Estate Living Digital Publication Issue 1 January 2015 | Page 10

Outlandish KITCHEN CAPE TOWN E mbracing the simpler things in life, Cape Town-based Outlandish Kitchen aims to provide an educationcentred dinner party. Set up by Zimbabwean-born chef and food stylist, Jules Mercer in 2012, , this is a uniquely down to earth dinner club that is quite literally on the Earth. “I had set up something similar to Outlandish Kitchens in Zimbabwe, but, after moving to Cape Town, I quickly realised that people here had very little consumer knowledge of where their food came from,” says Jules. People often say they only buy free range chickens, for example, but rarely do they know what this process entails. Outlandish Kitchens aims to help inform and educate consumers, as well as increase the accessibility of local producers to their market. Jules and her talented team of chefs also give the diners an opportunity to taste something unusual. At their pork-inspired dinner for example, , diners feasted on a dinner of pig tails and pigs ears, amongst other foods. 8 Each dinner has an underlying theme, but the menu is only ever revealed on the day of the dinner so no one , knows what to expect – sometimes even Jules is left in the dark. “There is always plenty of great South African wine and ingredients are so local and natural that they can sometimes be found right under diners’ feet!” explains Jules. Energy dinner clubs, held on a biodynamic farm on dates according to the lunar calendar have proven , extremely popular and Jules has also done a book-inspired dinner last year where diners reviewed cook books while feasting. Other events have included ‘the feeshy’ dinner held in Kalk Bay last year , educating diners on the sustainable and delicious fish available in the Saffa seas, which included muscles and oysters on the menu. Almost all locations are held in the great outdoors, and, given the nature of the dinner clubs, farms, barns and wine cellars are the most popular venues. A diary of dinner events is uploaded to the website and Facebook page, but diners can also request to be added to the growing mailing list. Any one dinner can accommodate between 40 – 100 attendees depending on location and ticket prices range from R350 – R575 per person. Contact details Name: Jules Mercer Mobile: [phone] Email: [email protected] www.outlandishkitchen.com Social media www.facebook.com/pages/ Outlandish-Kitchen Twitter: https://twitter .com/outlandishjules