The Vineyard Hotel and Spa is heralding the arrival of the colder months with a series of themed menus at its in-house restaurant, The Square.
Matt Deitchman, food and beverage manager of the Vineyard Hotel & Spa, has built on the success of previous years to create an alluring mix of local and internationally-themed dinners that will appeal to any lover of fine food. “We’ve taken into account all the feedback from previous year’s menus and incorporated it into this year’s calendar, with a few exciting additions and surprises. Themed dishes will be introduced monthly to the a la carte menu, and guests can choose according to their preference. Daily specials will also be added to the menu, offering more variety to our regular diners.”
The Tastes of 2012 menu kicked off in April with the Wine Partners’ Favourites. Deitchman explains: “To celebrate the launch of our 2012 wine pairing events calendar, we asked our five wine partners – Waterford, Meerlust, Simonsig, Warwick and Klein Constantia – to give us their favourite dishes. Christopher Law, our newly recruited and experienced Sous Chef who has spent the past two years at the esteemed Delaire Graff Restaurant, then selected one dish from each farm, which was paired with a specific wine from that estate.
“During the month of May, we’ll welcome winter with a selection of hearty slow-cooked dishes - perfect comfort food. Typical dishes will include braised short rib of beef and crackling crusted slow-cooked pork belly.”
This year is both the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee as well as the 2012 London Olympic Games. “We’re celebrating these two momentous occasions in June with a traditional ‘Rule Britannia’ menu. In July, we’re showcasing Classic French dishes to coincide with Bastille Day, while we have a surprise planned for August and September.”
August is traditionally trainee month at The Vineyard Hotel, so Deitchman and his team have come up with a novel way of testing the skills of the trainee chefs. “We are going to task our trainees with developing their own culinary treats, and our senior chefs will then choose the best of these dishes to go onto the menu. It’s almost a kind of Vineyard-style mini cook-off!”
The final themed menu has a unique twist. “September is all about our guests. They will be invited to submit their favourite dishes, and our chefs will select the best of these to go onto the menu for the September gourmet dinners. Guests who submit dishes that are chosen by our chefs will also win a prize.”
The recipes for each of the themed menus will be posted to the Vineyard website and Facebook page to give guests a chance to try to create the dishes at home. “We also encourage guests to send us their feedback and pictures of the final result, which we’ll post to our online platforms,” explains Deitchman.
“It’s no secret that winter months are slow months in the hospitality industry. As such, many restaurants offer ‘winter warmer’ specials, and do so with great success. But it’s necessary to be a step ahead of the competition, so we’ve tried to be a little more creative and innovative with Tastes of 2012.”
For more information or to make a reservation, please contact 021 657 4500 or e-mail [email protected]. Alternatively please visit the website at www.vineyard.co.za or follow us on Twitter @Vineyard_Hotel