Durban - How do you spoil that someone special in your life on Valentine’s Day? Take them on a picnic. But then an ordinary picnic just won’t cut it - make it a gourmet one.
For acclaimed chef Jackie Cameron of the Jackie Cameron School of Food and Wine, picnics have a special romance. Her husband Ben Wessels proposed to her on “the most fabulous picnic that I have ever had in my entire life”.
The scene was her cousin’s farm in the Caversham valley overlooking the river. The picnic was created by chef Alex Poltera at Fernhill and organised by her friend, fellow chef and bridesmaid Nardia Adams.
Wessels had a hand in it. “It was jammed with all my favourite food. Words could not explain how delicious this was,” says Cameron.
First priority for a picnic is bubbles. “A picnic without bubbles just isn’t a picnic,” she says.
For Cameron, the perfect picnic is opening all these little containers packed with delicious tasty morsels. Flavour is king.
“So go small portions of home-made combinations. I’d much rather have many little tasters. Midlands cheese, local charcuterie and olives are all a given. Think a beautiful little trout salad or a potato salad with caviar and quail eggs. It’s about home-made bread, asparagus and Camembert,” she says.
“It’s not about meatballs and chicken wings and gourmet burgers,” she says. “I see that as padkos. If you’re doing it, do it properly.”
On the practical side, make sure there are enough cooler boxes to keep everything chilled.
“A picnic normally means great weather and no-one wants warm bubbles and food that has been sitting in the danger zone for a few hours. Yes, picnic baskets can be cute, but really, let us think about what is practical at midday in South Africa.”
Her picnic check-list includes a blanket, pillows, sunscreen, insect spray, hats, cutlery, crockery, glasses, a tin opener if you take tins, a bottle opener if the wines have a cork, serviettes, gel-hand sanitisers, a stunning view and special person to share it with.
The couple married last year and for their first Valentine’s together, “we will most probably be cooking a meal together and having a beautiful bottle of wine in our wine cellar at the school”.
“A private dinner for two on our first Valentine’s as a married couple sounds like the perfect plan. We have had many guests requesting functions at the school but I think, just this year, we are going to keep our special place just to ourselves,” Cameron says.
For Marcelle Roberts, who with husband Sean form the Café 99, Unity and S43 team, Durban’s Botanic Gardens would be the perfect spot for a picnic. “They are always putting on something exciting on Valentine’s Day - I think this year it is open air movies.”
They are showing the movie Titanic.
“I would love to go to that.”
For Roberts, the number one ingredient in her picnic basket is a bottle of ice cold bubbly. “With proper champagne flutes of course,” she says.
“On the food side, Sean and I are both big tapas fans, so I would keep it simple, charcuterie, pate and dips and definitely artichokes, my favourite. There would be delicious bread from the Glenwood bakery, some cheese and of course chocolate and strawberries for dessert.”
Her tips for a successful picnic? “Don’t forget your wine opener if you are taking wine with a cork. A little wooden board to lay all your food out on and don’t forget a sharp knife, just a small one.”
Trevor Clarke, owner of Le Picnique, a gourmet picnic company formed in 2015, thinks the ideal picnic spot should be romantic and away from the crowds. “A hilltop or quiet beach, picnic blanket, hurricane lamps and a basket of sumptuous food. Real food, that will take you on a journey with each mouthful,” he says.
“Picnics aren’t wraps, crisps, biltong and peanuts,” he says. “They should be exotic: pate to start with, a small appetiser, mains on a skewer, with a selection of salads. A portable tapas of tantalising treats. A decadent lemon posset to cleanse the palate, washed down with a great Cape sparkling wine.”
He might have no formal cooking training but has spent the last 30 years eating at Michelin starred restaurants around the globe. “Food is my passion, especially organic comfort food.”
Clarke’s latest creation is a vine tomato and feta tart with wilted baby spinach on caramelised onion. “It’s
rather yummy, if I may say so myself.”
For the man who met his partner while presenting his picnic company, Valentine’s Day is a working day. “But on many days a week we only have candle light at home in Kloof,” he says. For his perfect picnic it has to be a wicker picnic basket with a waterproof picnic blanket.
Le Picnique is organising Valentine’s Day deliveries to drop off points in uMhlanga and Ballito, for R650 per basket for two. “With lots of food that can be taken home afterwards,” Clarke says.
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