A love affair with wine and food

There have been many interesting love affairs in the world over the course of history. But one that clearly stands out here in Joburg is the huge love affair that Chef Philippe Wagenführer, the patron chef of the Roots Gourmet Restaurant at Forum Homini, based in the Cradle of Humankind, has with wine.

Wagenführer is one of Joburg’s 16 top chefs who will be taking South Africans on an expedition of flavour at this year’s Taste of Joburg Festival, scheduled to take place between 30 September and 4 October 2009 at Montecasino in Fourways, Johannesburg.

To chef Wagenführer, there is nothing more beautiful and alluring than a glass of wine that has been masterfully nurtured from grape to bottle by wine makers who share his passion for one of the oldest drinks on the planet.

“Wine forms part of my DNA,” he says. “Growing up in France I learned to appreciate and understand not only the drink itself, but the process of making it, and the passion that winemakers, quite literally, pour into their product.

“As a chef, I also pour every ounce of passion that I have into the food that I prepare, so it’s easy to see how one can develop an unmistakable love affair with food and wine. And this is why pairing food with wine is such an important part of what I do.”

But Philippe takes it one step further. Where many restaurateurs would decide on a menu and then find a list of wines that will best accompany the dishes on the menu, he firmly believes that wine should be the centre of the dining experience with food as the accompaniment.

“It’s quite unorthodox to many people,” he explains, “but for us here at Roots it makes perfect sense.”

Together with his head chef, Allistaire Lawrence, Philippe work meticulously to craft food based on the flavours and characteristics of the wines that they have both hand-picked from some of South Africa’s top wine estates.

“The challenge we set ourselves with each service is to satisfy South African palates by giving them flavours that they are familiar with, while taking them out of their comfort zones down a path of discovery by paring gourmet food with unbelievably good [and sometimes unknown] wines.

“It’s a total experience and we pay huge attention to even the smallest details, down to the glasses that we serve specific wines in. You’d never pass a parachute off as lingerie, so why use just any wine glass to serve your wine in. Each wine has its own characteristics and the size and shape of the glass will impact your experience,” he says.

That’s not to say that wine appreciation should be convoluted and way above what average South Africans understand about the flavours of food and wine.

Quite on the contrary in fact – Wagenführer is a huge advocate for bringing wine back down to Earth – making the experience of food and wine pairing accessible to even the most inexperienced and inquisitive palate.

“When I read complicated and pompous commentaries on wines it frustrates me to no end. Honestly, who cares about how many adjectives and clever words you can use to describe ‘something that tastes really nice’,” Wagenführer says.

“It scares people away, it makes them feel that they don’t know enough and that they are not good enough to make an educated decision on which wine tastes good with what food, when, really, it’s a purely subjective experience.”

You could say, then, that what Lawrence and Wagenführer sell is trust based on pure passion.

And it seems to be working. Over 240 estates have applied to Roots to be a part of the highly popular 24 wine appreciation evenings that chefs Lawrence and Wagenführer host every year – and this list has been whittled down to 12 estates, which offer, in Wagenführer and Lawrence’s opinions, the best overall value in SA.

At the Taste of Joburg Festival, attendees are able to experience the passion and dedication that goes into producing some of the city’s best food. And chef Wagenführer will be bringing his own brand of wine appreciation for everyone to try.

“Leave your preconceptions at the door when you come in,” he says. “Be ready to throw away the rule book and taste food and wine in a very different way. And prepare to get hooked because there’s no turning back once you experienced something this good,” he concludes.

A dish is only as good as its ingredients

Any chef worth his or her salt would be the first to admit that a dish is only as good as the ingredients used to make it. And one person who knows this all too well is Jacob Moliso, the executive chef at Jazz Maniacs in the Soweto Hotel on Freedom Square.

Jazz Maniacs is not your conventional hotel restaurant. Situated in the heart of Freedom Square in Soweto – with Kliptown and the Walter Sisulu Freedom Museum as a backdrop – the restaurant combines the simple but tasty traditional township food with a touch of class and sophistication.

The restaurant’s signature dish, the Kliptown Combo, which combines steak, wors, pap, chakalaka, mixed veggies and beetroot all beautifully arranged on a plate, is a perfect example of how even the simplest South African favourite can be made to appeal to any palate –local or international.

“For a chef, ingredients are everything,” Jacob says, “and I could not possibly dream of using anything but the best fruit and vegetables in the dishes that I prepare.”

An integral part of township food is a variety of hearty vegetables including carrots, beetroot, potatoes, spinach, cabbage, tomatoes and onions – all of which Jacob and his assistant chefs, Junior Molewa and Sam Lipali, hand-pick on a daily basis at a somewhat unlikely place – the street market around the corner from the hotel.

“I wouldn’t imagine it any other way,” Jacob points out. “The market here in Freedom Square stocks absolutely everything that we need and the quality is streaks ahead of anything you’d find in mainstream grocery stores in town.

“Not to mention the prices here in the market are a lot lower than the prices in the more commercial areas of Joburg, which means that we don’t only control the costs of preparing unbelievably good food, but we can offer dishes that are reasonably priced,” he says.

As Jacob, Junior and Sam roam the street markets in and around Freedom Square, it’s easy to see that they’re no strangers to the store owners – whose elaborate displays of fresh fruit and vegetables add an amazing touch of colour to the streets of Kliptown, which was once an unbelievably depressing place to be during the Apartheid years.

“The variety of vegetables that we have to choose from is always good and we never have to question the quality,” Jacob points out.

“This is because every morning, fresh produce is delivered directly from farmers to the Fresh Produce Market in the Joburg CBD, and is then brought here to Kliptown. It’s easy to see how you can get lost in the rows and rows of vegetable stalls here – it’s like another world,” he says.

Jacob, Junior and Sam all admit that their dishes would not be half as good as they are if the quality of the ingredients were not of a superior quality.

And they’ll be equally quick to admit that there is nothing more embarrassing than having to salvage a dish gone wrong when the ingredients are to blame – because it is essentially their reputations on the line.

To this extent, Jacob says that it’s very important for him and his crew to hand-pick all of their ingredients to ensure that they can “wow” their patrons again and again.

“No chef can make a good dish with bad ingredients. Not even those guys on BBC are THAT good,” Jacob jokes.

“Here at Jazz Maniacs we’re all about using good local produce and supporting our local communities,” comments Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo, the General Manager of the Soweto Hotel on Freedom Square.

“People think we’re joking when we say that we get all our fruit and vegetables out on the street, but you just cannot match the quality and value for money you get when you buy your produce from a trusted and reliable source.

“We’re truly blessed to have such amazing ingredients, produced locally, available practically on our doorstep,” she adds.

“And as much as our chefs enjoy cooking with these unbelievable ingredients, our patrons also enjoy every bite of our signature township dishes.”

Jacob is one of 16 chefs that will be putting their skills to the test at this year’s Taste of Joburg Festival – which is scheduled to take place 30 September- 4 October at Montecasino Outdoor Event Venue. Tickets are available through Computicket on 083 915 8000 or www.computicket.com. Standard tickets cost R80 and premium tickets cost R170. For more information go to www.tasteofjoburg.com