06 Mar 2013 Is SA turning into a foodie nation?
A proliferation of cooking schools and classes across the country; a spurt of specialist food markets across SA and a new-found taste for the exotic. Is South Africa turning into a foodie nation?
Ten years ago, samp and sabayon would have found limited co-existence on an SA dinner menu. Today upmarket restaurants and intrepid home cooks confidently dish up local flavours complemented with European techniques and a globalised approach to meals.
Terms like artisan-made, charcuterie and provenance jostle like simmering snow peas in a pot of hipster foodie nomenclature. Samoosas are at home with sushi, and roasted mealies and chicken dust (chicken cooked at the roadside) cosy up to shawarmas and falafel. And nachos and pizzas, with an SA twist, find their place beside melktert.
South Africans have always been food-focused, dishing out from that battered metaphor of melting- (hot-) pot heritage that is a stew of British, Dutch, French, Portuguese, German, Malay, Indonesian, Indian and traditional black SA foods. But something else seems to be cooking on a low heat.
SA Masterchef is in production for a second season; the number of organic food markets are on the rise; pop-up speciality food stores are everywhere; and the availability of gourmet ingredients on supermarket shelves points to a movement that is fast gaining momentum among South Africans. But is there more to SA’s flourishing foodie culture than the mass media is telling us?
Lila Bultel, a French-trained patisserie chef who offers training for catering professionals, says she’s seeing South Africans becoming more conscious of food trends. Bultel specialises in macarons – little almond, egg white and sugar confection sandwiches that are finicky to perfect but a mouthful of chewy awe if done right. For her, the proliferation of macarons in bakeries and coffee shops is evidence of how SA is evolving in the foodie space.
“When I arrived here from France in 2009 there was only one shop in Johannesburg selling the macaron. Now they are everywhere.” Though Bultel tut-tuts about the quality of some of these meringues-dressed-as-macarons, she says people are definitely interested in learning proper French patisserie.
“It is still seen as a luxury thing and SA has a long way to go. But I am working with professionals coming to me from small towns, places like Potgietersrus, to learn patisserie methods and techniques for macaron, croissant and brioche.” What’s being put into motion is a knock-on effect from food industries offering a quality product that in turn makes consumers more discerning…..