Tag Archives: vegetarians

Chef Pete Goffe-Wood: a life digested!

Pete Goffe-Wood 'A Life Digested'Chef Pete Goffe-Wood launched his latest book ‘a life digested’ at his Kitchen Cowboys studio in Woodstock in December.  The book celebrates his 50th birthday year, and his 30th anniversary of a chef.

Published by Quivertree Publications, a publisher which is known for its quality books, the book consists of ten articles which Chef Pete wrote for GQ in the past 10 years, each article paired with dishes, and recipes provided. The photographer was Craig Fraser, with styling by Hemelhuijs’ Jacques Erasmus. The foreword is written by Michelin star restaurant Chef Michel Roux Jnr of La Gavroche in London, who calls himself a friend, praising Chef Pete as a ‘true gent’, but also as a ‘very gifted chef’.

Chef Pete admits that he had no family inspiration to become a chef.  In his digs in Cape Town he offered to do the cooking as he hated washing dishes. He had worked as a waiter at the Balalaika Hotel on weekends as a teenager, but Continue reading →

Cape Town shakes in new Bollywood movie ‘Cocktail’!

Excellent news for the marketing of Cape Town is that the new Bollywood movie ‘Cocktail’, which was largely shot in Cape Town, has seen the launch of a new TV commercial by SA Tourism to promote tourism to South Africa among Indian tourists, to co-incide with the release of the movie, reports Best Media Info.

The 30 second TV commercial has been released on international TV channels such as HBO and MTV, and communicates that Cape Town offers travellers ‘a truly unique fusion of fun, exciting, adventurous and memorable holiday experience to take home and treasure‘.

Beautiful scenes have been shot in Camps Bay in particular, the V&A Waterfront, and the Trinity night club are also featured in the TV commercial.

‘Cocktail‘ features three friends who visit Cape Town for a holiday, leading to a romance between two of them. The movie filming commenced in London last year, including locations such as Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Portobello Road, and Notting Hill.  Then the action moved to Cape Town, and an upbeat dance number for one of the main songs in the movie was shot at a set specially created at Maiden’s Cove in Camps Bay. The perfect weather in Cape Town at the time of the shoot allowed Table Mountain, the Twelve Apostles, and Camps Bay, as well as in the V&A Waterfront to be featured in the filming.

The director of the movie, Homi Adajania, said that shooting the movie in Cape Town was a ‘dream holiday’ for the film crew too, being ‘as delightful an experience‘. Whilst they had the opportunity, the main actors went whale watching and shark cage diving.  The actresses loved the local food, and they discovered our wonderful fish, and they ‘feasted on the South African delicacy – the Kingklip fish’.  The cast enjoyed eating on Long Street, in the V&A Waterfront (including Belthazar), and at Beluga. Adajania said about Capetonians: ‘all South Africans are outdoorsy, fun-loving people who prefer to sprint on the roads at night, while weekends to them mean adventure sports‘!

The ‘Cocktail’ movie trailer was a huge hit when it was released two months ago, and had 1 million hits on YouTube within three days.  The movie went on circuit two weeks ago.

SA Tourism’s dynamic Country Manager in India, Hanneli Slabber, said that ‘we are really excited to be associated with ‘Cocktail’ on this TVC (television commercial) campaign and we want to showcase the best that Cape Town has to offer to Indian Travelers.  The movie showcases the star cast having a fun-filled holiday in South Africa and it blends perfectly with our positioning as being an exhilarating, fun and memorable holiday destination. This association gives us an unprecedented opportunity to showcase South Africa on the Bollywood stage and reach out to the vast section of movie going audience’. Growth in tourists from India in the first three months of this year was up 23 % compared to a year ago, and reflects that the country is becoming one of the favourite travel destinations amongst Indian tourists.

In recognition of the tourism growth from India, SA Tourism produced a cookbook for the hospitality industry, ‘Guide to Vegetarian, Vegan and Jain Dining in South Africa’, in conjunction with the SA Chefs Association, detailing the specific dietary requirements of vegetarians, vegans and Jains in India; gives lists of food items that each group may (and may not) eat; gives a brief explanation of the culture that informs the dietary needs of these tourists; and gives a broad selection of recipes that will keep vegetarian, vegan and Jain visitors happy and well-fed as they explore South Africa.

The Cape Town tourism industry would be very happy to see the new ‘Cocktail’ movie, as well as the SA Tourism TV advertising campaign, resulting in a growth in the number of tourists from India in Cape Town.

POSTSCRIPT 30/7: SAA has announced that it is increasing its Mumbai-Johannesburg flight frequency to daily from 3 October onwards, reports The Times.

POSTSCRIPT 5/8: The Times of India reports that the number of enquiries for travel to South Africa has increased by 10% just one month after the release of the ‘Cocktail’ movie.  It writes that S A Tourism has ‘tied up with 7 Hindi film production houses‘.  ‘South Africa Tourism sees Bollywood as an effective way to compensate for the lack of a high budget to promote tourism‘. The newspaper quotes SA Tourism Country Manager Hanneli Slabber in saying: “We are lucky Bollywood fell in love with Cape Town. Bollywood has been very kind and will be a cost-effective way to showcase South Africa as a great tourism destination”.

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

You can eat anything you like, as long as its….

A novel restaurant opened in Cape Town 7 months ago, serving no starter and only one cut of steak as its main course.   HQ in Heritage Square is no dining option for vegetarians, for restaurant patrons who like a choice of dishes or for those that like to choose when they wish to arrive at the restaurant!.   Luckily the dessert and the wines are not prescribed, in that a choice is offered!

With a loft-like yet very simple decor, it has wooden tables covered with brown paper “tablecloths”, which state clearly that one can have anything to eat as long as it’s steak.   It also serves as a data record, in that one is requested to add one’s name, e-mail address and cell number.

The waitress was efficient but did not connect with her customers.  She explained that they only serve sirloin, and that it is “35-year matured”, getting her years and days confused.   Asking about the origin of this unique restaurant concept, she explained that it is based on Cafe’ de Paris in Geneva, which has operated for 75 years offering only one dish:  Entrecote Cafe’ de Paris.   The  famous entrecote is served with a sauce of which the recipe is a trade secret, but it is thought to be made from chicken livers, fresh thyme, cream, white Dijon mustard and butter, according to Wikipedia.

A green salad with parmesan shavings and pine nut kernels is served as a starter – tough if you do not eat salad, as few men are wont to do!   One is told that the chef recommends the steak to be prepared medium rare, and this is marked as such on the “tablecloth”.    The steak arrived absolutely rare, which is the trade mark of Cafe’ de Paris as well.  On checking and receiving the feedback, the waitress took the plates back to the kitchen.  They came back to the table completely overcooked.   The steak is served with chips.   The cost of the salad bowl, steak and chips is a pricy R 140.   Desserts are more reasonably priced at about R 25 each.

The winelist is unpretentious and will not win an award.   It lists the wines under “Red”, “White” etc, but does show the vintage of each of the wines.   The most astronomically priced wine is a Schalk Burger, at R 1 400 a bottle or R 350 a glass!

One may not arrive after 19h30, we were told, yet many patrons were only seated at 20h00 or even later.

The entrance on Buitengracht Street is recommended, as parking is freely available there.   Tables near the bar area are very draughty, as the door to Heritage Square is open.  Request a table closer to Buitengracht Street.

Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com