Tag Archives: The Month

MasterChef SA final 18 amateur chefs fired up to go through to Nederburg!

It was a different MasterChef SA in episode 3 last night, with less action and more tears.  There also was a lot at stake for the final 25 contestants, a braai deciding which seven contestants had to leave the reality TV cooking programme, with the final 18 going through to the MasterChef SA kitchen at Nederburg, for the remaining fifteen episodes.

For the first time one got to know the contestants a little better, but the editors of the show were not consistent in providing their names.  It seemed that the chaps would have the advantage in this episode as the natural braaiers, but some of them did not make it through to the next round.  Filmed at the Cradle of Humankind outside Johannesburg, the home of 2011 Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Roots, the challenge put to the contestants was to cook a meal worthy of being served at this fine-dining restaurant.  Chef Pete Goffe-Wood said that the braai was the most basic form of cooking.  The dishes were expected to jump out at the judges, to shout ‘eat me’. Chef Pete also said that the biggest challenge with a braai is to control the heat source.

Few of the dishes would have made it into Roots restaurant, if Twitterers were the judges! Worrying was that the judges had such a disparate evaluation of the dishes, there being little conformity of appreciation, in most cases only two of the three judges evaluating any dish.  Chef Andrew Atkinson seemed over-dressed in his over-large suit for the braai, while Chefs Bennie Masekwameng and Pete looked more comfortable in their jackets.

Contestant Thys Hattingh admitted that he was not good at braais, and preferred making desserts.  He made both a meat dish and a beautiful dessert, the latter highly praised by the judges, as was Khaya’s dessert. The judges tasted ‘pap and vleis’ made by Jade de Waal, fillet of springbok, Surf and Turf, seared tuna, lemon butter hake, stuffed sirloin, hake sandwich, rump steak, and more braai dishes.

Very few contestants escaped the programme without a harsh word from a judge, comments directed at Bonguwusa’s dish which was described as ‘not award-winning’, ‘tasted like cardboard’, was ‘overcooked’, and was‘inedible’, probably the harshest criticism of the evening.  A piece of meat was described as a ‘brickette’. Another contestant cooking pap was criticised for the dish not working. Natalie was criticised for her dish being ‘too busy’, but she countered that it reflects her personality. She admitted that it was her first braai ever, loved by Chef Andrew and not liked at all by Chef Pete. Sarel Loot’s milk chocolate sauce served with his steak was described as ‘awful’ by Chef Andrew, and was criticised by Chef Bennie too, and could have cost him a place.  One contestant presented part of her dish in ‘ghastly’ tin foil, a serious fail. Bruce’s steak was described as ‘too busy’, ‘not quite MasterChef’ standard.  Bruce, Timothy, Elton, Cameron, Callie-Anne, Natalie, and Bonguwusa did not make the final hurdle.

The heat was really on and the tears started to roll when the 25 contestants had to face the judges in small groups, and were reminded of their problems of the evening, and to hear who would be leaving and who would go through to the MasterChef SA kitchen.  The eighteen MasterChef SA finalists, with the Twitter addresses (most of them have started Tweeting) and city of residence from a Screen Africa listing, with 7 finalists from Cape Town and 5 from Johannesburg (with a surprise one from Namibia, given that is MasterChef SA) are as follows:

Babalwa Baartman  @LateBloomer26 from Cape Town

Berdina Schurink  @BerdinaSchurink from Pretoria

Brandon Law  @TheBrandonLaw from Johannesburg

Charles Canning  @CTHPipey from Cape Town

Deena Naidoo  @Deenamcsa from Durban

Fortune Kangueehi  @FKangueehi from Windhoek

Guy Clark @GuyClark2 from Cape Town

Ilse Fourie   @IlseNel from Cape Town

Jade de Waal  @FoodJams from Cape Town

Khaya Silingile  @KhayaSilingile from Johannesburg

Lungile Nhlanhla  @Lungzie from Durban

Lwazi Mngoma  @LwaziMngoma from Johannesburg

Manisha Naidu  @Manisha_Naidu from Johannesburg

Mmutsi Maseko from Johannesburg

Samantha Nolan  @SamanthaLNolan from Cape Town

Sarel Loots  @SarelvanSabie from Sabie

Sue-Ann Allen @Cook_Sista from Cape Town

Thys Hattingh  @Thys_Hattingh from Rustenburg

Advertisers were largely the same as in the past episodes, including good-enough-to eat ads for MasterChef SA sponsor Woolworths’ steak and boerewors, sponsor Hyundai, Emirates, Outsurance, sponsor Robertson’s, Revlon, smeg, Frisco, Nedbank, KFC, VISA, Parmalat, Kenwood, and sponsor Nederburg.

In the next fifteen weeks the viewers will get to know the individual contestants better, and their personalities no doubt will come to the fore.  One hopes that the pace picks up again, this episode having lacked the pace and energy of the two preceding episodes.

POSTSCRIPT 4/4: In following the MasterChef SA final 18 contestants on Twitter, one wishes someone would teach them to Tweet.  Thys Hattingh is just providing links to the MasterChef SA website about each of his fellow contestants, and Sarel Loots is showing politics already by having blocked us, no doubt as sympathy support for Sonia Cabano, Robertson’s former Social Media Manager. Even more surprising is that Jade de Waal has locked her Twitter account recently, and one must request to follow her, which contradicts the reason for being on Twitter! Is this an ego getting too big?  Is she the MasterChef SA?  Or is it because she is related to Sonia Cabano (de Waal)?

POSTSCRIPT 4/4:  The Month, a newspaper distributed in the Winelands and Cape Town, has compared MasterChef SA and Australia. Our programme, after one episode, does not receive favourable feedback in the article.

POSTSCRIPT 5/4:  I have double-checked with Chef Pete Goffe-Wood about the road forward, not having watched any other MasterChef series before. One of the 18 finalists will be eliminated each week from now onwards.  The eighteen finalists know who the winner is, but they have been sworn to secrecy!

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

Brett Garner Sweet and Franschhoek Food Emporium Sour Service Awards

The Sweet Service Award goes to Brett Garner from Franschhoek, editor of The Month newspaper, owner of Franschhoek IT, and co-owner of The Traveller’s Lodge. Brett came to the rescue in not only bringing a network cable to our Whale Cottage Franschhoek within 15 minutes of my call to him (I had offered to fetch it), but he also invited me to keep it.  The network cable was needed to fix a faulty router, to allow me to do my e-mails and to blog. Brett’s responsiveness and generosity demonstrated village friendliness and collegiality, something we have not seen in Franschhoek often.

The Sour Service Award goes to the Franschhoek Food Emporium. On my last visit to the deli a few weeks ago, the Manager Danielle Rittel greeted me, but she was engrossed in doing her month-end accounts at the counter.  She did not get up to serve me, and instead left me to be served by her (very new) assistant, who was incredibly slow, forgot to charge for all my purchases, and did not look at me when she spoke to me. She stood directly next to Danielle, who did not react to this at all.  She did nothing to take over or to apologise for the poor service delivery when I expressed my irritation.  Financial irregularities and staff management problems have led to the closing down of the deli last weekend.

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

Are Franschhoek restaurants losing their service touch?

Franschhoek wears the crown of the Gourmet Capital of South Africa, with its Wedding Capital stature growing.  The wines of the valley also bring tourists to the area, together with its beauty.

 

The Eat Out 2009 results may have been an early indicator.   After many years with at least two or three restaurants on the Top Ten restaurant list, we only have one restaurant left on the list, and Franschhoek is in danger of losing its status to neighbouring Stellenbosch as the Gourmet Capital of South Africa.

 

We asked the accommodation establishments to give us feedback on their views of the service levels offered by Franschhoek restaurants to themselves and to their guests.   The feedback is offered anonymously, to protect the identity of the brave accommodation establishment owners and managers who provided their feedback, and to ensure that they are not banned from any of the restaurants, as has happened in Franschhoek!

 

Accommodation establishments are an important source of bookings for restaurants, with most guests relying on the recommendation of their hosts to recommend and book restaurants for them.  Only a few guests make their own restaurant bookings before arriving in Franschhoek.  

 

Spontaneous mentions of restaurants the establishments book for their guests for lunch or dinner are Kalfi’s, Allora, Le Bon Vivant, French Connection, Haute Cabriere, Dieu Donne, La Petite Ferme, Laborie in Paarl, Boschendal Le Piqnique and  Monneaux.

 

The restaurants that accommodation establishments send their guests to are the ones from which their guests return happy, with their expectations met or even exceeded, that offer a free collection and drop-off service as do Monneaux and Dieu Donne,  that offer a consistent quality of excellent food, excellent service, good ambience, good value for money, being able to make bookings without any problems or errors, being able to expect a positive reply when the guests are asked about their enjoyment of the restaurants,  superb setting, personal attention from the staff, being offered a table a day at certain restaurants but released by a certain time of day, and tend to be those at which the owners of the establishments enjoy eating at as well.

 

Some accommodation establishments do not send business to a specific restaurant, because they do not know it, because they or their guests have had a bad experience there previously, because they are too expensive, because the “booking service is sloppy”, because of poor service recovery when there is a complaint,  because of poor service from the waiters, and because of the food not being up to Franschhoek standards.    A bad experience reflects badly on the accommodation establishment, in that it recommends the restaurant, and therefore such restaurants quickly fall off the recommendation list.

 

Sometimes establishment owners are forced to book at other restaurants because their favourites are fully booked or have a closed function.

 

The accommodation establishment’s owner or manager is likely to recommend the restaurants that are their personal favourites.    This places a huge responsibility on them to recommend restaurants that will make their guests happy too.   Reasons for a restaurant becoming a favourite include the ambience, the service and food quality.

 

One self-catering establishment owner no longer recommends restaurants, having received negative feedback from her guests, and therefore she sends the guests to the Tourism Bureau, so that they can look at the menus and book the restaurants there.

 

Service levels of restaurants were seen to be good and not good enough.   Those that laud it, say it is good value for money, and improves all the time, the staff are friendly, and this can often make up for a slip in service delivery.    Those that criticize it, say that restaurants say they are fully booked when an accommodation establishment calls, yet take walk-in bookings.   They complain about “the emphasis is overwhelmingly ‘looks-like-French-cuisine’ but it is patently plastic when the entire package is evaluated.   Local-is-lekker takes a distinct backseat in Franschhoek”.  Service levels are seen to be dropping.

 

Suggestions to restaurants for improving service levels to accommodation establishments making bookings is to reserve a table per accommodation establishment until a certain time every day, because they are often booked out on the same day.   A restaurant map, as the Vignerons one, would be useful, it was suggested.   Better staff training, given the high turnover of staff in restaurants, to prevent the staff training on their customers, offering a wider range of wines-by-the-glass, offering wines at better prices, displaying accommodation information in restaurants, much like the accommodation establishments tend to display the menus of the restaurants, to not provide reservation numbers for bookings made, to not confirm bookings to the accommodation establishments, as they have no control over their guests’ actions, and to not request credit card details to secure tables at restaurants.

 

Restaurants would not be happy with no-shows, when accepting bookings from accommodation establishments, and this could annoy them in dealing with establishments. Accommodation establishments cannot be held responsible for the bad manners and actions of their guests, and make bookings in good faith.   The point was made that no restaurant can afford to be unhappy with accommodation establishments making bookings at a restaurant, for whatever reason.

 

Restaurants tend to not thank the accommodation establishments for the business they receive.    “It would be nice with the odd free (or price reduced) meal, even in winter when they are slow.  We have never received acknowledgement” said one guest house owner.   Another view is that Franschhoek is dependent on its restaurants for its gourmet status, and that no tourists would stay there if we did not have such good restaurants.  Also, some guests may think that one has shares in the restaurant, or that one receives commission when one recommends a particular restaurant too strongly!   One owner expressed the fact that he has not been to all the restaurants: “As locals we find the cost of “test’ dining at Franschhoek restaurants prohibitive”.  He states that his establishment probably therefore does not support the more upmarket restaurants.   “A formal thankyou will be nice” said one owner, while another said “restauranteurs do not need to thank you for your business…   A general note of thanks is appropriate and good and consistent service is also adequate.”

 

One exception is Haute Cabriere, the only restaurants that appears to understand the reciprocal relationship that should exist between the parties, in offering accommodation owners and managers a complimentary lunch once a year, just as the new season starts.   This enables the restaurant to explain its menu changes, and it gives the accommodation owners a good feel for what is on the menu.

 

Generally the readiness for 2010 is questioned and the service levels are not seen to meet the challenge of this important sports event.   But will 2010 impact Franschhoek at all, a manager asks.   Another view is that Franschhoek’s fine dining and wining may not be of interest to a fast-food and beer soccer fan, and it is questioned whether Franschhoek has enough large screen and fast-food type establishments to allow communal viewing for the soccer fans.   One owner said Franschhoek’s service levels should be perfect at all times, not just in winter 2010.

 

An accommodation owner was very vocal about Franschhoek’s businesses not being very welcoming to tourists and residents.   He complained about surly supermarket cashiers and shop assistants, beggars in the streets, dirty streets, faded road markings, potholes, tattered flags, bare flag poles, the “scruffy” Post Office, untrimmed street trees, unkempt gardens, unpainted buildings and walls, “scruffy” sidewalks, and “wonky” road signs, all of which create a poor impression of Franschhoek.

 

This article was first published in The Franshhoek Month, April 2009.