{"id":60938,"date":"2014-09-01T08:11:02","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T06:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=60938"},"modified":"2014-10-06T19:13:16","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T17:13:16","slug":"are-there-enough-top-chefs-left-to-make-up-a-credible-2014-eat-out-top-20-restaurant-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/are-there-enough-top-chefs-left-to-make-up-a-credible-2014-eat-out-top-20-restaurant-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Are there enough top chefs left to make up a credible 2014 Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant list?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chenin<\/a>In the past week three further Top 20 Restaurant candidate chefs have announced their resignation, making the restaurants at which they work ineligible to be nominated for the 2014\u00a0Eat Out<\/strong> Top 20 Restaurant shortlist. \u00a0This year is the most volatile we have ever seen as far as top restaurant chef departures go, opening up the opportunity for a fresh 2014\u00a0Eat Out<\/strong> Top 10 Restaurant Awards list.<\/p>\n

The latest chef resignations are the following:<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Chef Oliver Cattermole left Mondiall Kitchen & Bar two weeks ago, today joining the Leeu Collection as its Executive Chef for its five star Dassenberg Estate hotel and \"Leeu<\/a>Rusthof Country House in Franschhoek, both opening next year. \u00a0Chef Oliver has worked locally at Dash at the Queen Victoria Hotel, the Le Franschhoek hotel, and Mondiall, as well as internationally at Ivy Restaurant, La Gavroche, Novelli, and at Cannizaro House hotel.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Chef Brad Ball, who helped open Bistro Sixteen82 at Steenberg, leaves in two weeks to start up what sounds like a collective of three restaurants at Pedlars on the Bend in Constantia<\/span><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Chef Christiaan Campbell leaves Delaire Graff Estate, after opening up the main restaurant more than five years ago, as well as Indochine when the Lodge opened some time thereafter. \u00a0He will join Boschendal in mid-October. (photograph of his Huguenot cheese br\u00fbl\u00e9e, served at the Standard Bank Chenin Blanc Association Top 10 Challenge<\/strong><\/span><\/a> lunch last week)<\/p>\n

The three latest departing chefs join other departing chefs<\/span> <\/strong><\/a>who worked at restaurants which would have been eligible for inclusion on the Eat Out<\/strong> Top 20 Restaurant shortlist, but no longer qualify due to the rule of Eat Out<\/strong> that the head chef must have worked there for a full 12 months:<\/span><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Chef Chris Erasmus, who left Pierneef\u00a0\u00e0 La Motte to open his own restaurant Foliage<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Chef PJ Vadas, who left Camphors at Vergelegen, to start his own restaurant and brewery The Hog House (not yet open)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Jackie Cameron has left Hartford House, to open the Jackie Cameron School for Food & Wine in January<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Chef Stefan Danz of Babel at Babylonstoren has left to join Stables at Vergelegen.<\/p>\n

The seven departing chefs would have been likely to have made the Eat Out<\/strong> Top 20 Restaurant shortlist, with Chefs Brad Ball, Oliver Cattermole, and Stefan Danz not having made the shortlist before, but their departures will exclude their nomination. \u00a0This excludes the following restaurants from making the Eat Out<\/strong> Top 20 Restaurant shortlist this year:<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Mondiall<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Pierneef\u00a0\u00e0 La Motte<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Hartford House<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Babylonstoren<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Camphors at Vergelegen<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Delaire Graff Estate restaurant<\/p>\n

So where does that leave Eat Out<\/strong> and its Top 20 list? \u00a0We have previously tried to predict what the Eat Out<\/strong> Top 20 shortlist could look like, and have amended it as follows, following the latest chef departures, listed in no particular order:<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 The Test Kitchen (Chef Luke Dale-Roberts)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 five hundred (Chef David Higgs)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 The Tasting Room (Chef Margot Janse)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Overture (Chef Bertus Basson)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Jardine at Jordan (Chef George Jardine)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Tokara (Chef Richard Carstens)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Rust en Vrede (Chef John Shuttleworth)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 \u00a0The Greenhouse (Chef Peter Tempelhoff)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Restaurant at Waterkloof (Chef Gregory Czarnecki)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Indochine\u00a0at Delaire Graff (Chef Virgil Kahn)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Equus at Cavalli Estate (Chef Henrico Grobbelaar)<\/span><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 The Restaurant at Newton Johnson (Chef Eric Bulpitt)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Springfontein Eats (Chef J\u00fcrgen Schneider)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Restaurant at Grande Provence (Chef Darren Badenhorst)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Makaron at Majeka House (Chef Tanya Kruger)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Azure at The Twelve Apostles (Chef Christo Pretorius)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 The Kitchen at Maison (Chef Arno Janse van Rensburg)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Restaurant Mosaic at The Orient (Chef Chantel Dartnall)<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 The Pot Luck Club<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 Burrata (Chef Annemarie Steenkamp, but her move to Bocca this month may count against her nomination)<\/p>\n

We have scraped together 20 eligible restaurants for the Eat Out<\/strong> Top 20 Restaurant shortlist (on the reserve list are Planet Restaurant, Terroir, and La Mouette), but some of our inclusions above go against our gut feel, with service weaknesses and lack of chef creativity observed and experienced.<\/p>\n

While we are predicting the Top 20 shortlist, let’s get the prediction of the judges recorded too: Abigail Donnelly, Arnold Tanzer, Garth Stroebel, Reuben Robertsons Riffel (shocking inclusion, but seen eating his way around Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, perhaps the MasterChef judge judging his peers?!), and Andy Fenner (double conflict of interest due to his role of supplier of meats from his butchery to top restaurants, and running his own crummy ‘restaurant’ Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants too).<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see what Eat Out<\/strong> comes up with for its Top 20 Restaurant shortlist. \u00a0Whichever restaurants are on it have the easiest odds ever to make the Eat Out<\/strong> Top 10 Restaurant list this year!<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 6\/10<\/strong>: Eat Out<\/strong> announced its Top 20 Restaurant shortlist today<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, 14 of the restaurants coinciding with our list above.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: \u00a0www.whalecottage.com<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Twitter:@WhaleCottage Facebook: \u00a0<\/strong>click here<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the past week three further Top 20 Restaurant candidate chefs have announced their resignation, making the restaurants at which they work ineligible to be nominated for the 2014\u00a0Eat Out Top 20 Restaurant shortlist. \u00a0This year is the most volatile we have ever seen as far as top restaurant chef departures go, opening up 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":[3,124,266,14,75,25,20,31,22,21,293],"tags":[2803,4505,15117,13840,8882,2232,8238,8239,64,2648,25461,182,3982,9534,18634,17150,13307,22774,2812,27426,2552,32378,11308,12139,15662,27429,139,16358,2679,13793,22244,3849,17762,25604,13806,32369,1462,2185,2080,554,3459,5246,27431,8887,27433,3076,11030,22868,13295,4630,896,385,27428,555,25716,1604,6318,27427,11014,11012,33,2551,6611,8847,7753,8159,5325,7569,552,23738,62,34,27430,22867,27432,21727,32376,8499,1382,447,2690,26244,13839,14495,20640,1362,7518,59,2495,374,16219,32373],"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