Relax with Dax

The Olive Festival is always appealing to me for 2 reasons, I love olives and Riebeek Kasteel is one of my favourite small towns. Despite the appeal of the Olive Festival, I haven’t managed to go for the last few years due to calendar clashes. So I was pleased to be able to make it [...]

The popularity of the cheese festival hasn’t taken a knock with the move to the new venue last year. Driving there this morning I saw the familiar “Sold Out” signs and heard the usual stories of people arriving and not being able to get in. There were many thousands of people there, it was vibing. [...]

The Top 100 SA wines for 2012 were announced on Thursday evening. This year they had nearly 400 entries, substantial growth from last year. You have the opportunity to taste the winning wines at the One & Only hotel on the 10th of May. Tickets available from Webtickets. More information on the Top 100 SA [...]

Here are the menus for Taste of Cape Town this year. Leave a comment on which dishes you’ve tried and how you rate them so we can see which are the ones to avoid and which ones we must try… Find out more about the festival at the Taste of CT website. The 2nd page [...]

It was only recently that I started to understand the value of good quality cookware and kitchen utensils. Having grown tired of trying to dice and slice things with stupid, blunt little steak knives, I purchased some Global knives. It changed my life. Whereas before I cooked only seldom, cooking became such a pleasure that [...]

If you read my review of last year’s Eat In Awards, you would recall that I wasn’t impressed with the event. Thankfully they took note of the feedback and this year the awards were fantastic. The Eat In DSTV Food Network awards this year were held on a Saturday morning at the Stellenbosch Market at [...]

A little while ago I attended the launch of the latest Relais & Chateaux guide (2012) at the Cellars Hohenhort hotel. It was more than just the launch of the new guide though, the second Grand Chef in Africa was also announced, Peter Templehoff. Plus, Relais & Chateaux revealed their first African cookbook. Relais & [...]

On Friday evening I attended the Classic Wine Trophy awards dinner. This year it was held in the Pavilion at the Table Bay Hotel. I must say the lamb rack was the best piece of meat I have eaten in a few months. It was incredible quality and perfectly prepared. It was good to catch [...]

I’m easily pleased but hard to impress. The development at Leopard’s Leap impressed me. The estate is located in Franschhoek, next to La Motte and actually shares the same owners. If you’ve been to La Motte, you have an idea of what to expect next door, only the best. I was invited to the launch [...]

People often ask me for advice on what restaurants they should go to and I pride myself on sending them somewhere perfectly appropriate. But a little while ago somebody asked me where they should go for breakfast in the Waterfront and I couldn’t think of many good options. There is the Mugg & Bean which [...]

I was very lucky to be invited by Franck Dangereux to enjoy his Chef’s Table at the Foodbarn. I’ve always been a fan of the Foodbarn and Franck’s cooking so this was an opportunity I was not going to miss. This 6 course lunch was paired with Nitida wines (have a look at that website, it’s [...]

There seems to be a trend of people opening small restaurants with limited menu and wine list, often open for limited hours. I reviewed The Dog’s Bollocks the other day which is basically a guy selling burgers out of his garage in the evenings, and this last weekend I went to The Table at De [...]

I can’t recall how I heard about The Dog’s Bollocks. It may have been some mentions on Twitter and if you Google it (try dogs bollocks roodehek), you’ll see a bunch of people have reviewed it already. It certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s a guy, called Nigel, selling burgers from his garage. I’m [...]

There is no doubt that the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate is gaining more and more traction every year. I attended it for the first time in 2010 (review here) and wasn’t able to attend last year as I was out of town. There was a huge difference this year. In 2010, most people didn’t know what [...]

I attended the opening of Harbour House in the V&A Waterfront a few weeks back and I could tell straight away it was going to be a popular spot. I wasn’t wrong as I went to try it out on a Monday night recently and it was packed. Admittedly it is December and most restaurants [...]