Terroir dishes up a feast on TV

A Stellenbosch restaurant is dishing up its food straight to South African TV screens in a new series to be launched on the National Geographic channel next week.

Seasons at Terroir was shot over nine months at Terroir restaurant on the Kleine Zalze wine farm in Western Cape.

The restaurant is run by self-taught chef Michael Broughton and is a regular on restaurant awards lists.

The series, produced by Justin Bonello's Cooked in Africa films, which has created series such as the Ultimate Braai Master and Charly's Cake Angels, follows the restaurant, its staff and menu throughout seasonal changes.

The menu changes to use seasonal and, where possible, local products but its prawn risotto remains a firm favourite.

Broughton said he had met Bonello while filming an episode of his show Cooked the previous year and they had hit it off.

"There was no script. I said I didn't want to act, and we have to stick to the truth."

He said there had been no drama or fights, as is common in many reality TV kitchen shows.

"This is not reality TV. It's real TV. We put the camera in the kitchen and life went on," he said.

"I wanted the show to be a real bird's eye view of what it's like to work in a professional kitchen. It's not high drama but it is high octane," he said.

The show was picked up by media giant Fox International, to be aired on the National Geographic channel as part of its strategy to air more local and non-wildlife content in Africa and across the world.

Broughton said that initially his staff, made up largely of young students, were hesitant around the cameras but said they eventually settled in.

"We were still like fish in water so it didn't cause any problems," Broughton said.

Staff also changed during the show, with students coming and going and Broughton's sous chef leaving to start his own venture.

The six-part series will air on the National Geographic channel from Tuesday at 6.15pm and will repeat on Thursdays in the same time slot.