TGIFood

Prince William’s bokkoms flew, but air fryers led the way

The rather beautiful wood and metal interior of La Fermier, with Belonna Moti on the right. (Photo: Marie-Lais Emond)

20 Dec 2024

The top three stories in the TGIFood year were all to do with air fryers. But these machines did not swamp the top 10 — all seven of the remaining stories dealt with anything from what Prince William ate while in Cape Town to Lindt’s Little Chocolate Lies.

At the end of the sixth year of TGIFood, air fryer stories and recipes predominate. But there’s huge diversity nonetheless. There’s a farm restaurant in Pretoria and a swish Waterfront eatery in Cape Town. There’s Anna Trapido’s delicious story about Soweto’s Texas BBQ. And there’s my own story about what I decided was the best lamb chop in all the land, in Calvinia.

There are two appearances by Wolfgat (Paternoster) chef Kobus van der Merwe — in his story from January about the Eat Out awards, which led to the overhauling of how these awards are judged and presented, to something completely different when, only weeks ago, he trekked to Kalk Bay to serve the prince bokkom butter and yellowtail sosaties. The stuff of West Coast dreams.

But first, those top three air fryer stories. Here are the Top 10 food stories of 2024, in order of the numbers of reads each story had.

Kitchen Inferno — burn baby burn, demon air fryer!

An image generated by a request to Meta AI for an illustration of ‘a non brand air fryer on fire’.

No, it’s not likely to catch fire and burn your house down. We waded through the hysteria to find the facts. Which is not to say you shouldn’t know what the rules of air fryer safety are and pay attention to them. The story was wildly popular, with in excess of 90,000 reads. Read it here.

Your Toaster is Toast: The air fryer is coming for your kitchen appliances

The second best-read air fryer story of the year — in fact the best-read of all of our food stories in 2024 — presupposes that the air fryer in your kitchen will ultimately put paid to other appliances in your cooking domain. The story garnered more than 85,000 reads.

10 things I’ve learnt about using an air fryer

I reached a number of conclusions when I put my thinking cap on and considered all the things I’d learnt since starting to write about air fryers a year and a half earlier. Not least, that an air fryer is not an air fryer at all. The term is the invention of marketers. That, and much more, here. The story achieved more than 81,000 reads.

Little Chocolate Lies — how Lindt undermined its own claims of excellence

Lindt chocolate (Original image by Moses Rukshan on Unsplash)

We all know that marketers have to do their job, and that selling is the ultimate aim of what they do. But we don’t like to be lied to. Our story unpacks the bizarre matter of the claims of chocolate excellence that were denied by the brand’s own lawyers. More than 74,000 people read the story.

Wolfgat chef serves yellowtail sosaties and bokkoms to Prince William in Kalk Bay

Chef Kobus van der Merwe of Wolfgat serves Prince William’s table, alongside Dr Serge Raemaekers of ABALOBI, in the white shirt. Left, Heidi Klum, seated next to the prince. Opposite, US rapper Tobe Nwigwe and entertainer Billy Porter, obscured. (Photo: Melissa Raemaekers/ ABALOBI)

Food and royalty. This story could only fly high. Making a good story even better was the photograph shared with us by Melissa Raemaekers of Abalobi. Never has Prince William looked happier or more at ease. Eating our food, our way. That’s what it’s about.

At Soweto’s smoking sensation, practice makes perfect Texas BBQ

Texas BBQ Centre: Sihle Nkomo, younger brother of chef Mpho Nkomo, serving customers at Something Smoked Roadhouse in Chiawelo, Soweto. (Photo: Mpho Nkomo). Left, one of the smokers Mphbo built. (Photo: Anna Trapido) Right: Smoked Texas barbeque platter for one. (Photo: Mpho Nkomo)

Anna Trapido penned this warm, very real story about how Mpho Nkomo’s township Texas barbeque joint became Gauteng’s coolest hotspot. More than 72,000 of you devoured the story, and the queues in Chris Hani Street, Chiawelo, grew even longer.

Wolfgat chef-owner: Local restaurant awards short on transparency, trust

GrandWest, November 2023: The room is ready for hours of celebrations and the announcement of the winners of the 2023 Eat Out Awards. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

This was how I started my year, carefully walking through the story that chef Kobus van der Merwe wanted to write. But he didn’t only want to have his say, in his own voice — he wanted to be as fair as possible, and respectful to the organisers of the Eat Out awards and the judges, while not holding back in stating his case. He succeeded magnificently. The story was massively well read and shared, shared, and shared again.

The night I discovered the most perfect lamb chop in the land

Master of the lamb chop: Chef Herman Fick with that day’s skaapstertjies (lambs’ tails) and his perfect lamb chops (left), at Die Blou Nartjie restaurant in Calvinia, Northern Cape. 15 April 2024. (Photos: Tony Jackman)

You’ll have to go to Calvinia in the Northern Cape to find these superb lamb chops. And when I popped in later in the year, chef Herman Fick told me that people still arrived almost every day asking for their now famous lamb chops. But, if you go, order a starter of skaapstertjies before those chops. They’re divine too.

Shy ingredients shine at the Cape’s new restaurant to beat

The view from COY restaurant towards Milnerton. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

When we’re finally back in Cape Town in 2025 after 10 years in the Karoo, I plan to make forays to this excellent restaurant now and then. Fine food in a pleasingly unfussy environment, that’s the right mix for me. But where is it?

A farm restaurant that brings something of the Karoo to Pretoria

The rather beautiful wood and metal interior of La Fermier, with Belonna Moti on the right. (Photo: Marie-Lais Emond)

Stories about Pretoria restaurants or food markets always fly. This one saw Marie-Lais Emond exploring a restaurant whose owner John du Raan, “something of a philosophical scientist and social engineer”, also has a farm in the Groot Karoo near Prieska, whence comes La Fermier’s lamb. Marie-Lais observed wryly: “It’s funnily enough not that far away from here, as the bakkie flies.” DM

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