150306 Main Ingredient's MENU - Publication delayed. South Peninsula fire

Smoke from the dying fires above Buitenverwachting wine estate

and Groot Constantia

We write about our experiences in MENU, not only to entertain you, but to encourage you to visit the places and events that we do. We know you will enjoy them and we try to make each write up as graphic as we can, so you get a good picture of what is on offer at each place, restaurant, wine farm, festival we visit.

This week, there have been so many events, tours, tastings and festivals that we have had no time to do more than take notes and photographs. Editing and publication need to wait for next week.

The biggest, most devastating event of the week has been the horrific fires in the South Peninsula. We went to a tasting in Constantia last night and took these photographs. By the time we were there, it appeared that the fires were finally under control after heroic activity by the firefighters since Sunday morning. Our hearts go out to everyone who lost property, memories, livelihoods and even life. 

Cape Talk Radio started a fund yesterday and has already collected more than R3 million which will go to training firefighters and buying better equipment. You can contribute by going to their website and pledging. Look for " How to donate to the Fire Relief Fund" http://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/1967/fire-relief-fund

Thousands of visitors are here for the annual Cycle Tour. We welcome them all and wish them well. Sadly, because of damage caused by the fire, Chapman’s Peak Drive has had to be closed and the race shortened from 109Km to 47 Km.

Next week, we will be back to normal and we will send you a bumper edition.

Have a wonderful weekend

Learn about wine and cooking We receive a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here and here and the CWA courses here. Karen Glanfield has taken over the UnWined wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here

The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become professional chefs, has a variety of courses. See the details here

Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here.

In addition to the new Sense of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details here

Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek and conducts cooking tours to Normandy. You can see more details here.

Emma Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca cooking courses at her home in Constantia.

6th March 2015

Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our online shop for details and prices.

PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information

Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169

Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005

Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups (up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in English, German, Norwegian and standard or Dutch-flavoured Afrikaans.

Recommendations of products and outside events are not solicited or charged for, and are made at the authors’ pleasure. All photographs, recipes and text used in these newsletters and our blogs are ©John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are usually unsolicited. We prefer to pay for our meals and not be paid in any way by anyone. Whether we are invited or go independently, we don’t feel bad if we say we didn’t like it. Honesty is indeed our best policy. While every effort is made to avoid mistakes, we are human and they do creep in occasionally, for which we apologise. Our Avast! ^® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.

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