Nederburg teams up with SA’s hottest chefs at The Manor in Paarl

NEDERBURG is calling on carnivores to indulge when meat maestros Pete Goffe-Wood and Steven Maresch appear at the Paarl winery’s restaurant, The Manor. They will be creating a fabulous five-course meal on the nights of 29 and 30 July. Everything (except for dessert!) will involve meat.

Well-known to South Africans as a judge on Masterchef SA and The Ultimate Braai Master, Goffe-Wood (accompanied by Maresch) will be the first in a series of top-level chefs to feature at The Manor in its Taste, Learn & Discover dinner series for wine and food lovers. Goffe-Wood has long been a high-profile chef and consultant to restaurants around the country. Now working with Maresch, purveyor of top-quality South African grass-fed and free-range meats at Bo-Vine Wine & Grill House in Camps Bay, the pair are planning a full-on celebration of red meat.

On Friday and Saturday nights of 29 and 30 July, starting at 6.30 for 7pm, they’ll be delighting diners with home-made bread served with bone marrow butter to start. Then you can look forward to oxtail consommé, Wagyu beef cheeks and Bistecca Fiorentina (simply but sublimely seasoned T-bone), followed by sticky toffee pudding.

Others in the series include Marthinus Ferreira who made his name at DW Eleven-13 in Johannesburg, and Mmabatho Molefe of Emazulwini at Maker’s Landing (V&A Waterfront). If you don’t know her yet, she’s the only South African to make it onto the World’s 50 Best 50 Next list of people 35 or younger. She took 27^th place in 2022 and was hailed as a pioneer in shaping the future of worldwide gastronomy. Accompanying her will be Andrew Nel, who heads up operations at Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants in Cape Town.

Says The Manor’s Jerry Kennedy: “We’ve secured some super-exciting South African chefs and food experts, all of whom are helping define contemporary local cuisine. While Pete and Steven’s focus will be meat, for Marthinus the accent will be on plant-based dishes. Mmabatho and Andrew will reinterpret traditional Zulu foods in a very modern and original way. They will all be cooking in turn at The Manor, pairing each of five dishes with wines from our cellars.

“They have been given carte blanche to reflect their personal style of classic, contemporary, familiar, and exciting new flavours. This gives us a chance to highlight the versatility, food-friendliness, and deliciousness of our wines. Everyone wants to treat themselves occasionally even in these tough times, so we’ve kept pricing at very favourable, realistic levels.”

Every dish will be served with a glass of Nederburg wine. The all-inclusive price for the food and wine combo will set you back just R550 a head each time.

The last weekend in August (Friday 26 and Saturday 27) will feature Ferreira. The formerly Jozi chef, who previously worked abroad under Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal, recently migrated south to take the helm at Jordan’s Winery’s restaurant in Stellenbosch. It’s properly known as The Jordan Restaurant with Marthinus Ferreira. His predominantly plant-based menu for Nederburg, will offer a fresh and very individual interpretation of the familiar.

Molefe and Nel will be preparing dinner on 28 and 29 October. She has been making waves since opening Emazulwini in 2021 and late last year partnered with Nederburg in a foodie roadshow video series with Karen Dudley called I’ll Bring the Wine. Her inventive re-imagining of Zulu favourites has been wowing South Africans all over.