Zimbabwe: Eating Out Spanish Style

SPANISH celebrity chef and TV personality Simon Gonzalez has been brought back to Zimbabwe by Madrid’s embassy here.

He was due to cook for several hundred guests at Spain’s National Day this Wednesday and will be taking over the kitchens at La Fontaine Grillroom, Meikles Hotel, from tonight until next Tuesday.

The 35-year-old bachelor executive chef currently runs his own catering operation at Vigo in north-west Spain, near the Portuguese frontier, but is widely experienced as a hands-on chef, executive chef and behind-the-scenes cookery expert on one of Spain’s most popular culinary TV programmes.

Simon was last in Zimbabwe 14 months ago, when he ended a three month stint attached by the embassy to the Mannenberg in Fife Avenue. No-star (or minus-star?) Mannenberg to five-star Meikles? Surely from the ridiculous to the cor blimey!

Selected food writers sampled a wee taste of the goodies Meikles patrons can look forward to for the next few days at a blue-chip exclusive chef’s table in the Livingstone Room on Tuesday lunchtime. Simon (pronounced Simone) had not long been off the plane, had hardly got used to the ranges at La Fontaine and many ingredients hadn’t then arrived.

Sadly none of the great Spanish wines to be served throughout this food fiesta had then crossed the border and I received only blank stares from Meikles management on saying I assumed they’d organised at least a few cases of San Miguel, the wonderful Spanish lager, which also sells well in Hong Kong, the brewery having diversified in the 19th century to The Philippines, nearby, when those islands were a Spanish colony.

We all loved the first course: piquillo (a long red sweet pepper) stuffed with creamy prawns and served with a smooth sauce rich in fresh very finely chopped parsley, but nothing like the Anglo-style parsley sauce which accompanies steamed and boiled fish dishes with whole boiled potatoes.

Paying punters will also be able to choose salmorejo, apparently a deeper, more satisfying and intense version of the Spanish trademark gazpacho cold soup, with which many readers will be familiar.

I was disappointed to hear that possibly the star dish of the food fiesta which will feature monkfish steaks and prawns wasn’t available at our lunch. I would have definitely “done” that had it been on the truncated menu on Tuesday.

But I certainly enjoyed the prosaically named tortilla option: a classical eggy Spanish omelette with a potato-and-onion filling although I can see some Zimbos feeling it was rather bland (or demanding Tabasco sauce!) It came with a great side salad heavy on small black, very unctuous, delicious olives and cherry tomatoes.

I rarely eat red meat these days, but seriously wished I did when I saw the solomillo several fellow hacks plumped for. Even the medium-to-well-done version of the sirloin steak which most professional butchers secretly favour over any other steak cut, was mouthwateringly pinkish and dripping with juice.

And for one heartily sick of French beans, courgettes, carrots, butternut (perm any two from four) vegetables, this meatfest was accompanied by a refreshingly different lentil and chorizo sausage “stew”, according to the menu.

I think that lost something in the translation: it clearly wasn’t a stew in the accepted Anglo-sense of the word: possibly something similar to an Indian-style dhal dish, enhanced by spicy sausage, would be nearer the mark.

Sweet sounded, but wasn’t, rather dreary: bread-and-butter pudding (an old school favourite) with custard and crunchy biscuit. In Spanish it’s known as torrija. It reminded everybody of something they’d recently eaten but couldn’t quite place.

I thought a slice of vanilla sponge with a coffee sauce filled the bill.

We all ended with a good cup of presumably Zimbabwean? coffee and I dashed back to the office to file this.

I think the Spanish embassy is laying on traditional authentic entertainment, certainly at supper tonight, tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday nights. Readers can also enjoy this Spanish food for lunch on Monday and Tuesday.

The Grace at Rosebank, Johannesburg, which until very recently was operated by African Sun Hotels of Harare (formerly Zimbabwe Sun) was sold to Sol Kerzner’s Southern Sun Hotels group this week.

The extremely comfortable, very up market, exclusive boutique hotel was a favourite with Zimbos visiting or merely overnighting in Johannesburg.

Meikles Hotels has also recently relinquished interest in The Grace’s sister hotel, the breathtaking, award-winning, Cape Grace in Cape Town.

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