Wine farms a superb addition to second annual Gourmets & Gourmands festival

Gourmets & Gourmands fundraising evening for the Carpe Diem School

The second annual Gourmets & Gourmands fundraising evening for the Carpe Diem School was held on 28 August 2010, and the sell-out event saw guests once again being wined and dined by some of the Garden Route’s finest restaurants. An added attraction this year however was the pairing of each restaurant with a wine farm to take the culinary experience to another level altogether.

Garden Route & Klein Karoo restaurants

The pairing of Garden Route & Klein Karoo restaurants with specially selected wine farms was a new flavour added to the already fragrant evening. Guests were treated to an unrivalled food and wine experience where chefs and wine farms carefully selected the perfect flavour and aroma combinations to guarantee a perfect taste explosion in every bite.

Wine circles in the Southern Cape

One of the companies who managed to get 7 of their wine farms involved in this incredible evening of giving and gourmet is NLR Wines. Owner Nell-Marie le Roux is well-known in wine circles in the Southern Cape and wanted to align not only her brand, but the brands of her restaurants and wine farms to this wonderful cause. When asked about her involvement with Gourmets & Gourmands this year she quite candidly said, “I would like NLR Wines to become synonymous with the Gourmets & Gourmands brand, because we have the same goal at heart – to help a school like Carpe Diem to keep doing the amazing work they are doing and to facilitate, even if in a small way, seizing the day and helping open doors for the kids who attend the school.” NLR Wines represent 12 wine farms in South Africa and supply fine wines of distinction to the restaurant industry. The 7 participating wine farms who came to the party from the NLR Wines stall were Bon Courage (Robertson), Hermanuapietersfontein (Hermanus), Hartenberg (Stellenbosch), First Sighting (Elim), Weltevrede (Bonnievale/Robertson), Raka (Stanford), Ormonde/Ondine (Darling).

Auction steered by co-owner of the Eden School of Culinary Art, Francois Ferreira.

Making the event even more spectacular was the auction of incredible experiences, paintings and select wines graciously donated for the occasion, skilfully steered by famed foodie and co-owner of the Eden School of Culinary Art Francois Ferreira.

Carpe Diem School were able to raise an incredible amount of R60 000

Through the Gourmets & Gourmands evening, the Carpe Diem School were able to raise an incredible amount of R60 000 to further the school’s important work with the special needs learners in our area. A visibly touched headmaster, Karools Hauptfleish, thanked everyone for their part in the second staging of this glorious event and was extremely excited about the 2011 event that will coincide with the George 200 year celebrations.
So with a sweet treat in one hand and a sip of delectable dessert wine in the other, a toast is raised to another successful event and a dream is cast towards the festival of festivals in George in 2011 and yet another chapter opened for the creative culinary cast to make food and wine pairing magic.

Article compiled and supplied by Mini Finestone and Mariki Theron of House of Ngamathuba for Carpe Diem School.