fine food and wine MAGAZINE AUTUMN 2021 15 harvest table recipes taste Malta the flow of FINE WATER ed's3 letter AMUSE BOUCHE As I watch a few of the leaves falling off fill of the fabulous recipes that have international amuse bouche 4 the tree in front of my office (kitchen!) been shared by chefs. Celebrated and flavours window, I know that Autumn has global icon, chef Chantel Dartnall of A WALK THROUGH local32 travel arrived. I sneak a sideways glance Restaurant Mosaic, is also about to MY MALTA THE SOUL at the basket of figs, pears and get wings, but before she goes, she business46 avocadoes ready to be transformed shares her Autumn inspiration. Fitting, OF SAFARI boomers into something mouthwatering, and I as she has inspired so many young STEPPING UP am happy. One minute writing, the next chefs to enter the industry, and stirred TO THE PLATE cooking, and then everyone feasting – other chefs to explore botanical cuisine drinks14 trolley there’s nothing more gratifying than and to up their games. In the next THE FLOW OF gourmet40 feeding people, connecting at a table. issue, I will share the story of her last We hope that you enjoy every page of supper. I am sure it will be a stellar, if FINE WATER getaway our ‘harvest table’ edition. bittersweet, occasion. FRENCH LUXE COOKING 2152 minutes with This is the year in which many careers Meanwhile, stay safe and enjoy this will pivot and new careers will be culinary spread. MUNASHE pioneered. Read the exclusive story Gourmet Guide’s 20 KWARAMBA, of South Africa’s only certified water kitchen A TIME TO RE- sommelier and the flow of the fine- Jenny Handley HARVEST TABLE celebrity42 INVENT water movement. Sommelier-turned- guest chef chef Munashe Kwaramba too is sure to A ROAD TO inspire you. ROCAMADOUR BY CHEF Private chef, Debbie Schembri, shares her personal perspective of Malta. A gourmet30 garden CHANTEL haute56 reads recent and successful graduate of the AUTUMN PICKINGS DARTNALL A CAPE TABLE Gourmet Guide online food-writing Tune in on Saturdays at 10h45 for course, she too decided to spread her a dash of delicious – join me as I wings and multi-skill herself. interview chefs, restauranteurs, winemakers and producers to Meet the team Contact details We are all working harder, at home, discover what is new and exciting Editor - Jenny Handley P.O. Box 32216, Camps Bay, 8040 on the culinary landscape. Editorial direction - Clare O'Donoghue [email protected] then ever before. An army marches Production and copy editing - Natalie Brock www.gourmetguide.co.za on its stomach, so be sure to get your Proofreading - Kristen Brock jhp_gourmet_guide Contributor - Debbie Schembri jenny_handley Wine consultant - Brent Bartlett Jenny Handley Performance Design and layout - Wilna Combrinck Management Sales - Shirley Roos and Jeanne van Rooyen Stock images from unsplash.com 3 JHP Gourmet Guide™ a walk through my Private chef, Debbie Schrembi, shares her sensory interpretation of living on Maltathe island of Malta. IT’S THE SMELL OF WILD FENNEL smell of incense as I bow into a church AND THYME GROWING FROM to escape the savage sun. It’s the crevices in the garigue rock, the wind pungent aroma of carob pods catching whipping my hair as I peer over the me by surprise in September, washing edge of my island. It’s the sunny smell me with autumnal nostalgia. It’s the of sand sweeping through car windows calming perfume of orange blossom on the way to the beach, chilled Cisk flowers in the Spring, reminding me beers rattling in the back. It’s the heady that brighter days are to come. 5 ‘I smell Malta, I taste Malta, I feel Malta’ It’s biting into a tomato so ripe it bursts, uneven steps and up slippery slopes, sweet juices running shamelessly down alone with my thoughts. It’s the balmy my chin. It’s handfuls of fennel seeds hug of a Summer evening, sitting thrown unapologetically into everything with my friends watching the sun go I cook. It’s splitting a broad bean pod down, sipping on warm white wine. It’s open, nipping the skin with my teeth, aimless drives through the countryside, and chewing on the green sweetness rubble walls and impossible shades of within. It’s the salty kiss of the sea green and yellows, fields choked with on my puckered lips. It’s burning my artichokes, farmers sweating away. It’s tongue on a Maqrut because I’m too having the beach to myself in Autumn, impatient to taste the caramelised giggling as I dive into the still-warm date filling encased in fried pastry. water, feeling alive. It’s marvelling It’s jammy figs splitting at the seams, that I’m in a t-shirt in December yet drizzled in liquid gold honey; of milky, swearing that its freezing cold in fresh sheep ġbejna cheese wobbling January, even though it’s 8°C outside. like a perfectly set panna cotta. It’s It’s the happy sound of fireworks in struggling to decide between a ricotta Summer at ridiculous hours of the day. or a pea pastizzi and ordering two of It’s winding through impractical, narrow each, then lazily wiping my greasy village roads wondering whether this is fingers on my shorts. It’s a hunk of the time my car gets wedged. Maltese sourdough bread, crusts on the right side of burnt, dredged in The Malta I live in is one of time, peppery olive oil, that tastes like home. marked by the produce poking through the earth. Piles of muddy Jerusalem It’s the quiet calm of wandering the artichokes and oranges for Winter, streets of Valletta after dark, down stems of punchy fresh garlic, broad For a refined but unpretentious taste of what Maltese products are capable of producing visit Bahia in Lija, or Briju in Gzira. 7 beans, and vibrant orange loquats for speak of resilience, resourcefulness, Spring. Scarlet plums, fuzzy peaches and humility and that often reference and truckloads of watermelons signal a once-deeply religious community. Summer and magenta pomegranates, Several foods arose from dietary the size of your fist, usher in Autumn. restrictions imposed by the church and She dictates what I eat and when I eat some are only prepared at a particular it. To me it is less about the ‘traditional’ time of year. Kwarezimal, a delicious food of Malta but what I can do with confection of ground almonds and the produce she provides. That, to brown sugar scented with citrus zest, me is Maltese food. There are dishes cinnamon, orange blossom water that warm and comfort you at the and drizzled with honey, reference right time of year. A steaming bowl of the 40 days of Lent and is only baked Kusksu being the perfect example. It is then. It also demonstrates the curious a simple, yet filling meal, cooked in the combination of Christian and Arabic earlier, colder months of Spring or later influences as the citrus, orange in Autumn, when you are looking for blossom, and spicing were introduced something both comforting yet bright. after Turkish invasion. It is not quite a stew, nor quite a soup and is made from a base of tomato conserve, onions and garlic, packed As Maltese we are a full of broad beans and pearl couscous people of contradictions, at and often topped with a fresh goat’s cheeselet known as ġbejna. once abrasive yet deeply caring, qualities reflected in As Maltese we are a people of contradictions, at once abrasive yet our language; a mesmerising deeply caring, qualities reflected in our language; a mesmerising hybrid of hybrid of jarring Arabic jarring Arabic sounds with a melodic, sounds with a melodic, Latinate lilt. Our history seeps into everything we do, from the language Latinate lilt. we speak to the food we cook. There are staple dishes that tell a story But not all our food talks of restraint. about our past, shaped by the flavours On the contrary we seem to have introduced by the myriad rulers who embraced newfound abundance and governed us before we gained our are guaranteed to leave any meal independence. There are dishes that ready for a post-prandial nap! We are 9 This is my country, that I know so well, yet so little, MALTA BELLA waiting to be rediscovered with every visit. The Republic of Malta, an island off southern Europe in the Mediterranean Sea, is actually an no strangers to carbohydrates. Whether archipelago. It lies close to Italy, it is roast potatoes with fennel seeds just 80 km south, and 284 km and onions, a baked pasta dish of penne east of Tunisia. in a meat ragu wrapped in pastry called Timpana; or the Gozitan ftira, sourdough It is the world’s tenth smallest stretched into a pizza base that wraps country in area, with the capital around the edges of layered potatoes, of Valletta being the smallest tomatoes, onions and tuna, anchovies, national capital in Europe. olives and capers, we have you covered. Maltese is the official language, My Malta is the rustically charming with English as the second country I choose it to be. Admittedly, official language. Malta has a I often need to put on my rose-tinted population of about 500 000 glasses to better see the colours that people. I know are there, hidden under the dirty politics, frenetic urbanisation and The typical, mild Mediterranean congestion that is real life. But I know weather is dramatically hotter that my version also exists and will in the height of Summer (June AUTUMN IS ONE OF continue to do so if I look for it.