FOOD&WINE6THE MERCURY ON WEDNESDAY MARCH 25 2015

BESIDES being an award-winning chef, JackieCameron is also a foodwriter and KwaZulu-

Natals best-loved celebrity chef.After 14 accomplished years in thekitchen at Hartford House in theKZN Midlands, she left in July last year to follow her dream ofstarting her own cooking school.

When the Jackie CameronSchool of Food and Wine opens in Hilton on April 7, it will be aculmination of love, passion andintense hard work.

She began preparing as farback as 2010, when she achievedthe Level 3 IVQ Advanced Diplomain Teaching, Training andAssessing Learning awarded byThe City and Guilds of LondonInstitute.

There are a lot of educationalinstitutions (not only culinary)that offer average facilities,equipment, experiences andsupport to students, she says. I want everything I offer to be oftop class and educating on everylevel. I want to ensure my learnersget the best possible experience to build confidence withinthemselves to be able to take on the world within the industry.

She admits its been a lot ofwork, which took much longerthan she anticipated. She learnedshe had to rely on other people toget the job done a far cry fromjust getting on with it in thekitchen on her own.

I have learnt and grown asmuch as I could and now it isabout diving deeper into theindustry. It is no longer about me signing my name at the bottom of each plate I send out of the kitchen.

It is now about signing myname under another human beingand sending them out into the realworld. This is the perfect time forKZN, people are so excited aboutfood and wine, and are desperateto ask questions, learn and growwith their foodie knowledge.

The school seeks to attractfoodies who eat, sleep and breathefood, while understanding theextreme hours of the hospitalityindustry.

For a real chef, its not a quick fix to stardom, but quite the opposite.

She has applicants of all agesand races, with the prerequisitebeing a matric certificate, and shewill only accept eight students thisyear and 15 a year going forward.

The school will boast the onlychef course in the country to offerWSET (Wine Spirit EducationTrust), an internationallyrecognised course which is thestandard in 62 countries aroundthe world.

A French linguist will giveFrench terminology lectures and a chartered accountant will teachfood costing in alignment with the Nelson Mandela MetropolitanUniversity Business School. It willoffer everything from diplomas for youngsters wanting to workoverseas, those wanting to start up their own culinary businessesand people within the industry

wanting to increase theirknowledge.

There is no award that cancompare to the upliftment anddevelopment of another humanbeing, says Jackie.

The school will start withoffering certificates, thendiplomas and advanced diplomas.

I am running my school on the basis of what a restaurant is,she says.

This course prepares learnersfor the real world, showing themwhat being a chef is all about.

Students will have the pleasure

of seeing Jackie in action cookingrecipes from her popular book,Jackie Cameron Cooks at Home,the first print of which sold out inthree months and was the secondhighest cookbook sold in thecountry last year as voted byExclusive Books.

More recently, the book wonBest Woman Chef Book in SouthAfrica as voted by the GourmandWorld Cookbook Awards.

Im working on the secondbook, which should hit theshelves next year, say Jackie.Watch this space.

YOU say April. I hear, MYBIRTHDAY MONTH, and thatEaster shindig too, if Im pushed.

To a pseudo-Hindu child thewhole notion of Easter seemedlike a glorified excuse to eatchocolate. And who doesnt adore chocolate!

All that meant was that for mybirthday, aka Easter, the chocolateand sweet things would be ever-flowing. I am reminded of myfourth birthday. (Im an 80s childand back then it was still okay toput copious amounts of sugar intoother peoples children beforesending them home for thealmighty crash.)

My mom was the best atbirthdays and each one was reallyspecial. My fourth birthday reallystood out because she hand-craftedevery treat on the table. Delightfulclocks with Marie Biscuit facesand liquorice hands. Race carswith Boudoir biscuit chassis andjelly baby drivers.

Butterfly cupcakes with cake-topper wings and rainbowsprinkles with the lightest buttercream icing.

And the crescendo (for those ofyou who were also born in the80s), a Maya the Bee cake. I would

have been in a pre-diabetic havenif I hadnt received the best gift ofmy life that year a red BMX bike,training wheels intact for a fewyears.

To me, April always felt like mymonth. It still does, but these daysit is linked to Easter more andmore. I cannot ignore the spicy hot cross buns gazing at me fromacross the room. Their come-hither call is far too provocativeand, lets be honest here, I alwayshave some strong cheese tosandwich those fruit-infusedcheeks.

The combination of sweet,savoury and warm spice makesme happy for days six days to beexact, because no self-respectinghuman would dare consume morethan one hot cross bun a daywithout heading straight for thestationary bike my BMX

substitute. (I guess its true, wedont really ever change, we justget better at being the same.)

So back to this Easter-ness.With many people using Lent as away to give up a vice be it wine orchocolate (the most likely culpritsto both pain and/or pleasure) itbegs the question, what will yourbreakout meal/tipple be?

If I was going to put myselfthrough this forced discomfort Ithink I would break the tyrannywith a combo prize wine ANDchocolate!

Be warned, though, this is anexercise for those in the know. Thecombination is a tricky one, butIll give you the tools to reach yourEaster Samsara.

Here is the cheat sheetBitter-sweet or really dark

chocolate. Im talking about 70%.Dark chocolate lovers (who are fewand far between) should pair theirpoison with something weighty,but fruity. A merlot, cabsauvignon, shiraz or my all-timefavourite, soft red the grenache would be a treat.

Semi-sweet, 50 to 70% cocoalovers should look for Beaujolais,which is a precocious pink grapewith loads of provocation. (Be

warned, a love for the blushingvarietals can become anobsession.)

An intensely coloured Muscatwould also be a rather affable bedfellow to this kind of chocolate,with its deep, dark fruit noteseffortlessly mirroring the sweetercocoa elements.

Milk chocolate, which has moresugar than cocoa, would becomedream-worthy when paired with adirty-blonde Muscat or port. Thenutty or caramel notes in bothelements would taste orchestral onthe tongue.

And, finally, for those whitechocolate fiends (of which I amone), look to Germany for astructured Gewurtztraminer orRiesling.

The well-balanced sweet acidity will work a treat with this chocolate that has no cocoacontent, but is imbued withsweetness, milk, honey and vanillanotes. You could try somethingsparkling as well, but stick to brutvarietals with high sugar content.

So there you have it. HappyEaster to you and happy birthdayto me. Together we shall really becelebrating chocolate and wine.

Salute!

RECENTLY I read an article by a scepticalscientist who was criticising a consumeractivist who was making a case forchemical-free food. His point of contentionwas that food is made of chemicals andthat she was an airhead spouting organic woo.

I have often seen this sort of arrogantcriticism levelled at those who care about their food and its effects on theenvironment. By no means do I disapproveof criticism of those who use the organicmovement dishonestly to promote snakeoil and quackery. However, there is adefinite trend in scientific circles to see the organic movement as unscientific.

The problem is that most in the organic movement are just ordinarypeople, farmers, chefs and home-makers.They have not been trained in scientificterminology and so see things in a morecolloquial sense.

For instance, water is not seen as thechemical that it is. The scientific trolls like to mock the gullible by telling themthat what they are drinking is dihydrogenmonoxide, a dangerous chemical found inmost foods.

Of course, they are referring to water and this is used to show that all theunpronounceable chemical terms on yourfood label are no different from the naturalingredients of the food itself.

They may well be right, but why not tryto communicate better with the consumerand be open and honest about ingredients.Some people have legitimate concernsabout ingredients in their food.

When concerns are raised aboutingredients that have been linked totoxicity, the standard answer is that theyare below the safely allowable limits bywhatever standards are applicable. Theyquote Paracelsus, the dose makes thepoison.

Even water is toxic at the right dose.Without going into questions such as

what about the accumulative effects oflow dosage over time?, we need to addresswhether people want or need thesesubstances added to our food.

Food is more than just a bunch ofchemicals. The enjoyment and well beingwe derive from good food transcends itsmolecules. Why do most people find theidea of vat-grown meat repugnantcompared to grass-fed beef? Why does anorganic carrot taste better than one grownwith lots of synthetic fertiliser?

I like the German word ersatz whenused to describe food-like substances asopposed to real food. We can use syntheticor natural substances to mimic the taste ofthe real thing. Vanilla essence and smokein a bottle spring to mind.

These things are ersatz, fake or, to bekind, substitutes. They cannot compare toreal smoking or real vanilla essence.

Earlier in this article I used the wordnatural. I wonder if any scientific trollspicked up on that and accused me of usingthe naturalistic fallacy.

All things are natural, they would say, even arsenic. All chemicals arenatural.Well, Ill just give a wry smile as Ituck into a lightly seared grass-fed steakwith homegrown organic vegetables.

Bon appetit.

Celebrating chocolate and wine

MpumeMqwebu

FLAVOUR FUSION

RobSymons

THE FARM GATE

KaminiPather

KAMINI LIKE HARMONY

Chemicalsin food asemantic

twist?

Go placeswith Jackie

JAC

KIE

CA

MER

ON