IT'S A CHEF'S LIFE WITH JACKIE CAMERON

Jackie Cameron reveals her Carpe Funghi Signature Pizza
(Photo: Durban News)

Col'Cacchio Celebrity Chef Series
The Mercury - Food and Wine

Jackie Cameron, pictured above, head chef at Hartford House in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, has designed a signature pizza as part of the Col'Cacchio Celebrity Chef Series 2012. It's on the menu at Col'Cacchio until the end of May and proceeds go to the Children's Hospital Trust.

Biggest achievement:
Well, this is difficult, as I have so many different foodie fields that make up my complete obsession for all things food. I would probably say being the head chef at Hartford at the age of 20, as this has allowed me to grow and strive for everything else that I have accomplished over the past nine years.

Biggest mistake:
Many years back I judged, after making this chocolate mousse cake, the recipe for which I still use today, incorrectly what was and wasn't humanly possible and let us just say the wedding cake was a complete disaster... literally a flop! This still haunts me and since then I have become even more pedantic on the finer details than ever before.

Never:
Ever garnish with curly parsley, or garnish the side rims of your plates with chopped, mixed herbs or some sort of masala. A no no!

Always:
Be on time, be honest, be true to what you are cooking.

I love cooking with:
This depends on my mood... loads of fresh herbs, tomatoes and cheese. And give me fresh fish over anything, any day!

Best advice:
Never trust a skinny chef... jokes, keep things simple, always highlighting the main ingredient. Never overcomplicate.

Favourite restaurants:
I have so many for different reasons. Locally probably Le Quatier Francais as I am amazed by Margot and her team. They strive for perfection in every sense. Internationally, I was blown away by El Bulli and their unbelievable, detailed service - they researched every guest who entered their restaurant - mind blowing! Obviously together with Ferran Adria's amazing food combinations.

Favourite tipple:
Bubbles through and through! Love the texture on my tongue and the flavour in my mouth.

My favourite comfort food is:
A big bowl of homemade soup with lots of homemade white bread and lashings of butter. Takes me back to winter school holidays when I use to spend most of my holidays at my grandparents' house. Memories of warmth and full days of cooking, where my obsession for food was rooted.

My dream meal - what, where and with whom:
My dream meal would be not eating and enjoying, but cooking for Oprah Winfrey, Nelson Mandela and Georges Auguste Escoffier... Thomas Kellar, Ferran Adria - and why not include Brad Pitt and George Clooney, together with friends and family I can continue with my list...

Where:
On Summerhill Stud Farm in the Midlands on a beautiful summer's afternoon in one of the paddocks, surrounded by all the nation's best horses. Sitting on hay bales and serving the finest local produce in a relaxed environment, lots of bubbles and an aflernoon-evening filled with extremely interesting conversation.

If I wasn't a chef, I would love to be:
For a few months I tossed with the idea of being a pilot. l am clearly a sucker for punishment - both having crazy work hours. But, to be honest, I wouldn't change the industry I am in for any other.

Extract from The Mercury - Food and Wine

AFRICAN ELEGANCE AND SUPERB HAUTE CUISINE

View from Hartford's Ezulweni Suites
(Photo: Sally Chance)

"A VISIT TO HARTFORD HOUSE"
By Michael Green

Not the way you would want to dine every day, but as an occasional treat, oh yes! (Review by Michael Green - former Independent Newspapers Editor)

About half a century ago, when I was a young journalist in London, I lived for a time at Miss Moor's Private Hotel in Craven Hill, Bayswater. I wasn't there for long; it was fairly expensive and I soon moved to more modest quarters.

Miss Moor was rather a grand lady. She sent for me on my first day at her hotel, checked on my appearance and manners, and offered me a sherry as an introduction to London. I later discovered that she was a daughter of the last prime minister of Natal, Sir Frederick Moor (1853-1927), who held office before the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910.

Sometimes a wheel turns full circle, albeit very slowly. Recently I visited for the first time Hartford House, the celebrated boutique hotel and restaurant near Mooi River, 160 kilometres from Durban. It was once the country home of Sir Frederick Moor (and, presumably, of Miss Moore of the private hotel, one of his seven children).

This gem of the Natal Midlands was built on land granted by Queen Victoria to Frederick Moor's family in the late 19th century. Today it is part of a large estate embracing Summerhill, the racing stud where many of South Africa's champion racehorses have been born.

Hartford House itself has been splendidly preserved and modernised where necessary. It is a stately story late Victorian building with heavy sash windows, big rooms, high ceilings, brass fittings, teak and mahogany cupboards.

In terms of accommodation Hartford has 15 suites, but most of these are in additional more recent buildings standing amid the garden's immaculate lawns. My wife and I spent the night in the main building, in the Ellis suite, named after a famous racing family who owned the property from 1939 to 1990, when they sold it to the present owners, Mick and Cheryl Goss.

The furnishings were intriguing. The suite had a very big bathroom with an old-fashioned bath standing on its four feet more or less in the middle. In a corner, however, was a modern shower. The brass taps at the two hand-basins looked as if they had been installed by Sir Frederick himself, but there was plenty of hot water. In the bedroom was a fireplace and the widest double bed I have ever seen, one that would fit those old hill-billy stories: "When pa says turn, we all turn".

Victorian space and elegance, but with electric wall heating panels and a television set and a refrigerator and a well-stocked bar.

It is, however, largely the restaurant that attracts visitors from all over the country, especially at weekends, when Hartford's 30 beds are all taken. Meals are served in the house's capacious old dining room or on its wide verandah.

We dined in the dining room and it was a two-hour, five-course event. Hartford's chef is Jackie Cameron, a very good-looking, trim blonde who is still in her twenties. She was a student of Christina Martin, who died recently, and she has been at Hartford for nine years, in which time she has earned great praise from critics who know much more about food than I do. She appeared at the start of the dinner to explain what we were having, and she later returned to chat to the customers.

It is a set five-course menu for dinner, and this is what we had: roasted tomato soup with coconut sorbet; duo of trout with avocado, deep-fried seaweed, caviar, lavender flowers and frozen apple; shiitake crusted beef fillet with caramelised red onions, pommes amandines and exotic mushrooms: Midlands cheeses; tart marshmallows. Pommes amandines are potato croquettes with an almond flavouring.

It sounds a vast meal, but helpings are nouvelle cuisine; you have room for all of them in the end. It is all delicious, and quite adventurous for a conservative diner like myself. I mean, when did you last eat seaweed, or have coconut with your tomato soup? If you tell them about special dietary requirements they adjust to the situation.

Needless to say, all this is not cheap; Hartford House is not economy class. The dinner costs R370 a head. Breakfast the next day is wonderfully varied and elaborate but this is included in the hotel's B&B rate, which ranges from R550 to R2,030 per person per day.

The dinner wine list is appropriately upmarket, with imposing items at imposing prices. Wines by the glass are R40 to R65 for reds and R30 to R55 for whites. Here are some of the prices for white wine by the bottle: sauvignon blanc R160 to R320 (the latter being Shannon 2007, from Elgin); chardonnay R160 to R390 (Springfield Methode Ancienne, from Robertson).

And for reds by the bottle: cabernet sauvignon R210 to R550 (Kanonkop 2008, from Stellenbosch); shiraz R180 to R290 (Hartenberg, from Stellenbosch); merlot (R190) to R430 (Veenwouden 2007, from Paarl). I ordered a bottle of De Grendel shiraz for R180 and we were very happy with it.

Almost all the wines on the Hartford list are rated four or five stars in the Platter wine guide. Four stars means "excellent", five stars "superlative, a classic". The wine glasses were beautiful, long-stemmed, wafer-thin, and the service was first-rate.

There is plenty to do at Hartford apart from eating and drinking. By arrangement you can visit the Summerhill Stud, which includes the stallions of the Rulers of Dubai. You can ride horses yourself (but not the stallions). The estate has splendid gardens, a swimming pool, tennis courts, conference facilities and a chapel. Other attractions within reasonable distance include fishing; a game conservancy; a "wellness centre" offering body treatments, facials and a sauna; tours of Drakensberg sites such as Giant's Castle and Kamberg; hot air ballooning; helicopter flights; Zulu dancing. Many of these activities are of course by arrangement.

I would guess, however, that the biggest attraction is that elegant old dining room and its superb haut cuisine. Not the way you would want to dine every day, but as an occasional treat, oh yes!

Extract from Artsmart - Art News from KwaZulu-Natal

TOP OF THE TABLE

Jackie Cameron, Zandile Mchunu, Deli Nene, Zinthle Majola and the Hartford House Kitchen Team
(Photo : Cooked in Africa)

"At Hartford, the kitchen team has already
created their own history."

The spirit of cuisine doesn't emerge out of nowhere. It is formed and defined with time and especially by the people who pass through its kitchen. At Hartford House, it is the life's work so far of a Pietermaritzburg girl, Jackie Cameron, who is at the foundation of its legacy. She has taken the spirit of Hartford's cuisine, combined it with her approach to life, personalised it and created a character of its own. What makes up that spirit? Ethics, passion, creativity, freedom, and the willingness to take risks.

At Hartford, the kitchen team has already created their own history. They've placed the environs of Mooi River and the broader church of Zululand on the international map of gastronomy. Today they are at the apex of the local culinary world. "Foodies" often talk about the best chef in the world, when in reality, cuisine, unlike other activities, cannot be measured, quantified or calculated. There is no such thing as the best chef. But there's something of greater importance: the chef, and the team, which is the most influential, the one which establishes a new dynamic for the future. The Hartford kitchen already occupies one of these summits. They're already influencing chefs around the country, not just with their cooking, but with their philosophy. That is why Hartford's influence will endure.

For more information please visit :
www.hartford.co.za

UMTHOMBO : JOIN ANDREW DRAPER AND JACKIE CAMERON

Umthombo

The Umthombo event, to be hosted at Remos in Mt Edgecombe, will take place on the 9th of May, with Jackie Cameron from Hartford House and Andrew Draper of Harvey's Restaurant co-planning the menu.

For more information please visit :

food4thoughtkzn.co.za

GOURMET KZN MIDLANDS GETAWAYS

Out and about on the Summerhill Estate...
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

Extract from About Time - 1time Airlines
by Nicky Furniss

Step aside, Franschhoek and Cape Town, the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands may be on its way to becoming South Africa's next great foodie destination. This is thanks to the exceptional culinary skills of the number of world class chefs who have decided to call this part of the world home. Add to that some of the most beautiful scenery in the country, and a trip to the Midlands is guaranteed to be simply delicious.

There is something comforting about waking up to the sound of whinnying horses and the smell of freshly mown grass. Perhaps because it conjures up childhood memories of days spent playing outside, and the excitement of farm visits.

But Summerhill Estate is anything but a normal farm. In fact, it is one of the country's leading stud farms, and the horses here are world class thoroughbreds more accustomed to the speed of the race track than the amble of a farm road walk. So renowned is Summerhill that the ruling family of Dubai have chosen to stable their priceless race horses here.

This certainly adds an aura of mystique to a stay at Hartford House, mixed with the kind of warm, unpretentious hospitality that the Midlands has become known for. Hartford House itself has played host to friends and acquaintances since it was first built as a family home in 1875. Nowadays guests are still welcomed as part of the family, although the accommodation options have expanded somewhat over the intervening decades.

Visitors now have a choice of colonial style rooms that take their cue from the architecture of the manor house itself, or for something completely different, they can elect to stay in one of the four Ezulweni ("in the heavens") rooms. These were built by local artisans using materials harvested from the estate or acquired nearby. Each has its own distinct flavour, but what is common to all four is their superb workmanship, as well as the breathtaking view of the adjacent trout lake and the rolling paddocks beyond it.

Visitors who can bear to leave the comfort of their rooms have much to keep them busy, from history and stud farm tours to walks and wellness treatments. But without a doubt, one of the main activities at Hartford - and one which deserves a fair amount of time and attention - is simply savouring its superb culinary offerings.

Executive Chef Jackie Cameron has spent the past nine years honing her craft and Hartford's culinary reputation to such an extent that the restaurant here has gone from a virtual unknown to being listed as one of the top ten restaurants in KwaZulu-Natal, and then to being a regular finalist in national restaurant awards. Sitting down to one of Jackie's cleverly conceived and perfectly executed five course set dinners, it is not hard to see why.

During her time at Hartford, Jackie has travelled overseas no less than 16 times, mostly to experience the cooking of other world class chefs, and these international influences are evident in everything that her stellar team produce. A recent trip to Denmark influenced much of the meal we experienced and in particular, our caramelised onion soup was a complete sensory experience - particularly as we had the pleasure of pouring our own portions, so that as well as the textures and flavours of the dish, we could also fully enjoy its amazing aromas.

Breakfast is a slightly more relaxed affair, but no less tantalising, and it serves as a wonderful showcase of some of the best of what the Midlands has to offer, from delicious local cheeses to locally caught trout, and homemade jams and preserves.

Under Jackie's expert eye, Hartford House has become one of the country's top food destinations. But unlike many of its contemporaries, it comes complete with so much more - a wonderful setting, unique accommodation options, a friendly welcome and that ever present sound of the clip-clopping hooves of magnificent horses.