« YOU CAN EAT THAT: Robyn to broadcast from Africa this Sunday June 1st at 4:20pmEST, Dining and Travel guide with Chef Pierre Wolf, Business Talk Radio | Main | YOU CAN EAT THAT: Recipe of the week: Now that tomatoes… »
I’m Back from Africa!!! Blog to start again!
By robyn | July 8, 2008
Hello all!
As you all know I have been in Africa and the trip was so good that my head has been wrapped around it ever since we have been back. Lots fo catch up and so this blog suffered some lapses. But I am back and wil be back this summer with recipes, restaurants, products and all thoughts on food!
In the meantime, I thought I would add an excerpt from my Trip Report on Africa I did on www.fodors.com . As mentioned before I departed, I was going to do a radio show form Africa. Pierre Wolfe( www.pierrewolfe.com ) host of the Dining and Travel, Business Talk Radio, Sundays 3-5pm EST, had me on from Africa on June 1st!
What a blast.
We broadcast from the Azure Restaurant located in the ultraglamourous Tweleve Apostles Hotel in Camps Bay, Cape Town. the show consisted of me, the executive chef, Roberto Cavahlo and the awardwinning sommelier, Luvo Nteso.
Here is excerpt from my trip report. To view the entire report which contains LOTS of food experiences, log onto www.fodors.com. Click on TALK. Then click on AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST. My Trip report is entitled: Just Back from South africa and Botswana: The Best Trip in 20 Years of International Travel.
I’ll be back this Sunday with more YOU CAN EAT THAT news: recipes, products and more!!
June 1st: Dinner: Radio, Food and Wine
As some of you know I posted here before I left that I would be doing a radio show from Africa! I began doing segments for the Dining and Travel Guide with Pierre Wolfe, a famous chef here in the states who broadcasts every Sunday 3-5pmEST and can be heard in 60 syndicated markets on Business Talk Radio.
Anyway, before I left I did his show and when my publicist told him I was going to be in Africa the following week, he wanted to broadcast from Africa!
We were already scheduled to dine at Azure, the restaurant in the Twelve Apostles Hotel during broadcast time, so this was all perfect.
Once the restaurant and hotel happily agreed to be on the show, they made all kinds of lovely arrangments with us.
They sent a car to the Cape Grace to pick us up and upon arrival a team of managers greeted us at the door to welcome us. It was quite the scene.
We started off having drinks with the General Manager of the hotel, Jeremy Flowerday and then were quickly joined by the executive chef, Roberto Cavalho and the award winning sommelier, Luvo Nteso. We had a ball sitting around sipping elegant South Africa wines.
The Twelve Apostles is quite the hotel. Had it not been our first time in Cape Town where we wanted to be a bit closer to the city, we would have stayed here. Not that anything is to be taken away from the Cape Grace. We loved it there. Just after seeing the 12 Apostles, it is also our kind of hotel, it was just too far from the center of things for a first time visit we felt. It was a great mixture of funkiness, warmth and a dramatic setting afronting the sea.
After enjoying our drinks we were ushered to a fabulous table to have dinner. The meal was incredible. We started with a crab cocktail served in a martini glass and then shared their infamous seafood platter,: an assortment of clams, mussels, calamari, kingklip and all sorts of vegetables with the crowing achievement: a hanging disply of prawns. The prawns were skewered onto a hanging metal rod that towered over the seafood resting on a large platter below. Roberto Explained this is the typical Portuguese preparation; his background is as such.
We enjoyed a flourless chocolate tart with rooibos ice cream and a luscious cheesecake. All washed downed with wines Luvo selected for us.
Wrapping up dinner with fabulous service, we were then brought upstairs to a private room to do the show.
The show started with me describing my first impressions of Cape Town and South Africa and then going into our meal at Azure. Pierre was so gracious as to really give a nice plug to the Twelve Apostles Hotel and Azure, he kept repeating it all throughout the show.
Then we took a little break and then Roberto and Luvo came on to describe more in depth all about the menu and wines and trends in todays South African dining scene.
Everyone had so much fun and Jeremy was most pleased.
Alas, we are not done yet… more drinking in the bar again. After dinner drinks for all! We spent more time with Jeremy and Roberto( Luvo had to go) . We discuss everything from politics to food to our families and our travels. As it happened we somehow got onto a discussion of American football and Jeremy was so intrigued as to understand it. So my husband spent about the next 45 minutes discussing how football works. Both Roberto and Jeremy were glued to his every word ( I don’t know if it was out of courtesy or that they were generally interested!)
Anyway, a most delightful evening and we were indeed treated like rock stars. They insisted on picking up the tab for everythng and as much as we even tried to leave a generous tip, they would not hear of it. I’m going to be sending a little bit of Virginia to them: I’m planning on a basket filled with native Virginia foods and wine and perhaps I will enclose a football magazine or two!!!
It’s nice to have some new friends in the culinary world. Roberto and I have exchanged e mails since.
I’d highly reocmmed a dinner at Azure as it is so relaxing and the scenery can’t be beat. Or at the least have a drink in their funky bar, its decorated so wildly, but tastefully and is much fun.
The driver is ready for us and off we go back to the Cape Grace having just spent a fabulous evening of fun, new friends, and indulging in the best food and wine.
I later caught up with a gal from Atlanta, Lisa, who I met my very last day at Singita ( they were coming in and we were leaving). We had arranged to meet each other before both of us left.( we know each other from fodors.com) When we met, she was with 3 other friends and her husband and she told me she heard the show and commented how fun it was to listen knowing that she was going to meet me later in the trip!
All in all a magnificent evening and one of my favorite radio shows I have done.. ever!
Topics: Uncategorized |
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.