On Thursday night I found myself in a flurry of fancy food, tucked next to celebrity chef Reza Mahammad.
Reza's been in the country to film a new series called Reza's African Kitchen which starts on Food Network in March. It's a 10-parter that follows Reza as he explores the flavours of various African countries while conjuring up recipes along the way.
He travels through five countries - South Africa, Botswana, Zanzibar, Zambia and Namibia. He creates his own recipes round the ingredients he discovers in each place and also adds an Indian influence to them.
He's finished filming the show so the Food Network invited me for sups with Reza at
The Test Kitchen at the Old Biscuit Mill in Salt River -
the prize-winning, best restaurant in South Africa. It's won the
Eat Out awards three times in a row apparently - which I didn't know.
I have absolutely no clue about who's hott in food circles - I literally live under a duvet when it comes to such things so I went without any idea of what to expect.
As I arrived Reza swept me up in an explosion of air kisses and "dahling!" and what followed was a five course meal that I couldn't pronounce. I had absolutely no idea what I was eating - and still don't.
You tell me what this is:
The main course.
Dessert: a chocolate ball and beetroot.
The restaurant was packed with guests eating similar dishes and portions. The dishes came with a "pre-something" before they arrived. Little bowls of things like sorbet and other appetisers arrived in between the courses.
What was so mindboggling to me is that it's
R750 a head for the five-course meal. Yip! The wine's included in the price - each course comes with a taste of different wine - and the place was full. It's also fully booked up until April.
As I watched everyone tucking into their unpronouncable meals it struck me that a sense of occasion's obviously important to lots of people when it comes to food. I've never understood it and yet watching everyone I saw they were happy with things - right down to the price. Clearly people
want to wait (and save) for months to pay R750 for the occasion.
Of course Reza knew what he was eating and was enchanted by every morsel. At first I thought I needed to pretend to know what was going on but then I decided it would be less pressure to spill the truth i.e. I
don't cook and never have.
I asked Reza for his advice. What does one do when you're so uncookified and need to cook something?
He leaned over, took my hand, kissed it and shared these three secrets:
1) Don't read the ingredients on a recipe first - read the instructions first. Often the ingredients can stress one out so rather read what needs to be done first and the whole recipe will seem less intimidating.
2) Be prepared.
Don't get out the ingredients and dishes as you need them while cooking but make sure everything's organised before you start. Get everything you need before you start and lay it all out so that there's as little chaos as possible.
3) Play music.
I'm gonna try it on a Chickpea cassarole recipe I got from Reza - will share the recipe soon.
In the meantime, this when the show will be on:
Premiere date: Monday, 25 March at 12h50, with a repeat 18h15.
New episodes will air weekdays at the same times i.e. first run at 12h50 with a repeat 18h15.