Presentation of the “Chefs who Share - Young Chefs Award” finalists at the Taj Hotel

"All you need is a spoonful of passion & a dash of creativity to succeed", says young chefs' ambassador, Lentswe Bhengu

To enter this competition, each of the up-and-coming  chefs had to create an innovative canapé which was served, together with a glass of Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial, as a culinary highlight at the "Chefs Who Share" gala evening held last week. The function raised R2 million for charity.  The money was collected from ticket sales and from an auction at the banquet.

Seven young chefs reached the final of this competition. We met them all at The Reserve venue at The Taj Cape Town and tasted those excellent canapés. These seven come from 47 talented and promising young chefs (aged between 18 and 29 and working in positions ranging from demi chef to junior sous chef) invited from the country's 75 top restaurants and each of the seven finalists spent two days in the kitchen of a top chef helping to prepare for the Chefs Who Share banquet. These will be the chefs of the future. The winner, with her pink peppercorn and duck liver paté macaroon with candied apples was Jamie-Lee Saunders (Red Indigo Restaurant@Grootbos)

The event was held in The Member's Bar at The Reserve venue at The Taj

Swiss chef and Swiss International Air Lines brand ambassador, Reto Mathis, who acted as International Patron, being interviewed by Chris von Ulmenstein

Chef Reto Mathis, Danica Helfrich, Head of Swiss International Air Lines South Africa, and Lentswe Bhengu with founders of Chefs Who Share, Barbara Lenhard and Florian Gast, publishers of Opulent Living magazine

Waiting for the canapés to arrive

Lots of wine was poured, donated by Graham Beck

The South African Ambassador of the "Chefs Who Share", Lentswe Bhengu, announcing the chefs and their canapés

Lots of media attending

Executive Assistant Manager, F&B at The Taj Cape Town, Willem du Toit

Barbara Lenhard tells us about the competition and the chefs who have entered. The winner's prize includes a culinary trip to Europe, courtesy of "Chefs Who Share" and flights sponsored by Swiss International Air Lines. The winner will spend several days cooking in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Germany before visiting the Moët & Chandon headquarters in Épernay, in the heart of France’s Champagne region. The prize includes being hosted by the Champagne house overnight and being presented with a VIP tour of the Maison, as well as the opportunity to participate in a workshop with a member of the Moët & Chandon winemaking committee and a resident chef

The event was recorded on film and TV. Sue-Ann Allen and Jon Meinking in attendance

Barbara Lenhard, with Lentswe Bhengu and Tracey Younghusband, describes the competition and the prize

An award goes to each young chef

Judge Tracey Younghusband talking about the competition

and with a canapé prepared by one of the young chefs

The canapés appear for us to taste. This is Germaine Esau's (Makaron @ Majeka House) Canapé entry: ‘Beef in the vines under African skies’

Anand Bhana (Hartford House) Canapé entry: ‘Ocean Adventure’. Smoked salmon with a molecular gastronomy sphere of cucumber and apple juice served on a seaweed crisp. Very innovative and one of our favourites

Ludwig van Biljon (Indochine @ Delaire Graff Estate), Canapé entry: ‘Singaporean Laksa panna cotta’

Edna Visser (The Restaurant at Waterkloof)Canapé entry: ‘The land, the sea & the sky’. A dry digestive style walnut biscuit topped with mayonnaise, a piece of raw scallop and micro greens

Etienne Wessels (Bosman’s Restaurant @ Grande Roche) Canapé entry: ‘Motion of the ocean’ Very innovative puffed wheat and seaweed cracker that melted in the mouth; wrapped around a fresh raw oyster, some calamari and dots of wonderful flavours. It did indeed taste of the sea

The winning macaroon Jamie-Lee Saunders (Red Indigo Restaurant@Grootbos) Canapé entry: ‘Pink peppercorn macaroon with duck liver pâté and candied apples’. We found the pink peppercorns to be rather strong

Marisa Botes (Pierneef à la Motte) Canapé entry: ‘Small & In-between’. A mini Baumkuchen made of micro thin layers of melting pancakes, filled with a butternut crème and topped with beetroot done 3 ways. We voted this our winner

The assembled chefs then received their envelopes telling them which of the top chefs they would be cooking with over the next two days. This is the list:

‘Chefs who share’ Chef Teams 2015

Team 1

Christo Pretorius, Azure at The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa

Virgil Kahn, Indochine at Delaire Graff

Gregory Mutambe, Head Sommelier at The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa

Marisa Botes (Pierneef à la Motte)

Team 2

Malika van Reenen, Signal at Cape Grace

Gregory Czarnecki, Waterkloof Estate Restaurant

Neil Grant, ex-Sommelier Rust en Vrede, owner of Burrata, Bocca and Open Door restaurants

Anand Bhana (Hartford House)

Team 3

Rudi Liebenberg, Planet Restaurant at Belmond Mount Nelson

Marthinus Ferreira, DW Eleven-13

Pearl Oliver, Sommelier, Planet Restaurant at Belmond Mount Nelson

Ludwig van Biljon (Indochine @ Delaire Graff Estate)

Team 4

Michelle Theron, Pierneef à La Motte

Bertus Basson, Overture Restaurant

Manuel Cabello, Head Sommelier, Ellerman House

Etienne Wessels (Bosman’s Restaurant @ Grande Roche)

Team 5

Garth Almazan, Catharina’s at Steenberg

Darren Badenhorst, The Restaurant at Grande Provence

Higgo Jacobs, independent wine consultant

Germaine Esau (Makaron @ Majeka House)

Team 6

Scot Kirton, La Colombe, Silvermist Wine Estate

Chantel Dartnall, Mosaic at The Orient Boutique Hotel

Germain Lehodey, Sommelier at Mosaic at The Orient Boutique Hotel

Jamie-Lee Saunders (Red Indigo Restaurant@Grootbos) – WINNER

Team 7

Chris Erasmus, Foliage

Jürgen Schneider, Springfontein Eats at Springfontein Wine Estate

Hansi Blackadder, Portfolio Manager at Vinovation

Edna Visser (The Restaurant at Waterkloof)

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Lanson Champagne at Auslese

Champagne Lanson returns!

It's exciting news that Champagne Lanson is back in South Africa, as it is one of our all time favourite marques. Made without any malolactic fermentation these champagnes remain fresh and invigorating even with age, and they age extremely well. We were invited to Auslese last week, to taste the range that will now be available on sale here

The Lanson brand

Emmanuel Gantet, Export Manager for Lanson, with local representative Karen Visser and Morgan Delacloche, National Sales Manager, ‎Great Domaines of the World, with the line up of the wines we tasted, all soon to be available in South Africa

The Black Label Brut is the entry level Champagne, clean and crisp and elegant with a very fine mousse. We also tasted two vintages and the beautiful Rosé made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunière and Chardonnay

Chef Harald Bresselschmidt had produced some lovely canapés to go with the different champagnes

and there were fresh oysters

Drinking a toast to Lanson's return. You can expect to see them appearing on top restaurants and hotels wine lists and find them in some of the specialist wine merchants

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Klein Karoo wines paired with lunch at Cabrières venue in Montagu

A Toast to Diversity, Klein Karoo Wine Route Awayday

We have some really lovely invitations, this month and next, to visit wine areas. It is a long way to Montagu, so we gratefully accepted the offer of transport there and back and it was worth every long mile. We spent the day at the Cabrières venue. This unique venue situated in Montagu on the R62, named after the small village of Cabrières d’Avignon in the south of France, dates back to the 1800’s. Jean-Pierre Jordaan and his wife Jane Chambers started the restoration process of the building, which now serves as the venue after a generation of dormancy. We tasted some of the best wines from the Klein Karoo, enjoyed the company of the wine makers and had a lovely lunch paired with the food

When did you last taste some mampoer? It is our version of moonshine, made from fruit. A warm welcome indeed with a glass of pear mampoer diluted with lemon and lemonade. Heady stuff, and you must not drink much of it

 The wines served with lunch

The magnificent views from the venue of the vineyards and the rolling mountains of Montagu

It is quite a line up

The long table

Chairman of the Klein Karoo winemakers, Mike Neebe of Axe Hill, tells us about the area and the different farms and wines that are made here

The dishes and wines were arranged in an innovative theme. Our first course, the amuse bouche, was themed Acidity : Fresh "Semi dried" tomatoes filled with Karoo goats cheese, on with litchi and apple, one with coriander and the third with dried pear. They'd had most of their juices taken out of them and were a little tough, but uncooked. A technique we have not had before. The pear 'crisp' was lovely

The wonderful serving staff

Hetta van Deventer, author, food historian and culinary manager at La Motte, planned all the food and wine pairing for the day. The chef was Toitnette du Toit

The clock on the wall ceased to chime many years ago

The menu with the wine pairings on the right hand side

The three wines with the amuse were fruity and light to match the acidity. We loved the Karusa Litchi Bomb, aptly named, full of litchis and jasmine, a wine made for spicy hot food. Only R50 a bottle

Theme for the next course was Texture and it was a creamy corn soup in a tiny cup, accompanied by an iced lolly of mint, spiced apple and gingerbread. This really worked as a course and was indeed a great mixture of textures and temperatures. We all wanted more of the creamy soup, which still had some corn texture. All the wines were an excellent match too, hard to separate them but the results were all different. The gingerbread added lots of spice to the wines and the food. The Axe Hill Viognier went beautifully with the soup. The Joubert Tradauw barrel fermented 2013 Chardonnay is made in the Chablis style, making it clean and fresh with good minerality and was our highest scoring white wine of the day. The Star Hill Chenin, made by Laurens van der Westhuizen of Arendsig, echoed the lolly with its long, clean crisp apple flavours

Ellen Marais introduced us to the theme of the event, the food, the wines and the people responsible

The next course theme was Flavour and was very unusual. The wines were all alternative cultivars from the area. Rice balls stuffed with spicy pulled pork & cranberries, a cherry jus and a dish of Mukhwas - an Indian fennel and other spice candy, which is usually served to refresh the palate as you leave the restaurant. We like the dish but found the candy overpowered the wines. The smoked pork was a bit too smoky for the delicate Herold Pinot Noir. It was better with the Calizdorp Touriga with vanilla, mulberries and exciting acidity - almost the perfect match in flavour and weight. The De Krans Tina Roriz was too sophisticated for the pork balls.

Chef Toitnette dressing the dish

Boets Nel of De Krans talking about his 2013 Tinta Roriz, full of expensive wood notes, cassis, spice; it's almost shiraz character is silky on the palate with dry tannins and cherries. A wine built to last

Staff in the kitchen assembling the next course

With the theme of Spice, wines were Blends from Portuguese varietals. They served salted lamb ribs with a cameline dipping sauce, a medieval French sauce with vinegar, fresh ginger, cinnamon, grains of paradise, mace and pepper. The lamb overpowered the Calitzdorp Tinto. The Boplaas Gamka blend was the absolute perfect match to the rich salty and spicy dish; its aroma echoed that of the Cameline. And then there was the De Kranz Tritonia. Rich, deep attractive fruit, violets cherries cassis a block buster wine and, by half a point, our highest scoring red wine of the day.

Fifth course theme was Weight. And believe it or not, because all the courses were quite small yet satisfying, we were not worried at this stage. Karoo game Potjie (cast iron casserole) with samp (whole dried white sweetcorn, reconstituted) topped with a marrow bone. The meat was a little dry, but with the rich marrow mixed into it and the rich sauce sweetened with carrot. It so well matched the excellent wines

The wines served were Traditional red wines. The Star Hill Shiraz was juicy, spicy and had lovely lingering fruit, the Joubert Tradauw R62 has sweet and sour umami fruit and was undoubtedly the best match with the dish. The Karusa Petit Shiraz (actually a grape called Durif), spicy on the nose, was a bit lighter, with dry fruit on the palate

Jacques Conradie, Winemaker at Karusa

The chef Toitnette with Hetta van Deventer and her helper got long and loud applause for the meal and the pairing

Chef Francois Ferreira in the kitchen with the cooks

Lynne groaned when she saw the description of dessert “Fruitcake with the theme Sweetness”. She is not much of a cake fan, especially fruitcake when it is dry. But this wonderment appeared and nothing could have been further from that. A light base of moist pumpkin spice cake, topped with cream, filled with nuts and soaked raisins and a hint of alcohol. Topped with a chocolate ganache and, for elegance, an edible pearl and a dot of gold leaf. This has the potential to become a classic Cape pudding. The sugar tuille and the rosewater syrup were overkill and not needed

And the wines! The muscadel and the Rosyntjiewyn do go well if you have a very sweet tooth, but with this dessert the ports have it. The Caramel toffee of the Axe Hill hides its crisp lean apple brandy flavours below. The Peter Bayly Cape Vintage was full of rich dark Thornton’s treacle toffee, lovely rich fruit and damned elegant.

Johannes Mellet of VinPro Consultation Service and Carlo Sciocatti, Montagu Wine & Spirits winemaker

A happy Peter Bayly

Ellen Marais, who organised this magnificent day in this unique diverse area that produced great food wines from such different areas with cool, warm and hot climates, lowlands and high mountainside vineyards, cool mountain valleys with lots of shade and water to sere, dry areas that are semi desert. Hot talented people, cool wines! As expressed by one of the winemakers talking about the red wines and ports, these are moerse swaar wyne (translation: bloody good heavy wines) to keep 20 years, not in my winery, but in your cellars

A toast to a great event by Peter Bayly and Mike Neebe

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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