A Day in the Life of Cape Town Chef - Jason Whitehead

Chef Interview - Jan Scannell

2010-10-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

Jan Scannell, also known as Jan Braai, is the founder of Braai4heritage, who has made quite a name for himself in South Africa and abroad. I got in touch with him to ask him a few questions... Q: BRAAI4HERITAGE – WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO CREATE THIS NOW COMMONLY KNOWN BRAND? A: The idea is/was not to create a brand, but a national day of celebration. Some other leading nations of the world

Eat @ Forty Three Restaurant

2010-09-29T03:12:00.000-07:00

Get it Magazine - JHB West, October Click on image to enlarge and read the article

The Golden Wors Challenge

2010-09-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

So the heat was on for national braai day this year, and I was challenged by an infamous “braai master” (Albert Van Den Berg) to a “braai-athon”, who guaranteed me that he would ‘braai me under the table’. And who was I to refuse such a challenge? The clients to whom I am currently consulting to opened up their gorgeous home for the challenge, fully stocked with enough booze, snacks and top

Braai4Heritage

2010-09-22T04:48:00.000-07:00

What are your thoughts on Foie Gras?

2010-09-11T03:45:00.000-07:00

Review: Roots Restaurant

2010-08-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled to be invited to Roots for dinner last night, especially as they earned their position as one of the countries top ten restaurants two years in a row.We made a reservation for 19h30, and all six of us arrived at around seven so that we could have a drink in the bar opposite the restaurant before beginning our gourmet extravaganza. I was a little annoyed

KREAM RESTAURANT - Pretoria

2010-08-11T04:02:00.001-07:00

Kream Restaurant in the heart of Brooklyn, Pretoria, is probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing restaurant I have ever been to in South Africa. You can have a squiz at their website, but the pictures really don’t do the real thing justice. I have been consulting here over the last 6 weeks, rejuvenating their menu and bringing a bit of gourmet to the already gorgeous restaurant. We

Video: Snail Porridge

2010-07-22T01:40:00.001-07:00

Review: Duchess of Wisbeach

2010-07-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

Review: Duchess of Wisbeach Me and my good friend were on a mission to ensure that we visited all the new restaurants that have popped up over the last year in Cape Town, one of them being the Duchess of Wisbeach in Sea Point, but could never get a reservation – which I think is normally a good thing. For a restaurant to be fully booked from day one is quite a feather in

Review: Five Flies Restaurant

2010-06-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

You’ve got to love winters in Cape Town if your a foodie. All of the top restaurants jump on the winter specials band wagon with deals that are well worth taking advantage of. I went to Five Flies last night for the first time in almost two years, which is disgraceful considering it’s one of my all time favourites in Slaapstad. Their 2 course menu which is usually R185 is reduced to R125, and

First For Woman “Hot Man Chef” Competition

2010-06-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

To promote Mothers Day, First For Women ran a competition for all their clients – “WIN A HOT MAN CHEF FOR A WEEK”. Yip, you guessed it, I was the “hot” man chef – I really think I should update my pics on my website!Upstream Advertising and Black River FC conceptualized and coordinated the competition, which was advertised countrywide. The winner was Johannesburg based Agnieszka Plaskocinska’s

JHB Restaurants vs CT Restaurants

2010-06-03T00:37:00.001-07:00

To me, Johannesburg is the city of milk and honey in South Africa.It amazes me to see how much money is invested in restaurants here, especially in the décor. Yet the menu pricing in Johannesburg’s restaurants seems to be very similar, if not cheaper than that of Cape Towns. Read on and you may agree with my sentiments as to why I say this…I went to Orient Restaurant in

HecticNine9 - SABC2

2010-05-29T02:57:00.000-07:00

On Thursday 27th of May, I was invited to come co-present the very popular kiddies show on SABC2, HecticNine9, which is broadcast live at 16h00 weekdays. The theme for the day was food glorious food, and I had to demonstrate a couple of dishes that are easy to prepare and more nutritious than the regular fast food alternatives.First up was a smoothie to give the younger foodies a sustainable

Recipes: Malva Pudding

2010-05-24T01:17:00.000-07:00

Quick 'n Easy puddings are way up there on my Sunday night decadency's, and as with all my recipes, I gave this Malva my own little twist. I like playing with my food and sometimes the combinations won't appeal to everyone, so feel free to serve yours with just plain vanilla ice cream. INGREDIENTS 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 egg 50g of soft butter 2 tbsp of apricot jam (I used an apricot and

Chefs taking the piss - classic

2010-05-19T03:22:00.000-07:00

Cape Town Chef and Nutcase - Jonno Proudfoot

2010-05-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

JW - How did you get into working as a chef?"When I left school, I had no idea what I wanted to do when a friend of a friend asked me to help out for day at his catering company. After frying 15kgs of Bacon and half a million eggs for a breakie buffet, I had to stuff flavoured butter under the skin of some chicken legs. I had seen Janie Oliver doing it on TV a week or so before and I was just

Review: Waterkloof Restaurant

2010-05-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

WOW - what an amazing way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Unbelievably beautiful setting, amazing food, friendly and efficient service, great company and lots of laughter brought on by lots of fantastic wine! Waterkloof wine estate and restaurant is tucked away in a hidden ravine on the slopes of Somerset West, with the most spectacular views over False Bay.We arrived fairly early, as the only

Review: The Towers Restaurant

2010-05-16T00:58:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to be invited to dinner by the fabulous Bianca Coleman (aka Queen Bee) at The Towers Restaurant at the Crystal Towers Hotel & Spa last night. We arrived just after 19h00 with Bianca directing me towards the valet parking, to which I refused due to the embarrassing state of my car, and proceeded to the underground parking instead. With Crystal Towers Hotel & Spa being apart

Best cooking show Ive seen yet!!

2010-05-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

Now why aren't there more cooking shows like this one? I ask you with tears in my eyes??

Mothers Day at Nazareth House

2010-05-13T08:08:00.000-07:00

My heart really goes out to the children of this world who don’t have a mother to thank and appreciate on Mothers Day. This is not the case at Nazareth House however, my charity of choice - the children there have many mothers to thank. They have loving nuns and full time staff that provide them with absolute unconditional love and care that every child rightly deserves.I decided to spend a day

Smoked Snoek Risotto

2010-04-26T00:44:00.000-07:00

I use to hate snoek. Only because of the amount of bones it had and the effort it took to eat it. I was converted when I tried the typical South African snoek braai that was prepared by some locals in Gaansbaai the night before going shark cage diving. I never actually made it into the harbour the next day, let alone a cage in freezing cold water to be drooled over by some of the oceans

Brandy & Food Pairing insert for All Access

2010-04-26T00:40:00.000-07:00

When I was asked by Homebrew Films to do an insert on All Access for the Brandy Festival (www.brandyfestival.co.za) alongside Jenny Morris, I almost s#@t myself in excitement. Not just because I love All Access, but mainly because I LOVE Jenny Morris. Her approach to food and her witty personality are so encouraging... just makes me want to cook in the nude! Now I know that sounds weird, and

BORSCHT! - say what?

2010-04-26T00:34:00.000-07:00

The origin of Borscht (including its spelling) is debatable, some saying it is of Russian origin, some saying Polish, and others the Ukraine. I had it for the first time when working in London where my larger than life bar lady from Poland insisted that I try it. It did not go down too well then, but since I have an abundance of beetroot growing in my garden, I thought I would give it a go (with

A Raw Foods (only) Lifestyle

2010-04-26T00:25:00.000-07:00

For a very refreshing change, I spent this past weekend on a course that promotes a lifestyle of eating only raw foods. Peter and Beryn Daniel, the couple who run a company called Soaring Free Superfoods, hosted the course at Rustenburg Girls High School. They are trained Raw Food Chefs and authors of South Africa's first gourmet raw food recipe book, RAWlicious (comically referred

Private Cheffing

2010-04-26T00:21:00.000-07:00

Being a private chef, as with most jobs, has its pro’s and con’s. Most of my clients insist that a confidentiality agreement is signed, which prevents me from being able to divulge any information about them, which is fair enough I suppose. This just means that I can’t gloat about who I’ve worked for, where I worked for them and how demanding they were....Saying this, I LOVE PRIVATE CHEFFING!