Would you serve offcuts to a room full of culinary royalty, including one with three Michelin stars who famously made Gordon Ramsay cry?
That was exactly what the Maslow Hotel’s chef de cuisine, Giovanni Palanyandi, set out to do on Friday evening when the trendy Sandton hotel hosted food fundis appearing at this weekend’s Good Food and Wine Show in Joburg.Walking into the room, I say hello to food personality Jenny Morris, who is having a chat with Sherwyn Weaich, both fixtures at the culinary fest that runs until 6pm today at the Ticketpro Dome.
In front of us is a long communal table, decked out with recycled bits and pieces including bottle-tops in jars and newspapers fluffed up in canisters according to the “waste art” theme.Seated across from me, another guest is grinning as he picks up the empty bottles of Autumn Harvest and Old Brown Sherry finishing off the table arrangement; it turns out he’s Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen, the first local lad to join the elite club of restaurateurs with the ultimate accolade for fine dining.
Nice, France, is a far cry from Mpumalanga, but that’s where Jan Hendrik opened his restaurant JAN, which last year landed him a Michelin star for an ever-changing menu paying homage to typical South African fare — waterblommetjies, pap, chakalaka — prepared in atypical style.
I introduce Jan Hendrik to the lady on my right, effervescent Joburg Tourism marketing manager Lumka Dlomo, and, small world, they discover they have a mutual acquaintance.Trickling in are other famous foodies, including Sarah Graham, the blonde food writer and cook with four cookbooks to her name, and Cape Town-based private chef Neill Anthony...