{"id":17885,"date":"2011-03-07T09:19:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T07:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=17885"},"modified":"2013-10-21T10:05:12","modified_gmt":"2013-10-21T08:05:12","slug":"restaurant-review-franschhoek-food-emporium-full-of-home-made-goodness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/restaurant-review-franschhoek-food-emporium-full-of-home-made-goodness\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant Review: Franschhoek Food Emporium full of home-made goodness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The latest coffee shop\/deli to open in Franschhoek is the Franschhoek Food Emporium, which opened in Place Vend\u00f4me at the entrance to Franschhoek in January.\u00a0\u00a0 It offers a sit-down menu service, as well as a deli, with a counter of delicious treats, as well as shelves with home-made preserves, cordials, pies\u00a0and many other treats. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Franschhoek Food Emporium is managed by Danielle Rittel, the daughter of Topsi Venter, the\u00a0esteemed chef who worked at Roggeland\u00a0Country House for many years, before she opened Topsi’s in Franschhoek, running it until late last year, when Caf\u00e9 des Arts<\/a> took over the restaurant and changed its name.\u00a0\u00a0 The connection to Topsi is not spontaneously mentioned by Danielle, and it was only in chatting to her about\u00a0her background that the family connection emerged.\u00a0 Danielle worked with her mother at Roggeland and at Topsi’s, so has had long-standing training at one of the most highly regarded South African chefs.\u00a0\u00a0 Topsi is retired now, and can be found at the Franschhoek Food Emporium on occasion, and I bumped into her there on my second visit.\u00a0 An article on Topsi in the Autumn issue of Franschhoek Style <\/strong>tells of her\u00a0cooking for\u00a0Ferran Adria,\u00a0owner of El Bulli, long the world’s number one restaurant, and him saying to her “This is the first time that my Catalonian heart has spoken to a South African heart and understood”.\u00a0\u00a0 Some of the 14 dishes she made for him included biltong pat\u00e9 on vetkoek; quail eggs with buchu oil and ostrich; harders with wild sage,\u00a0seaweed, pickled kelp and bokkom salt; pickled fish with dried banana chips and coconut; gemsbok with samp, beans and sour fig sauce;\u00a0 springbok tongue with rum sauce; ostrich neck ravioli with mampoer butter; Leipoldt’s milk tart; Smyrna fig and peri-peri tart; soetkoekies and Van der Hum; and Kleinrivier gruy\u00e8re.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The menu offer is restricted: a ‘wish’ sandwich (R28), croque meuniere (R26), venison pie (R20), and chicken and pork pie costing R 15 each.\u00a0\u00a0I had the chicken pie, and its pastry\u00a0topping was beautifully decorated, and its content included carrot, garlic and paprika, in addition to the chicken.\u00a0 It is outstanding value at R15, and is served with a fine cabbage salad.\u00a0\u00a0 As Danielle had not\u00a0yet received her cutlery, she served the pie with a set of\u00a0disposable wooden cutlery, which somehow fitted the interior, but the knife was not strong enough to cut the pie well.\u00a0\u00a0 Samoosas cost R15, shepherd’s pie R28, and spring rolls R22.\u00a0\u00a0 Ice cream flavours that are available are apricot, white chocolate, peach, plum, and black cherry.\u00a0\u00a0 The cappuccino must be the cheapest in Franschhoek, at R12, and iced coffee can also be ordered.\u00a0\u00a0 A beautiful olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper holder is on each table.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Deli sells Bio-Wheat stoneground flour, nuts, dates, fruit teas, seeds, spices, home-made breads, home-made granadilla cordial, Italian pasta products, chocolates, nuts, caperberries, tinned snails, Italian balsamic vinegar, home-made Turkish delight,\u00a0exotic salts, tinned artichokes, small portions of cold meats, roast beef, vegetable dips, pat\u00e9s, fresh vegetables, coffees, and all the items on the sit-down menu too.<\/p>\n

The Franschhoek Food Emporium is a small and cosy as well as a homely place to pop in for a treat in Franschhoek, or to buy treats to eat at home, \u00a0or to serve at a\u00a0dinner party.<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 1\/1<\/strong>: \u00a0 Yesterday I went to buy pat\u00e9 and pies from the deli, and Danielle greeted me, but she was engrossed in doing her month-end accounts. \u00a0She 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 purchaes, and was rude in not facing me when she spoke to me. \u00a0She stood directly next to Danielle, who did not react to any of this at all. \u00a0When I lost it with the assistant, and asked her to look at me when she spoke to me, Danielle became heavy, saying that I could not speak to her staff member ‘like that’.<\/em> However, she had done nothing to take over or to apologise for the poor service delivery. \u00a0I have been a very regular client since the deli opened. \u00a0I left my purchases and walked out.<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 1\/3<\/strong>: \u00a0Sadly (but deservedly) the Franschhoek Food Emporium closed down on Monday, due to financial irregularities, and staff management problems. \u00a0We had not been back in the last two months since we wrote the previous postscript!<\/p>\n

Franschhoek Food Emporium, <\/strong>Place Vend\u00f4me, Huguenot Road, Franschhoek.\u00a0\u00a0 Tel (021) 876-3986. No website.\u00a0 Monday – Saturday 9h00 – 18h00.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio:\u00a0 www.whalecottage.com<\/a> Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest coffee shop\/deli to open in Franschhoek is the Franschhoek Food Emporium, which opened in Place Vend\u00f4me at the entrance to Franschhoek in January.\u00a0\u00a0 It offers a sit-down menu service, as well as a deli, with a counter of delicious treats, as well as shelves with home-made preserves, cordials, pies\u00a0and many other treats. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[10392,6580,10395,2881,32378,10396,10390,253,975,976,32369,9848,10397,2649,10394,4956,3625,10391,10393,1443,7316,32373],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t