Two weeks ago, I braved the storm (literally) to join the team from Red Carnation Hotels for a decadent little lunch over at the gorgeous Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa in Camps Bay.
Now for those who aren’t familiar with the Red Carnation hotel collection – they have luxury hotels located in London, Dorset, Guernsey, Ireland, Geneva, Palm Beach and South Africa, with their local hotel offering including the Twelve Apostles (our home for the day), The Oyster Box Hotel & Spa in Umhlanga, and the Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve & Wellness Retreat in the Cederburg Mountains. (All three are 5 star hotels I’ll have you know – with Bushmanskloof in particular consistently rated as one of the best hotels in the world)
The purpose of the day was to showcase the regional cuisine of the Cederberg, incorporating Rooibos and ingredients from indigenous fynbos plants of the area, beautifully paired with another Cederberg gem: Bouchard Finlayson wines.
I was already a Bouchard Finlayson fan before this lunch… You’ll be hard pressed to not find at least a few wines in their range that you don’t absolutely love.
Just look at this menu:
But it didn’t just sound good…
All I can say is “Wow”. Chef Floris definitely knows how to create food art that both looks incredible, but also tastes incredible… I’m picturing picking up at least 5kgs during a weekend stay at Bushmanskloof… at least.
Seriously, how pretty? And there’s an actual mini souffle in that passion fruit skin… #genius
During lunch we also got a short introduction into Rooibos Limited who is not only situated in the Cederberg area, but also produces about 75% of South Africa’s rooibos output. This interesting doesn’t just cover tea anymore, they’ve also branched out into a whole range of products like rooibos-infused balsamic drizzle and other cooking sauces, to a range of bath & body products which can actually be found at Bushmans Kloof. It was very cool to hear how a very humble, locally grown tea has grown into such a successful industry.
So what have I taken from this lunch? A visit to the Cederberg is a must (and hopefully I’ll manage to arrange that soon).
Thank you so much to Fivestar PR for the invitation, and also to the teams from Twelve Apostles, Bushmans Kloof, Bouchard Finlayson & Rooibos for this extra special treat.
xxx