Wining And Dining With A Difference

Chef and guests, countrywide

During the pandemic, limited access to our favourite restaurants meant many South Africans found innovative ways to elevate their home dining experiences. Perfecting this experience is Chef and Guests – an initiative bringing fine dining chefs into people’s homes.

Once you have visited the website and selected your city, the next step is to scroll through the available chefs – listed by their cuisine specialities – and then simply choose your menu. The chef then arrives, sets everything up, presents the meal, and even cleans up everything afterwards. It really is that simple.

Deciding to give the service a go, I invited seven friends for dinner at a beautiful Cape Town home overlooking the ocean. We were privileged to have ex-La Colombe chef Chris De Jongh, who brought our table alive with his molecular gastronomy. Five courses of fine dining flowed effortlessly.

Managing director Philippe Alamazani is rightfully proud of what he’s achieved: “Over the past three and a half years, our talented chefs have cooked for more than 7 000 food lovers and served more than 30 000 dishes. We are also thankful to have been able to create more than 80 indirect jobs for chefs since launching.” The service is available across seven towns in South Africa, and there’s even a voucher option to gift a culinary experience.

chefnguests.co.za

Klein Goederust, Franschhoek 

With a plethora of wine estates surrounding Franschhoek, I decided to ditch my favourites for something new during a recent trip. Spotting a name on the map I hadn’t seen before, I set my GPS and was off to visit one of the newest kids on one of the country’s oldest winemaking blocks.

Klein Goederust is barely a few months old. On arrival and knowing very little, I soon discovered a story
that had me in tears several times.
The estate is Franschhoek’s first 100 per cent black-owned winery, with owner Paul and winemaker Rodney as the powerhouse team that is breaking the narrative of “once a farmworker always a farmworker”.

Chef Linda, or “Aunty Linda” as she is affectionately called, is the wonder woman behind Klein Goederust’s restaurant and came out of retirement for the task. “In heart and soul, I’m a plaasjapie and knowing Paul and Rodney’s parents and having worked with them, I know first-hand that they are well brought up men who share the same background as me.”

And the wine? Simply fabulous. Visit their tasting room on the R45 and try their wooded Chenin, and if they haven’t all been snapped up, a bottle of the MCC.

kleingoederust.co.za

Nederburg’s vintage greats for sale 

“Look at this glass of Cabernet Sauvignon,” says Samuel Viljoen, cellarmaster at Nederburg since 2021. “Hold it up to the light. See its beautifully limpid, concentrated colour. Now nose its aromas of sun-ripened black and red berries, freshly sharpened lead pencil and gentle wood grain. There’s also a delicate savoury flicker. And those same characters are all right there on the palate!”

He is talking about Nederburg’s Private Bin R163 Cabernet Sauvignon 2014, a multiple award-winning wine. Limited stocks have just been released for sale via the Vinotèque.

What remains of the R163 2014 is housed in the special Stellenbosch underground cellar, the Tabernacle, that serves as a wine library containing some of South Africa’s most outstanding vinous jewels. In time to come, a few more bottles will become available. But not for a while.

The Tabernacle will also be yielding, for sale, a few other spectacular vintages of Nederburg Cabernets, this time from the Günter Brözel era. Come 10 July, Strauss & Co will be auctioning several small lots of the 1984 vintage of the Private Bin R163, along with the winery’s Cabernet Sauvignon 1967 and the hallowed Auction Reserve Cabernet 1974. All have been quality checked and recorked.