The Mercedes-Benz Eat Out Awards 2014 got underway to the
soundtrack of Oliver ringing through the aircraft hangar at Thunder City.
The musical street urchin sang “Food, glorious food, hot sausage and mustard!
While we’re in the mood, cold jelly and custard! Peas, pudding and saveloy.
What next is the question? Rich gentlemen have it boys …In-di-gestion!” Unlike Oliver,
we dined on trendy street food like bread, saucisson and mustard, and cold caciotta
custard - paired with fine wine and beer.
The year 2014 will be remembered as a year of musical chairs
in the winelands. Many of the country’s top chefs upped and moved - led by
Chris Erasmus who left Pierneef at La Motte (rated #10 by Eat Out in 2013) to
open Foliage in Franschhoek, PJ Vadas who left Camphors at Vergelegen (rated #8
last year) to open The Hog House, Nic van Wyk (ex Terroir/La Colombe) who left
Diemersdal to open Bistro 13 at Welmoed Winery, Gerald van der Walt who left
The Greenhouse (#4 last year) to join The Tasting Room and Jackie Cameron who
left Hartford House (#5 last year) to open her culinary academy. The big chef shake-out
is reflected in this year’s Eat Out Awards.
Wine tourism has made the Cape winelands
a global gastronomic destination over the last decade. Stellenbosch consolidated
its role as the culinary epicentre of the winelands in 2014, led by
front-runners Jordan (rated #5), Overture (#6), Rust en Vrede (#7) and Terroir
(#10) named in the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Awards 2014. And three more Stellenbosch
restaurants were again among the top twenty nominees, on the inside looking in:
Makaron, Tokara and The Restaurant at Waterkloof.
New cellar-door restaurants fared well in the Eat Out Awards
in 2014 with first-time entry The Restaurant at Newton-Johnson Vineyards (#9) in
Walker Bay making The Top 10 under new chef
Eric Bulpitt (ex-Roundhouse). Equus Dine at Cavalli winery in Stellenbosch was
another newcomer - winning the Boschendal Style Award while Margot Janse at The
Tasting Room soared to #3, and took the Grolsch Service Award.
Even the Eat Out Awards moved closer to the winelands this
year. The annual Oscars of the restaurant trade - billed as “the biggest chef’s
table we’ve ever hosted” - took place at Thunder
City at Cape Town airport. A cast of over 800 industry
guests enjoyed a five-course glitz and glam dinner prepared by a few of the country’s
top chefs - charcuterie, the best dish of the evening, by Neil Jewell of Bread
& Wine (top 20 nominee), with courses by David Higgs of Five Hundred (#2),
George Jardine of Jordan (#5) and PJ Vadas (ex-Vergelegen), and Bertus Basson
of Overture (#6).
While the winelands dominated the pack, city restaurants took
the top Eat Out awards. Luke Dale-Roberts of The Test Kitchen in Cape Town won
the Eat Out restaurant of the year in 2014 and the #1 spot in the top 10 for
the third year running - while Chantel Darnell of Restaurant Mosaic (#4) at
Orient near Pretoria won Eat Out chef of the year for the second time in the
Eat Out Top 10. David Higgs of Five Hundred at The Saxon (#2) and DW Eleven-13
(#8) were the other two Gauteng restaurants in an annual competition which has
been dominated by Cape restaurants over the years.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Abigail Donnelly, Eat Out
editor and chief judge, identified 2014 as a year of change in the industry
which has seen chefs moving around and the appearance of newcomers. She focused
on what she calls “glocal” food (global + local) - and identified the edgy
culinary trends on South African menus as foraging, the use of special cuts
(especially the use of pork) and the rediscovery of the arts of smoking,
pickling and fermenting ingredients in the kitchen. She especially praised
chefs for “using their plates as a form of South African storytelling”. Abigail
was assisted by judges Arnold Tanzer, Kate Wilson, Reuben Riffel and Andy
Fenner.
The major trend over the last decade is how the Cape winelands
have come to dominate the Eat Out Top 10. A super club of Cape chefs have consistently
won top ten places since 2005 - led, ranked in order, by Margot Janse at The
Tasting Room (eight times), George Jardine at Jordan (five) and Jardine/CT
(twice), Bertus Basson at Overture (seven), Luke Dale-Roberts (four times at
The Test Kitchen, twice at La Colombe, twice best chef of the year), Michael
Broughton at Terroir (six), David Higgs at Rust en Vrede (four) and Five
Hundred (twice), Peter Tempelhoff at The Greenhouse (thrice) and Grande
Provence, and Neil Jewell of Bread & Wine (twice).
The rising young stars to watch over the next year include
top twenty nominees such as Vanessa Marx of The White Room at Dear Me in Cape
Town, Arno Janse van Rensburg of The Kitchen @ Maison Winery in the Franschhoek
Wine Valley and Gregory Czarnecki at The Restaurant at Waterkloof (twice winner
of best gourmet restaurant at Klink Wine Tourism 2013/2014 and best wine
tourism restaurant at Great Wine Capitals Awards 2014) as well as Tanja Kruger
at Makaron and master saucier Nic van Wyk who opened Bistro 13 at Welmoed
Winery in late 2014.
If last year’s shock omission was Terroir at Kleine Zalze -
a regular Eat Out Top 10 winner, returning at #10 in 2014 - this year’s talking
point is the non-appearance of Peter Tempelhoff’s The Greenhouse in the Constantia Wine Valley
(rated #4 last year - and past chef/restaurant of the year winner). Master chef
judge Peter Goffe-Wood paid a moving tribute to kindred spirit Bruce Robertson,
former chef of One at The Cape Grace and The Showroom (past winner of Eat Out
Top 10), who passed away recently. Quoting gonzo writer Hunter S Thompson, he
said, “The only people who know where the edge is have gone over it. Bruce was
a maverick, an outlaw, free-thinker and a genius.” South Africa is a poorer place
without a chef of his calibre.
At the end of the evening, Janis Joplin belted out on the
speakers, “Oh lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz. My friends all drive
Porsches, I must make amends” as the new sponsors gave winning chef Luke
Dale-Roberts of The Test Kitchen with a new model-C. I drove home with Oliver ringing
in my ears, “Food, glorious food. What is there more handsome? Gulped,
swallowed or chewed, still worth a king’s ransom ...”
* The Eat Out 500 Guide 2014 is on sale at R49 - see www.eatout.co.za. Graham Howe has been a reviewer for Eat Out for the past decade - and judges for the Klink Awards for Wine Tourism South Africa 2014: see www.winetourismsouthafrica.co.za