There is no better time like the present for home cooks to start looking beyond the shelves of the supermarkets for quality local produce.
While big restaurants may be limited by the need for consistency and a certain volume, S.Pellegrino Young Chef finalists Paul Thinus Prinsloo and Callan Austin reveal that home cooks can seek out one-off artisanal food from micro-producers – a small batch of cheese, foraged mushrooms, or heirloom fruits and vegetables that have a very short season or don’t travel well.
The first place to look for this produce, the chefs say, is a good farmers’ market such as Fourways Farmers Market, which recently relocated to Modderfontein Reserve, the Oranjezicht City Farm Market in Granger Bay, Cape Town, or Durban’s Shongweni Farmers Market. They say these are places where you can see what’s in season at a glance.
Austin advises that familiarising yourself with what’s in season is at the root of sourcing local, while Prinsloo recommends the same.
“Farmers’ markets are great. Buying directly from the producer, you know you’re getting a true product and you can actually talk to the producer about how their vegetables are grown or their meat is raised,” he says.
Another option that also supports local farmers is to find a butcher that takes traceable and ethical meat production seriously.
“Braeside Butchery in Johannesburg and Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants in Cape Town are two examples – they encourage customers to ask questions, learn about different cuts, ask for cooking advice, and taste the difference,” he says.
The chefs also mention that one bonus for home cooks that has grown out of lockdown is the number of specialist suppliers who previously only sold to restaurants. In order to survive and help their small-scale producers survive the long closure of restaurants this year, several have adapted their systems to deliver small orders to private homes.
“Wild Peacock, known by Western Cape top restaurants for supplying excellent quality meats, artisanal cheeses, and many more categories of specialist ingredients, now has an online store and delivers within the Western Cape. And Abalobi, an innovative ‘hook to cook’ initiative that supports small-scale fishers in Western Cape communities by connecting them to sell their catch directly to restaurants, introduced a no-contact delivery service to private homes. Sourcing local sustainable ingredients is getting easier than ever and the rewards are in the eating – more flavour, more variety, and the satisfaction of supporting a small local business and contributing to the community,” they say.
If you are in Durban, you can also check out Hope meat Supplies who offer a range of speciality products such as clove and coriander boerewors, gourmet rump patties, pork sausage and Moroccan lamb sausage which are gluten-free with no added MSG or preservatives. A few of their value-added products include rack of lamb, deboned lamb shoulder and lamb pinwheels. They do not inject their meat with tenderiser but age it naturally to make it tender and bring out the best flavour. This also guarantees you a healthier end product with less shrinkage. There is also the Karoo Kitchen in the heart of Durban North that focuses on a wide variety of game and artisanal products including Klein Karoo ostrich, rabbit, guinea fowl, duck, quail, crocodile and sausages.