Johannesburg - In a country racked by crime, unemployment, and often hopelessness, stories of triumph over adversity are heartening. It’s not often that the little guy beats the system.
For Luvo Ntezo, his path to success started in his first job at the age of 19, as a pool porter at Steenberg wine estate in Tokai.
Luvo, the son of a truck driver from the Eastern Cape and a domestic worker, had a tough start to life growing up in Khayelitsha. Having lost his mother tragically at the age of three, Luvo’s options were limited. But an enquiring mind, a gentle demeanour and a proud work ethic are always great attributes.
One day, while tending to the pool, a British family asked him to open a bottle of wine, but Luvo, who knew nothing about wine, was stumped. Having struggled to open it, he humbly admitted defeat.
He wasn’t happy to leave matters there – the following day, he approached Steenberg winemaker John Loubser and asked him to teach him about wine. Loubser, a Cape Winemakers Guild member, happily obliged.
Four years later, in 2003, Ntezo landed a job as a wine steward at the Twelve Apostles’s Leopard Lounge. At the tail end of a function in the bar soon after starting there, a winemaker offered him a taste of a wine that others had raved about.
“They were all admiring the wine – when they asked me what I thought and I said it was horrible, the wine was corked.”
He was right. Impressed, Clive Bennett, then the general manager of the hotel, offered to send Luvo for training to become a sommelier for the hotel.
Cape Wine Academy courses ensued and in 2008, he competed in the Young Sommelier’s category in the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs competition in South Africa – which he won. In August that year, he competed in the global competition in Vienna and was placed fourth in the world.
Luvo, head sommelier at the lavish One&Only Cape Town in Cape Town since 2010, explains at dinner in Reuben’s restaurant (which replaced Gordon Ramsay’s Maze), that much as he loves wine, he’s not had a drop of alcohol since last year, before his wedding.
It was a promise to his future wife that his job would entail sniffing and spitting, rather than drinking.
It couldn’t have been an easy vow to make, with a wine list comprising over 500 wines spread over three levels, rated as one of the best collections in Africa, and so many tastings and dinners held daily, but Luvo believes: “It gives me greater clarity of mind.”
As the hotel’s head sommelier, Luvo is in charge of the wine lists for Nobu, the premier Japanese restaurant, the Vista Bar & Lounge, and Reuben’s.
“Our hotel’s wine list is massive and features both Old and New World wines as well as many vertical vintages,” says Luvo.
“It’s my job to introduce our guests to new tastes and to help them celebrate their favourites. If we can show them something new to enjoy along the way, we’ve done a good job.”
Luvo works closely with his One&Only Cape Town sommelier team, helping them hone their skills.
His current protégé is Mercy Mwai, Nobu’s wine steward who is also studying front-of-house management. Last month, Mercy won in the Up & Coming Wine Steward category at the Cape Legends Inter Hotel Challenge.
To make wine accessible to diners, the hotel has introduced monthly Reuben Invites evenings with Reuben Riffel featuring a guest chef. MCed by Aubrey Ngcungama, the charismatic Come Dine With Me SA contestant with a penchant for wine, chilling and luxury, the evenings are no doubt heaps of fun.
Next up is Bertus Basson of Overture outside Stellenbosch, on September 10. (R345 a head, for a four-course menu)
Their Guest Speaker series, which runs until October, features wildlife experts, the first documented dog to climb Everest, an award-winning African history author and an international Big Wave surfer. Price is R275 a person, with a buffet dinner.
At Reuben’s, bistro fare is served with a South African focus. Diners are treated to a breakfast buffet almost on a par with the Palace of the Lost City of old: home-baked pastries (not of the cook-from-frozen variety) and breads; an impressive selection of hot and cold dishes, Cap Classique and fine tea. There’s a Sunday buffet too for R225.
À la carte options are sumptuous. Think starters of Norwegian salmon gravadlax, Sichuan chilli winglets with pickled cucumber, radish and carrots, a yuzu dressing and sesame oil; rock lobster and asparagus tempura; or chilli salted squid with compressed cucumber, herbs, a Vietnamese dipping sauce and lime mayo. If you’re up for the seven-course tasting menu, you would have earned that complimentary Reuben’s chef’s hat or apron.
Salads, pasta, seafood and wood-fired pizzas are available, but the meat dishes impressed us. Do try the Chalmar rib-eye (reared right here, east of earthquake-rattled Joburg) with buttered potato purée, braised pearl onions, a vegetable medley and red wine jus; a beef burger; or a pan-roasted springbok loin with potato rosti, braised cabbage, confit garlic, port mushrooms, caramelised cauliflower purée and thyme jus.
Their sides trump the standard steakhouse fare, with Parmesan fries, truffled mashed potato, green beans, toasted almonds and citrus and more.
For pudding, I recommend the gingerbread malva, a spicy malva pud with coconut pulp ice cream, pineapple semi preserve and coconut crumb; and the chocolate fondant made with 70 percent Ecuador chocolate fondant, salted caramel ice cream cocoa nib tuille, caramel liquid and cocoa custard.
If there are criticisms, it’s that the menu is too sweeping and some of the dishes overly fussy.
Nobu
Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa’s eponymous empire of restaurants, said to be the world’s most recognisable Japanese restaurant and voted the “world’s most sexy restaurant chain” by The Observer, spans Los Angeles, Cape Town, Mexico, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, London, and Bodrum, Turkey.
Despite the age of the hotel – now five years old – the modernistic restaurant looks as good as it did when we first visited, soon after opening. It’s a chic setting for a posh dinner, with booth seats, orchids and Japanese design.
Diners are treated to fresh seafood as well as sushi, sashimi and other menus. In its upper level, the Nobu Lounge stocks sakes including plum wines, Japanese beer and sake and shochu-based cocktails.
Their Ceviche Bar prepares small-plate Japanese-inspired Peruvian tapas dishes, set dinners, tempura and wood-oven dishes.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that Japanese food equates light fare as Nobu’s portions are not shy and the food can be jolly rich, but subtlety, precision and texture are the hallmarks of each magnificent plating.
Fresh from week in the winelands, we had the “Nobu Lite” pescatarian winter menu, with salmon and tuna tacos, miso chips, tuna tataki, tuna tempura roll, prawn tempura and salmon Anticucho skewers. It was hardly light, especially accompanied by Mercy’s skillful wine pairings.
Nobu’s service is world-class and while not inexpensive, their sushi is the best in the country. Hands down.
One&Only Cape Town Spa
Set on an island in the canal, the spa is a world away from the vibey hotel where you can be pampered all day with indulgent treatments.
Spa facilities include thermal baths, power showers and saunas.
Winner of the 2014 World Spa & Wellness Award for the Hotel Spa of the Year in Africa, their Bastien Gonzalez manicures and pedicures – said to be the world’s most sought-after pedicurist who gives the “Rolls Royce of pedicures” – are world-renowned.
KidsOnly
It’s said you judge people by the way they treat their elderly, their young and animals, an adage which is taken to heart at the One&Only Cape Town. Children are invited to join in the fun at their own club, the KidsOnly, which offers supervised – and engaging – services for guests aged from 3 to 11. There are PlayStation games, books, a jungle gym and movies (with special cinema chairs for the pampered tykes); sandart, mosaic and colouring in activities. Hotel guests are also able to utilise the in-room childcare facilities.
* The One&Only Cape Town is offering a special of R2 999 until September 25 and then from R3 464 until December 19. Includes breakfast, and access to the Fitness Centre, Thermal Spa, and KidsOnly Club.
* Georgina Crouth was a guest of the One&Only Cape Town
* V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
Tel: 021 431 5888
Saturday Star