{"id":26818,"date":"2011-11-08T11:03:20","date_gmt":"2011-11-08T09:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=26818"},"modified":"2011-11-10T19:27:01","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T17:27:01","slug":"pendock-fleur-du-cap-restaurant-awards-pr-paradox-knocks-food-writers-and-bloggers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/pendock-fleur-du-cap-restaurant-awards-pr-paradox-knocks-food-writers-and-bloggers\/","title":{"rendered":"Pendock Fleur du Cap ‘top’ Cape Town Restaurants PR paradox: knocks food writers and bloggers!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Neil Pendock, writing on his blog yesterday, knocked bloggers and food writers by applauding their absence at the inaugural Fleur du Cap 100 Places to Eat Cape Town 2011: “<\/em>What made the awards cocktail party unusual was that the usual cast of thousands \u2013 journos, hacks, bloggers, twits <\/em>and hangers on \u2013 was conspicuous by its absence..”<\/em> <\/span>Yet the ‘Awards’ were organised by ‘little <\/em>Irish devil<\/em>‘ (his words) blogger Clare (‘Mack’) McKeon-McLoughlin! \u00a0How embarassing for sponsor Fleur du Cap, wishing to gain support from the media and bloggers for its brands, given that Pendock no doubt had an organising hand in the ‘Awards’!<\/p>\n

Neil Pendock can be a really nice guy, as I experienced at the Compass Box Whisky Co<\/a><\/span><\/strong> tasting and blending afternoon a week ago. \u00a0But he has a nasty side too, as poor Su Birch of WOSA well knows, being the target of regular attacks in his Pendock Uncorked Sunday Times<\/strong> blog. \u00a0 We can attest to his fierce loyalty to McKeon-McLoughlin, as he has blocked us on Twitter, due to our criticism of Cape Town Tourism’s involvement in his and McKeon-McLoughlin’s organisation of the frivolous ‘100 Women 100 Wines’<\/a><\/span><\/strong> in August.<\/p>\n

Now poor Abigail Donnelly is the next target, being the sole judge and editor of the Eat Out DStv Food Network Top 10 Restaurant Awards<\/a><\/strong><\/span> for the first time. \u00a0This year the judging committee of Pete Goffe-Wood, Anna Trapido and Arnold Tanzer, who received a substantial remuneration, it is said, fell away, and whilst there has been some muttering about this, I\u00a0have not heard any chef denigrate Mrs Donnelly because of the organisational change. The Top 20<\/strong> Eat Out <\/strong>finalist list<\/strong> has been announced, and the only rumblings about it is that Rust en Vrede is not on the list, having been the winning restaurant on the\u00a0Eat Out<\/strong> Top 10 Restaurant list last year, but its Chef David Higgs left mid-year, and that Chef Henrico Grobbelaar has not been at Azure Restaurant of the Twelve Apostles Hotel for a full twelve months, which is what the Eat Out<\/strong> rules dictate.<\/p>\n

On Sunday McKeon-McLoughlin had invited some of the Fleur du Cap ‘Top 100’ restaurants and announced the following (alphabetically listed) restaurants to be the Top 10 Restaurants in Cape Town, out of an initial list of 100:<\/p>\n

95 Keerom \u2013 Giorgio Nava.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aubergine \u2013 Harald Bresselschmidt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bizerca \u2013 Laurent Deslandes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Me \u2013 Vanessa Marx<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Foodbarn \u2013 Franck Dangereux<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Greenhouse \u2013 Peter Templehoff<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hemelhuijs \u2013 Jacques Erasmus<\/strong><\/p>\n

Planet Restaurant at the Mount Nelson \u2013 Rudi Liebenberg<\/strong><\/p>\n

Societi Bistro \u2013 Stefan Marais<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Test Kitchen \u2013 Luke Dale Roberts<\/strong><\/p>\n

If one compares the list to the Eat Out<\/strong> Top 10 Restaurant Top 20 Finalist list, Azure at the Twelve Apostles Hotel<\/strong><\/a>, The Round House, and Nobu at the One&Only Cape Town<\/a><\/span><\/strong> are obvious exclusions, while The Test Kitchen<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, The Greenhouse, and Planet Restaurant<\/a><\/span><\/strong> also feature on the Eat Out<\/strong> Top 20 list. \u00a0What makes the list above lose all credibility is the inclusion of Societi Bistro – whilst very popular amongst bloggers, who are regularly invited for lunch or dinner, and appears to be the McKeon-McLoughlin’s permanent dining room, it certainly does not feature on anyone’s top restaurant list for Cape Town! \u00a0Amusing is that Aubergine<\/a><\/span><\/strong> fell off the Eat Out<\/strong> Top 20 Finalist list, whilst having been an Eat Out<\/strong> Top 10 Restaurant last year, and appears on the above list! \u00a0A number of restaurant lovers queried its Eat Out<\/strong> inclusion last year. \u00a0 Hemelhuijs<\/a><\/span><\/strong> and Dear Me Foodworld<\/a><\/strong><\/span> are great lunch venues, but only open in the evening once a week, and therefore are not in the same league as the other restaurants on the list, which serve lunch and dinner.<\/p>\n

Ironic too is that Cape Town has lost its reputation as a top restaurant city, this accolade now having moved to the Winelands, Stellenbosch in particular, and therefore a list focusing on Cape Town only is like only handing out a second prize! \u00a0 Pendock writes about the judges Bianca Coleman, Jos Baker and Anna Trapido that they are the ‘biggest culinary cannons’<\/em>, an extreme exaggeration! \u00a0Trapido lives in Johannesburg, and hardly would have been able to judge all 100 Cape Town restaurants, especially given the short time between conceptualisation and execution of the Fleur du Cap Restaurant list.<\/p>\n

A request sent to Eat Out<\/strong> editor Abigail Donnelly for a list of the finalists in the new categories of the Eat Out<\/strong> Awards has surprisingly been declined, even though some restaurants on the list are ‘bragging’ about their inclusion. \u00a0All eyes will be on Eat Out<\/strong> and Abigail Donnelly on 20 November, when the country’s Eat Out <\/strong>Top 10 Restaurants will be announced, in ranked order!<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 8\/11<\/strong>: Interestingly, the Fleur du Cap website<\/a><\/span><\/strong> has no reference to the Top 100 Cape Town Restaurants list, nor to the Top 10 Cape Town Restaurants. \u00a0The media release issued by the Fleur du Cap PR consultancy GC Communications oddly does not provide any quotes by nor contact details for the Fleur du Cap Brand Manager Danelle Kietzmann!<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 8\/11<\/strong>: This evening I chatted to Jos Baker, one of the four judges of the Fleur du Cap Top 100 and Top 10 Places to Eat Cape Town 2011, at the Platter’s launch. \u00a0I asked what the criteria for inclusion were, and she said it was to find restaurants that would ‘not be intimidating<\/em>‘, ranging from the top-end to the ‘hole-in-the-wall’<\/em>, to give a good spread! \u00a0She told me that most of the judges’ deliberations were done via e-mail. \u00a0When I asked her about Eat Out<\/strong> having one judge only, she said ‘no comment’<\/em>. \u00a0When I asked her if further regional lists would be published, she gave me a look that confirmed this, without answering directly.<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 9\/11<\/strong>: \u00a0One would have thought that the Mount Nelson Hotel’s marketing department would have known better than to have described their inclusion in the Fleur du Cap Top 10 Places to eat list as ‘a most sought after achievement’<\/em> in their November newsletter today!<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 10\/11<\/strong>: \u00a0Food24<\/strong> has included a link to this blogpost in its newsletter today.<\/p>\n

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

Neil Pendock, writing on his blog yesterday, knocked bloggers and food writers by applauding their absence at the inaugural Fleur du Cap 100 Places to Eat Cape Town 2011: “What made the awards cocktail party unusual was that the usual cast of thousands \u2013 journos, hacks, bloggers, twits and hangers on \u2013 was conspicuous by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,20,21],"tags":[12566,8845,2803,7303,8882,38,2232,13962,37,13956,85,32378,7488,13905,13982,139,10812,13958,13957,3214,4328,4104,13960,8885,8369,3459,8349,7789,7250,555,441,497,509,1094,13955,4512,13959,2551,9074,2789,1612,34,2864,13961,1251,2300,2690,5531,7518,2495,1587,10816,32373,32382,155],"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