From herbs and spices to fresh seafood, rum cocktails, and more, South Africa is home to many fantastic food markets.
And soon-to-be-launched Time Out Market which is expected to open later this year at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, is set to add another beautiful experience to the city’s culinary scene.
The market will feature 13 local chefs and restaurateurs, four bars, and one stage. Guests will experience some of the city’s very best food from a variety of concepts while coming with family and friends to enjoy their meals – on china with flatware – at communal tables.
Earlier this week, the first five award-winning, celebrated, and much-loved culinary talents to join the market’s all-star line-up were revealed. They will be serving a diverse range of cuisines, reflecting the city’s vibrant culinary traditions and expressions.
Restaurateur and chef Bertus Basson will join the roster of home-grown chef-driven concepts with his iconic De Vrije Burger.
Basson is a Cape Town-born chef, restaurateur, and television personality with many accolades. His food philosophy is rooted in traditional South African food culture and a commitment to fresh, local ingredients.
He has founded a series of successful restaurants, one of them being De Vrije Burger and all of which are expressing South African heritage, creatively telling the stories of its history, people, and food.
The Melting Pot Seafood
The Melting Pot Seafood will bring an internationally inspired seafood concept that will take diners – plate by plate – on a culinary journey around the world inspired by chef John Van Zyl’s travels.
The vibrant menu will feature dishes that are packed with flavour, with regularly changing seasonal specials. On the menu: tuna sashimi with fermented black bean dressing, coconut, and mint; mixed seafood Peruvian ceviche with butternut puree and sweet potato crisps, and beer-battered hake sliders with smoked potato purée and tartar sauce.
Chef Vusi Ndlovu will create a new concept with dishes that celebrate African shisanyama heritage.
A concept created by Ndlovu specifically for the market, Mlilo “Fires of Africa” will offer a truly African-inspired cuisine with each menu item honouring a different African country, giving a nod to the continent’s rich culinary traditions while reflecting the chef’s incredible creativity and innovation.
The idea behind this braai concept is to celebrate the different ways African food markets and vendors utilise fire, with a menu offering a tantalising glimpse of Africa on a plate and a contemporary take on the local favourite “shisanyama”, a Zulu word meaning “burn meat”.
Menu items will include Iplate (South African braai plate with all the trimmings, specialities include tomato sausage and black bean chakalaka); lamb didi (lamb cooked using a fire cooking concept from Senegal); nyama choma (thinly sliced beef with chunky kachumbari) and puff-puff (spiced pumpkin doughnuts with chilli sugar).
Unframed Ice Cream
Unframed Ice Cream – founded by Yann Rey – is no stranger to the Cape Town culinary scene. It brings together the most delicious and extraordinary combinations which often are classics with a twist and always come in unique flavours. These include vegan beetroot chocolate ginger; lemon-infused olive oil with white chocolate; vegan coconut raspberry; and an array of other unhinged or rather “unframed” flavours as well as waffles, cookies, and sundaes.
Chef duo Matt Van Den Berg and Carla Schulze will bring How Bao Now and their Asian-inspired high-end street food.
Renowned for offering some of the best bao buns in the city, How Bao Now will offer much-loved dishes plus a range of new, exclusive combinations that will only be available at the market.
On the menu will be a Cape Malay crayfish bao with a coconut and curry furikake and vadouvan XO as well as a wagyu sando-bao with a chilli crunch mayo, tonkatsu, and pickled cucumber – all expertly crafted, scrumptious and packed with punchy flavours.
You can read the latest Food digimag here.