stockinged legs, plastered on all the toilet doors.   Bins holding the toweling cloths overflowed and only two of the nine toilets had toilet paper.

maze will improve, and needs to meet the standard of the One&Only Cape Town service levels as far as the wine side of the hotel goes.    Impressive was Assistant Manager Phillip, who came to the table, to request feedback about the evening.

The car was returned promptly, and ten out of ten for the driver for moving the seat back to its original position before getting out of the car.

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

Dubai goes wild!

Dubai World,  a major global investment company with an increasing number of investments in the leisure industry in South Africa, including Pearl Valley outside Franschhoek, has bought a 50 % share in deluxe safari lodges Singita Lebombo and Singita Sweni, which border on the Kruger Park, reports Travelhub. 

The deal does not influence the management nor the marketing of the two Singita properties, both of which are members of the prestigious Relais & Chateaux marketing group.  

In a marketing coup to be envied, National Geographic’s Wild Channel (DSTV channel 261) will broadcast live from Singita twice a day from 9 – 15 November.  The programme ‘Caught on Safari:Live’ will allow viewers from 166 countries to experience game drives in the game reserve, reports Travelwires.com.