Week after week I see the menus for Egg & Shoulders ready meals. They are seasonal, interesting and depart from the norm of the home delivery or frozen meal services. Of course there are the standards - the lasagne, the ravioli - but there are always interesting things. While I've been tempted to order many times, I sometime wonder who else is ordering terrines or wild leaf salads. Curious about her drive for innovation, who her customers are, and how she reaches them, I sat down for a chat with Emily Harriet Bulbring Robertson. I learned she is a very capable, driven human with time in top kitchens under her belt, but perhaps even more important, I discovered she delivers in the Deep South. Hurrah!

Egg & Shoulders Website

RWM and Podcast website

• 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

Matthew Gordon has been there since the beginning. He is one of the architects of the explosion of restaurants in the previously sleepy Western Cape village of Franschhoek. Haute Cabriere put him firmly on the map, but the little restaurant he operated out of his family guesthouse, Balon Rouge is where it all began. Today he is the chef/operator of French Connection which has been a popular eatery in the village for the past 23 years. We spoke about the growth of Franschhoek's dining scene, the changes he's seen, people he's worked with, and the importance of consistency in building a business that will survive in a tumultuous restaurant scene.

French Connection Bistro

• 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

Chef Peter Ayub runs the excellent Sense of Taste Cooking school with his wife Deb, teaching young hopefuls the trade of being a chef. He reached out, concerned about how some of his students are treated when they go out into the industry to do their pracs and learn about how kitchens work. We share the view that these young chefs are there to absorb new skills and be taught by the chefs under whom they work. The reality in some frantically busy, sometimes under-staffed businesses is that they end up on the line, working as unpaid staff on a single station, pulling impossibly long shifts. Pete and I had a natter about that some of the challenges youngsters face and agreed that the old trope about initiating new blood on the brigade should perhaps be a more gentle process and not just a meat grinder where only the strong make it to a career in a kitchen.
Sense of Taste Chef School

• 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

It's taken a while to get the timing and travel right to sit down with South African culinary icon, Chef Reuben Riffel, to explore his incredible journey from a simple start in Franschhoek kitchens, to becoming a household name. In this episode we dive into his early mentorship under Chef Christophe Dehosse, his pivotal partnership with Chef Richard Carstens, and his evolution through fine dining to casual ventures like Let’s Frite. 

Reuben's, Franschhoek

Let's Frite, Franschhoek

• 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

Hilde-Lee Olivier left cooking school and quickly climbed the ranks in local kitchens. By the time she was 26 Hilde-Lee was running the Kitchen at Terroir and went on to be head chef for George Jardine at Jardine Restaurant in Stellenbosch. After a brief stint and a huge learning curve running her own place - Toebroodjie, she pitched it all in and went sailing. We spoke about her journey and about the life she's chosen running a kitchen on a private yacht - it's quite a trip.

• 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

For some time now I've been wanting to talk to someone on the show who manages the marketing - and the profiles - of restaurants. I'm interested in how eateries, especially the top shops, market themselves. This is particularly tricky in a world where everyone seems to be a critic and even the very best operators can find themselves at the mercy of 'keyboard warriors'. While people have a legitimate right to tackle venues on poor service or experiences - balance, good judgement and manners are often left at the door in the online world we navigate. Then there are those who may never have set foot in your shop who will weigh in with their 'opinion', and hack at you about anything from pricing to menu choices, labour practices or the car you drive. It's an issue constantly on the minds of restaurateurs. Jo Smith runs Pillar9 and describes herself as a Reputation Strategist. I've chatted to a few of her clients on the show, and started nagging a while back about getting her on to talk about what she does. I learned a lot about what it takes to build and manage the reputation of a restaurant, and picked up a classic new word: 'bandwagonism'. Thanks Jo.

Pillar9 Instagram

• 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

Carlotta Sabbalini is fantastic - she's a real entrepreneur who's built a food business on the back of a lasagne recipe she learned from her grandmother, Nonna Santina. Along the way she's tried new things, added elements to the business and learned a whole lot of skills that are really vital for a small business operator. I've been wanting to talk to someone whose built a cottage industry based on family recipes and Carlotta just happened to message me and ask if she could join me on the show. That took some chutspa, and it's exactly the kind of thing you need to do as a small operator in the food space. Loved this chat and learned a lot from Carlotta despite the wonderfully rich Italian accent.

Italy At Your Door on Instagram

T-shirts and Merch by Italy at Your Door

• 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

It started with a dream and a little Piaggio three-wheeled scooter with a pizza oven in the back, but Mario Gaito has built a business that delivers delicious Napoli-style pizza to selected deli and supermarket chillers around Cape Town. It's a great story that features one of my favourite things - wood-fired pizza ovens. We could have gone on and on chatting - this was one of my favourite episodes so far. However we were recording in a very loud place and had to call it a day eventually. I really look forward to my next encounter with Mario and on of his delicious pizzas - perhaps at the OZCF Market.

Pizza Proper Instagram 

• 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

This was a conversation full of laughs with Chef Amori Burger of Upper Union restaurant. Her warm, engaging, fun personality permeates a restaurant which have quickly become an institution in Cape Town and a firm favourite among a legion of very happy customers. We sat down for a chat against the backdrop of their beautiful upstairs cocktail bar and spoke of Sunday lunches, bold flavours, the perfect bite and testing all the wines and cocktails to make sure they're up to scratch for guests. It was a hoot.
Upper Union Restaurant

• 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

Loubie Rusch knows a hell of a lot about local plants. How to grow them. What you can and can't eat. How to cook or prepare them for consumption. She also knows a lot about local food systems and how connection to the land preserves indigenous food plants and the environment at large. We got into a whole bunch of converging topics in the food security space and yet, after over an hour there was so much we left untouched. It's not the usual food fare for this show, but we started to unpack some compelling matters around access to land, farming methods, food ways and retail markets. All of it is fascinating, but just the tip of the iceberg. There's a whole avenue of the local food story that I've barely explored, but there are some pearls in here that might help take a few steps towards a better understanding of the hidden cost of Big Food.  

Local Wild Food Hub - Loubie's Books

Sustainability Institute

• 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