Cape Town’s Chefs Warehouse & Cookery School – Legendary

To date I’ve had two encounters with this most distinguished of institutions. And two things I have deduced thus far: One. There will be more visits from me. Two. It is only a matter of time before Liam Tomlin’s love child becomes an undisputed pillar of gastronomy in The Mother City.

Chefs Warehouse & Cookery School is the natural extension of Liam’s enthusiasm towards fine cuisine. He has always been passionate about the need to train young chefs to the highest standards of either basic cooking or teaching them the skills they require to work in the finest dining rooms in the world.

So how does this change your life? Well it affects every possible facet of your existence of course. I mean, you eat at least 3 meals a day don’t you? And if you’re reading this there’s a high chance that you don’t just mindlessly consume those three meals, but rather feed as much on the pre and post meditation of them as the actual food itself no?

Food is three dimensional you see, it has character and attitude, each dish exudes its own disposition. And good, honest, wholesome food in our lives that are choking on the spoils of instant gratification is hard to come by these days. Like a true friend. So when you find one, you hang on tight.

And to me this is what Liam’s Chefs Warehouse and Cookery School is all about – making better friends with food. Understanding, creating, learning, teaching, connecting. If you can’t tell, I think this place is rather special.

And it’s not just because at The Chef’s Warehouse you can buy any manner of Le Creuset pots, about 10 different types of knives and all the cooking paraphernalia you could wish to wield in a lifetime, but because Liam is at the helm, and he presides over each and every aspect of it like a proud father, and rightly so.

The Cookery School is Liam’s platform for imparting a lifetime of valuable knowledge to all who care to listen. And all are welcome. That’s another thing I like – it’s totally un-snobbish and non-exclusive.

We first went on the 15th June for an evening with Luke Dale Roberts,  This was part of their cooking demonstrations series. The demo classes are laid back and intimate, accommodating a maximum of 24 people each time, so this really gives everyone the chance to interact and get stuck in.

At time of writing, Luke is the executive chef of what is arguably Cape Town’s culinary crown jewel La Colombe. Dashing and debonair he is the quintessential self-deprecating gentleman. Nothing pretentious about him. He just loves exploring food and creating unique and innovative ways to share it with people. And he chops bloomin’ fast. (That’s the pleb in me coming to the party as you can tell). You can read the more eloquent bio here.

We got comprehensive course notes on Luke’s entire demonstration to take home… what he produced was about 7 versions of exquisiteness on a plate. And whilst I am sure that it might be a few eons before I am brave enough to try most of them, they are there to aspire to, to fawn over and to dwell on. Fab.

My second visit on 1st July had me all a-jitter with excitement as it heralded my first encounter with The Cape Town Food & Wine Bloggers Club (No where near as nerdy as it sounds). Being a newbie blogger I am hungry (I know) to learn all I can about this otherworldly haven where so many people around the globe spend so much of their time comfortably curled up writing, talking, thinking about food.

Pete Goffe-Wood of Hout Bay’s fantastic new Wild Woods Restaurant and Kitchen Cowboys Blog, and Pieter Ferreira of Graham Beck and Bubbles on Wine Blog dazzled us with how personable, knowledgeable and passionate they both were.

The Bloggers Club is the brainchild of Chris von Ulmenstein of the renowned Whale Tales blog and is really a decidedly organised and very cool soapbox for food and wine lovers and bloggers new and old to get down and detailed about all things food and wine. AND, they serve food, paired with wine, and a food speaker, paired with a wine speaker. Pure genius I tell you. Anyone welcome, though there are limited seats available. Hopefully see you there sometime. Read more here.

Ok I am certain that if there’s one thing we can agree on thus far it’s that I have banged on for quite long enough now. Just go and book your seats and see for yourself.

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