What does a 10-year-old ask a chef? How does the conversation go? Most importantly what can one learn from a conversation between a beginner, in this case and someone who is on top of his game. For a school project, my 10-year-old son had to present to his class a topic related to food. It could have been anything from the food pyramid to wine making. He decided to choose to … [Read more...]
Alberto Landgraf: Silence is underrated
Most chefs you speak have that aha moment when they realised cooking was going to be their vocation. For some it was cooking with their mother or grandmother or remembering something they had eaten which triggered that spark. Not for Alberto Landgraf, chef of Rio de Janeiro restaurant Oteque. "For me it was different because I went to London to study English and finish my … [Read more...]
‘We need to be better humans’- Margot Janse
Things were looking bright for Dutch born chef Margot Janse just before disaster struck. Two years ago she decided to quit her job and focus on building her charity which she had set up as part of her work at one of most well known fine-dining restaurants in South Africa, The Tasting Room at the Le Quartier Francais. A change in the ownership of the hotel which housed her … [Read more...]
Kobus van der Merwe: From journalist to Restaurant of the Year winner
Go back a few years and Kobus van der Merwe would have probably been sitting close to me for an event like the World Restaurant Awards organised in Paris on Monday 18 February. Instead he walked out of the auditorium of the Palais Broignart head held high to the tune of Toto's 1980s hit song Africa as he clinched the first ever Restaurant of the Year award. The lyrics of … [Read more...]
Rob Roy Cameron and the motorcycle trip that helped put stress into perspective
Rob Roy Cameron was no stranger to stress. He had worked at the legendary el Bulli before helping Albert Adria open 41 Degrees and Hoja Santo clinching a Michelin star for both restaurants in the process. As he said, the stress of opening a restaurant is huge but when he embarked on a motorcycle journey from Barcelona to South Africa to visit his family, this certainly helped … [Read more...]
