Ashley Moss has worked with chef Peter Tempelhoff since he started his cooking journey at The Greenhouse. They’ve since partnered in opening a number of shops including FYN and Ramenhead.  I spoke to him about the journey, his inspiration and the drive to create.

Message me here with comments or guest suggestions.
Treat yourself - order direct from Zuney Wagyu
Get a fair price with HeadsUp

• www.rwm2012.com
• On Instagram @a_table_inthecorner
• Cover image sketched by Courtney Cara Lawson
• All profile portraits by Russel Wasserfall unless otherwise credited
• Title music: 'In Time' by Olexy via Pixabay

Kurt Ackermann is the CEO of the Urban Food and Farming Trust which, among many other things, organises the annual Food Indaba in Cape Town. I sat down with him in the courtyard at Honest Chocolate in Wale Street to talk about the outcomes of Food Indaba 2025 and to learn more about what his organisation does. There's material for a dozen episodes here, but we tried to colour inside the lines. Perhaps there's meat for another long chat in the future.

Message me here with comments or guest suggestions.
Treat yourself - order direct from Zuney Wagyu
Get a fair price with HeadsUp
Top Restaurants in Cape Town according to the Inside Guide Survey 

• www.rwm2012.com
• On Instagram @a_table_inthecorner
• Cover image sketched by Courtney Cara Lawson
• All profile portraits by Russel Wasserfall unless otherwise credited
• Title music: 'In Time' by Olexy via Pixabay

In this episode, I sat down with Justine Drake to explore her impressive career and dive into the evolving landscape of food media. From storytelling to trends and being a judge on SA Masterchef, we discuss how the industry is shifting and what it means for food lovers everywhere. Justine booked me for one of the first food shoots I landed when I first moved to Cape Town in 2005, so we've known each other a long time. It was fantastic catching up with her, and learning more from someone who is something of a North star for local food publishing.
Justine on Instagram

Message me here with comments or guest suggestions.
Treat yourself - order direct from Zuney Wagyu
Get a fair price with HeadsUp

• www.rwm2012.com
• On Instagram @a_table_inthecorner
• Cover image sketched by Courtney Cara Lawson
• All profile portraits by Russel Wasserfall unless otherwise credited
• Title music: 'In Time' by Olexy via Pixabay

Gozney Ovens are things of rare and wondrous beauty. I love retained-heat ovens. In fact I'm a little obsessed, having built two brick arch ovens and installed a prefabricated dome at my Karoo pizza spot. I've got notebooks full of doodles with designs of ovens base on 44-gallon drums. Although I read Kiko Denzer's seminal book 'Build Your Own Clay Oven' from cover to cover several times - I never had the space or time to actually construct one. When, one day a post about Gozney popped up in my Insta feed, I was immediately besotted. I tracked down the local agent and discovered an interesting back-story to the granting of an agency for Gozney to a South African distributor. With a background in building surf and consumer electronics brands, Dustin Botha of the LUKS Group started bringing Traeger pellet grills into the country from the US a while back. I've seen them around, but until I started researching this show, hadn't clicked how versatile and next-gen they actually are. This turned out to be a fascinating chat. It's worth going onto the gozney.co.za site to gaze in wonder at their ovens.

Message me here with comments or guest suggestions.
Treat yourself - order direct from Zuney Wagyu
Get a fair price with HeadsUp

• www.rwm2012.com
• On Instagram @a_table_inthecorner
• Cover image sketched by Courtney Cara Lawson
• All profile portraits by Russel Wasserfall unless otherwise credited
• Title music: 'In Time' by Olexy via Pixabay

Shaun Scrooby is a fantastic oke. I enjoyed an exceptional lunch at his restaurant, Vuur, on Remhoogte Wine Estate and saw a truly innovative and engaged chef at work. Then we sat down for a chat which could have gone on for days. He's a kind of Have-a-go-Joe in the best possible way. Curious about everything related to his craft and not at all nervous to try new things, the experience Shaun offers guests is truly immersive. It's proper open fire cooking in a communal space that is at once familiar and yet something you've never experienced in an eatery. 

Message me here with comments or guest suggestions.
Treat yourself - order direct from Zuney Wagyu
Get a fair price with HeadsUp

• www.rwm2012.com
• On Instagram @a_table_inthecorner
• Cover image sketched by Courtney Cara Lawson
• All profile portraits by Russel Wasserfall unless otherwise credited
• Title music: 'In Time' by Olexy via Pixabay

Sue Baker is the eternal 'smous'. Starting out by sourcing and selling exceptional oysters to the top local restaurants back in 1992, Sue built Wild Peacock. Today it is a huge provisioner to the restaurant trade, with seafood, cheese and specialist patisserie and deli items available for local and international producers. Wild Peacock was a supplier of seafood, quail, porcini and a couple of other specialist specialist ingredients back when we opened The Table at de Meye and the service was always top-drawer. I caught up with Sue for a chat about the very cool business she ran and has handed over to her very capable kids to run.

Wild Peacock online
HeadsUp - get a fair price
Zuney Wagyu - delicious delivered
Get in touch with A Table in the Corner

• www.rwm2012.com
• On Instagram @a_table_inthecorner
• Cover image sketched by Courtney Cara Lawson
• All profile portraits by Russel Wasserfall unless otherwise credited
• Title music: 'In Time' by Olexy via Pixabay

HeadsUp Systems has created a powerful resource for restaurants. Specifically aimed at owner-run operations, it can also benefit groups of restaurants. Their main product is essentially a massive AI-managed spreadsheet that assembles and compares the prices of goods and ingredients across hundreds of suppliers. This means small (and large) operators have better information available to negotiate or navigate better prices for their restaurants. I sat down with Sven - who is a great supporter of the show - to find out more about the product and the thinking behind his creation.

• www.rwm2012.com
• On Instagram @a_table_inthecorner
• Cover image sketched by Courtney Cara Lawson
• All profile portraits by Russel Wasserfall unless otherwise credited
• Title music: 'In Time' by Olexy via Pixabay

At a recent media event to promote the Seven Colours Sunday lunches at Marble, Cape Town, I was seated opposite the vivacious and interesting influencer, Patricia Blacc. As a member of a team that was around for the first lunar landing, and once had to hire a projector to watch movies in the comfort of my home, watching her work was fascinating to me. Seeing the polished and very snazzy results of her work on various platforms after the lunch was, frankly, bewildering. While I'm aware of the massive role influencers now play in promoting anything from cars to cuisine, I thought it would make sense to invite Patricia onto the show. It is worth noting that Patricia Blacc is the public persona of the very smart, well-travelled and foodie Reneilwe Sibulela. It was a very enlightening conversation.

Get a Fair Price with HeadsUp

Zuney Wagyu online

Reach out to me through the RWM website with comments and suggestions

• www.rwm2012.com
• On Instagram @a_table_inthecorner
• Cover image sketched by Courtney Cara Lawson
• All profile portraits by Russel Wasserfall unless otherwise credited
• Title music: 'In Time' by Olexy via Pixabay

I got to know Rudi Liebenberg when I worked as a photographer and spent many hours shooting in his kitchen at the Mount Nelson. His approach to cooking and mentoring the chefs on his brigade, constantly pushing them to do better and learn new things, has launched many careers in the industry. I caught up with him for a chat when he'd just come back from a couple of years abroad, running hotel kitchens in Ireland and then the Carribean. He was between hotels, on his way to lead the kitchen at the Westcliff in Johannesburg.
(Correction: During our chat, Rudi mentioned Dan Barber and I erroneously referred to him as the chef from French Laundry, but he is the celebrated chef of Blue Hill at Stone Barns and author of the seminal 'The Third Plate'.)

Get a fair price with HeadsUp

• www.rwm2012.com
• On Instagram @a_table_inthecorner
• Cover image sketched by Courtney Cara Lawson
• All profile portraits by Russel Wasserfall unless otherwise credited
• Title music: 'In Time' by Olexy via Pixabay

There's a trigger warning on this one for vegetarians or vegans. We do discuss the processing of livestock into meat products. 

I wanted to delve deeper into the family farming operations that produced the Zuney Wagyu brand, so I spoke to Devin Wells son of eastern Cape beef farmer Denys Wells. Devin runs the processing and distribution side of the operation - started with lifelong friend Henning Klopper - that processes and distributes the Wagyu beef produced on their respective fathers' farms in the Zuney Valley. While Henk and Denys do agriculture, their sons are building the Zuney  brand, most notably through the Zuney Burger spot, but also through a busy online store that delivers anywhere in the country.

Zuney Wagyu online store

HeadsUp - get a fair price

• www.rwm2012.com
• On Instagram @a_table_inthecorner
• Cover image sketched by Courtney Cara Lawson
• All profile portraits by Russel Wasserfall unless otherwise credited
• Title music: 'In Time' by Olexy via Pixabay