ANOTHER GOURMET GEM

(Photo : Hartford House)

AMERICAN EXPRESS RESTAURANT AWARDS

It’s often been said that the great financial sage, Warren Buffet’s, winning-most investments were Coca-Cola and American Express, and American Express’ winning-most restaurants were announced at a gala function in Johannesburg on Monday night.  We’d scarcely dried the ink on Hartford House’ Diners Club Diamond Wine List Award, than we were greeted with the news that the culinary giants, Victor Strugo, Lannice Snyman and Vanessa Singh were among those that had selected Hartford’s restaurant, it’s celebrated young chef Jackie Cameron, and the talented cooking and hospitality teams behind them, among just four KZN based restaurants in the fine dining categories.

Just a fortnight ago, Shaun Munroe of Durban’s grand old dame, the Beverley Hills, joined Jackie in a chef exchange between the two gourmet gems, and it was gratifying to see the Beverley Hills and Andrew Draper among those locally based eateries, walking away with “gongs”.

Within the month we’ll know how Hartford fared as one of five finalists in House and Leisure’s national restaurant of the year, so (its….. award of the past twelve months) Hartford’s not just about being the only world class hotel on a world class stud farm.  It’s right up there with the best restaurants in the world, and if you think that’s stretching it, give it a shot.

Pamela White, Tania Maree, Vanessa Singh, Jackie Cameron, Victor Strugo
(Please click photo to enlarge…) 

Form is temporary : CLASS IS PERMANENT

Hartford House Executive Chef Jackie Cameron

There’s an old saying in the racing world that you might fluke the odd big performance, but it’s the ability to consistently achieve at the top level that’s the real mark of quality. The magnitude of Hartford House’s Top Ten Restaurant Award last Sunday evening, is only just beginning to sink in, and the extent of it is quietly coming home to us.

The reality is that none of these achievements are overnight occurrences, and they’re no different to winning Breeders’ Championships. We know what it took to put a team together capable of landing the spoils in the horse business, and the sustained record of four consecutive championships has been the product of almost 30 years of blood, sweat and tears.

In Hartford’s case, the journey started almost eight years ago, with the recruitment of a man by the name of Richard Carstens, who came to us with the option of working at Hartford or at our new venture at the time, Lynton Hall. As it turned out, despite Hartford’s own requirements, we felt that Lynton’s need was the greater because it was in its infancy, and after eight months at Hartford, Richard relocated to the coastal resort, where he took Lynton to a top ten finish in the national awards, and in the end, was elected the nation’s top chef.

As Richard was departing for Lynton Hall, we discovered a waif-like Thespian, who had already spent a year at the Mount Grace Country House & Spa, in the form of Pietermaritzburg born and raised Jackie Cameron, and she proceeded to beaver away as industriously as anyone we’ve ever come across in an already industrious team. Though wet behind the ears, Jackie quickly revealed an underlying potential that’s rare not only in people of her age, but uncommonly so in older people too. It wasn’t long before local critics nabbed onto her coattails, and began to invest in her growth. People like Mechthild Yorke-Mitchell, then restaurant critic for Wine Magazine, Anne Stevens of The Mercury, Derek Taylor of the Sunday Tribune, and latterly and very significantly, Victor Strugo of The Saturday Star, who has been a powerful personal mentor to Jackie. All of them caught onto the fire that was raging at Hartford.

Of course, there’s been many other accolades, and last year the Hartford restaurant made the Dine Top 10: Deluxe 2008 voted by Diners club international & Wine magazine, but the Prudential Eat-Out Restaurant Awards are the summit of them all, and to have achieved this is the ultimate for any young chef or restaurant anywhere.

The point of this is that under Cheryl’s tutelage, in the relatively short space of 12 years, we’ve seen the emergence of two national celebrities in the culinary game, and it’s all a result of a sustained obsession that goes beyond perfection.

There’s no team in the world that can appreciate the significance of Hartford better than that at Summerhill. We know what it takes, and we understand what it is that keeps you there. Class, class and more class, and nothing less than class.

Click here to visit the new
HARTFORD HOUSE BLOG

HARTFORD HOUSE in Rare Company

2007 was a kind year for Hartford House. There were many accolades, not the least of which was the inclusion of its restaurant among the top ten in the nation. In November, the Hartford team were notified that they had made the six finalists in the travel category of the prestigious Top Billing Momentum Lifestyle Awards. On the face of it, this was some kind of achievement, making it to the last six of the best boutique Hotels in the country, but it was only when the iconic names of places like Ellerman House and The Saxon were announced as finalists as well, that we realised that Hartford had entered a rarefied atmosphere.

Apparently, Hartford now needs to await the final word from the judges, the outcome of which is to be aired on Top Billing’s celebrated SABC3 programme on 17^th January. The judges include Thoko Modise, General Manager of SABC3, Patience Stevens, founder of the Top Billing programme, Tracey Egnos, head of Corporate Communications, Momentum, and two specialist judges in the form of John Rothman and Heinrich Spies, both of whom have served lengthy spells in hospitality and the grading of Hotels.

The categories include décor, landscaping, entrepreneurship, local travel destinations and art. To satisfy the curiosity of our readers in the meantime, we have profiled Top Billing’s formal motivating statement on Hartford House below.

“Cheryl Goss “invented” Hartford House eleven years ago. She turned a colonial mansion, which once served as home to the family of the last prime minister of the Colony of Natal, into one of the nation’s great secrets. Apart from its branded distinction –“the only world class hotel on a world class stud farm in the world,” it occupies a unique part in the geography of the land. The Drakensberg serves as a garden backdrop. It is situated on South Africa’s champion racehorse-breeding establishment; it is a half hour from the capture sites of two of the most significant statesmen of all time, Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill. What were these people doing in this vicinity for that matter? What were the British, the Zulus and the Boers fighting about in this part of the world a century ago? What attracted the Zulus here; what enticed the current rulers of Dubai to house their priceless stallions on this property, when they have the world to choose from ? And what prompted Queen Elizabeth, of all the rural properties in the country, to request a visit on her royal tour in 1995?

It’s this intrigue that makes Hartford an essential part of any foreigners visit to South Africa.

Whenever the sun rises, the Hartford team thank the good Lord for having them live where they do, among some of the most decent, most respectful and most hospitable human beings on earth. We speak of the Zulus, of course who, despite their historic connection with the military devastation of a century ago, possess an instinctive talent for making people feel at home like few others.

Of course they needed training and more training, as well as an understanding of foreigners, yet Hartford has seen people recruited from the casual ranks of it’s stable cleaners and trained to the point of representing their nation at international culinary exhibitions in Zurich and Prague. The Zulu dancing troupe was selected for South Africa at the World Traditional Dance Championships in Tokyo and Hong Kong. The troupe came third. In the world.

And the service and hospitality ethic at Hartford is in parallel. At least that’s what their guests tell us.

Cheryl Goss is a legend. Hartford didn’t say that, their visitors did, and plenty of them. She has that rare capacity to surprise, some say to ‘change lives’, and in blending the eclectic origins of Africa, Europe and colonial India, she has achieved an ecstatic combination of class, culture and colour.

Besides, in Hartford’s new lakeside eco development, Ezulwini, she has erected from materials drawn largely from the estate and the immediate environment, a compendium of suites that have wowed both the architectural and decorator communities.

At the culinary level, faith invested five years ago in a young 20 year old, has been dramatically rewarded. Jackie Cameron and her team have enjoyed the acclaim of just about every worthwhile food critic in the land. And recently, apart from the restaurant making the Top 10, it has been voted No 1 on the East Coast. Jackie has also just been counted with Margot Janse and Freda Applebaum, in the top three female chefs country wide by no less a man than Victor Strugo.

Toss in a Diners Club Platinum Wine list for several consecutive years, and you have the lot.

There’s arguably no other property quite like it. Gary Player, not long ago described it as the most beautiful of its kind in the world, and he’s seen a few. Yet Hartford is not only about its beauty. It’s about people, their decency, their sincerity and their “Africanness.” It’s also about the spectacular environment and all it embraces - its climate, its history and its diversity. Ten years ago, with their late mate David Rattray, Hartford pioneered the foundation of the Land of Legends, a cultural and culinary combination of the best properties in KZN. Today its members comprise Hartford House, the Rattray’s Fugitives’’ Drift, Phinda Game Reserve, Cleopatra, Rocktail Bay, Izulu and Three Tree Hill. Seven worlds in one. And as rare and spectacular an experience as you’ll find anywhere.”

(Excerpt from Top Billing’s motivating statement on Hartford House)

Hartford Shines Again

At a gala ceremony at Nedbank Head Offices in Johannesburg last evening, Hartford House was named, at the American Express Platinum Awards, among the top restaurants in South Africa.

Making the award on behalf of American Express, revered Food critic, Victor Strugo said “Some places achieve high standards, others achieve greatness. Then there are those that, do all of that but have the added capacity to astonish. Such a place is Hartford House in the KZN Midlands”.

It was the highest praise during an evening for glittering accolades of the nation’s finest restaurants, and is yet another feather in the cap, not only of Jackie Cameron and her team, but also for Hartford’s exceptional service and renowned ambiance.

The ability to surprise remains a key element at the only world class hotel on a world class stud farm in the world.

Follow your dreams : Age is no barrier to achieving them

One of the “drivers” of the great energy we feel in our everyday lives at Summerhill comes from the exuberance of youth, and the wisdom of experience. One thing that is very evident in our people is the discovery, sooner or later, in most of their experiences, that there is nothing in life they can’t achieve, and it’s only a case of when the realisation dawns. Just yesterday we were greeted with the incredible news that Hartford House’s head Chef, Jackie Cameron, (a Pietermaritzburg girl of only 24 years) has been selected among the top three female Chefs in South Africa. Knowing the depth of cooking talent across the length and breadth of the country and the achievements of her company, this is an astonishing landmark, even in a career that is already characterised by many glittering accolades.

Let’s not forget that Margot Janse (of Le Quartier Francaise) is among the three awardees, and has already been rated Number One chef in South Africa several times, while the other, Le Canard’s Freda Appelbaum, is one of only four women in the world to be honoured as a Disciple of Escoffier. As an illustration of the extent of the achievement, the country’s “king” of food critics, Victor Strugo, commented ….

Jackie CameronIn the quest for serenity, few places are more tranquil than the KwaZulu Natal Midlands, with its rolling hills, gentle morning mists and bright night skies. This ideal setting for regeneration and self-indulgence contains one of South Africa’s best-kept gourmet secrets. At the ripe old age of 24, Jackie Cameron has already been the executive chef of Hartford House for a good few years. Well-informed gourmets willingly drive for many hours to experience her vibrant and sensitive cuisine.

Achieving such a reputation so young is all the more astonishing when working in a remote rural area that lacks competition with peers and interaction with mentors. Certainly, Jackie has travelled overseas, and for a while she benefited from the nearby presence of South Africa’s luminous avant-gardist, Richard Carstens. But the ability to train and manage a youthful kitchen brigade, and the standard of her culinary output can only stem from a capacity for hard work and buckets of natural talent. And she copes confidently with that curious yet quaint Natal tradition whereby the chef welcomes guests with a guided introduction of the dinner menu.

Jackie’s spark was nurtured in her grandmother’s kitchen. She has a classical cooking style, invigorated by youthful imagination and an abundance of fresh regional produce. Her table d’hote menus are cleverly structured; attractively-presented courses alternate between delicate and intense flavours that delight but never overwhelm the palate. As most patrons are staying guests (Hartford has 15 exquisite suites, a wellness centre, a loch and a neighbouring stud farm), every sitting has a different menu. Jackie sees this challenge as a constant motivation to expand her repertoire and broaden her style. This young woman is one of South Africa’s brightest. Expect to hear a lot more about her.

Jackie’s award is a tribute not only to her own love affair with cooking and her obvious talent, but it also speaks volumes for the team she has recruited to assist her and for her ability to teach. Several of her Zulu staff were employed from the ranks of casual stable cleaners in the horse division, and two of them have progressed from the scullery to the point of scholarships to Zurich and Prague, as ambassadors for the culinary standards of South Africa.

None of this would have been possible without the encouragement of the many guests that have frequented Hartford House’s restaurant over the years, and in particular the critical support of people like Victor Strugo, Derek Taylor, Anne Stevens and Mechthild Yorke-Mitchell, among several others.

Jackie would be the first to acknowledge the considerable assistance she has had from her leading team members Kezia and Werner, together with those featured in the accompanying photograph.

And let’s not forget the role of the service team in any quality dining experience. We have a remarkable team at Hartford, ably led by Frank Strydom, and punctuated by a brand of hospitality that is unique to the Zulus