Reuben Cooks Local

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Craig Fraser has been working as a photographer for two decades. His long and successful career as a commissioned photographer working for local and international titles including Elle Decoration, House & Leisure, Habitat, Visi, Swedish Gourmand and Woolworths Taste as well as in advertising has been overtaken, since 2007, by his work for Quivertree Publications. Quivertree was founded by Craig and graphic designer Libby Doyle in 2002. The company has established itself as one of South Africa’s most innovative and awardwinning boutique publishing houses, with recent titles that include Hot Afro, Prickly Pears & Pomegranates, Reuben Cooks, Bake and Modern Wineries of South Africa. Craig and Reuben have developed a great working relationship, starting with their first book together, Reuben Cooks. Craig believes they have taken their collaboration to new levels in Reuben Cooks Local. Working mostly alone at Reuben’s home in Franschhoek, they were free to experiment and push the boundaries.

‘The easy instructions allow you to capture the flavours of South Africa — whether from sea, earth, field or orchard — simply and successfully in your own kitchen, producing dishes guaranteed to become instant favourites with family and friends’ jos baker

reuben cooks local

Now with three restaurants in and around the Western Cape, Reuben Riffel leads a busy life. He is chef de cuisine and owner of Reuben’s Restaurant in Franschhoek as well as concept chef at Reuben’s at the One & Only Cape Town and Reuben’s at the Robertson Small Hotel. Despite his meteoric rise from small-town boy to scooping top honours at the 2004 Eat Out Johnnie Walker Restaurant Awards with Reuben’s Restaurant and being named Sunday Times Chef of the Year in 2007, Riffel has never lost sight of his roots in Franschhoek. In the last few years, Riffel has become a household name in South Africa with local and international television appearances and the publication of his first cookbook, Reuben Cooks: Food is Time Travel (also published by Quivertree and winner of Best Chef’s Cookbook at the World Gourmand Awards in 2009). Key to Riffel’s success is his unsurpassed ability to marry South African and international cuisines via an eclectic approach that always uses the best seasonal ingredients available.

Bern Le Roux is a food writer, stylist, food editor and blogger. She has worked for magazines including Condé Nast House & Garden, Woolworths Taste, Food & Home Entertaining and Marie Claire in various roles and capacities over the past 10 years. In 2008 she co-authored Prickly Pears & Pomegranates (also published by Quivertree), which scooped Best Local Cookbook at the World Gourmand Awards in 2009. Le Roux lives in Noordhoek, Cape Town, with her husband Paul and their two children, where she also co-owns the family-run Café Roux restaurant with Paul and her sisterin-law Lindi Green.

reuben cooks local

Reuben Cooks Local is a celebration of South African ingredients. Acclaimed chef Reuben Riffel presents recipes that combine the seasonal ingredients and fresh flavours that reflect his upbringing and the country in which he lives and works. In these pages you’ll find recipes like poached guavas with Noble Late Harvest crème anglaise, port-glazed springbok with celeriac and apple purée, naartjies macerated in vanilla and rosemary sugar, and snoek fillet in apricot-soy glaze with parsley oil. Recipes are divided into chapters that honour food from the sea, food from the field, food from the earth and orchard, and food from the vine. These are dishes that laud a wide range of South African produce, from snoek, West Coast crayfish and local trout to Karoo lamb, mielies, spanspek, buchu and game. Uniquely South African ingredients – the colourful, the fragrant and the forgotten, many of which are too often overlooked in the modern kitchen, are brought to the fore here. Reuben Riffel provides indispensible information on choosing his favourite ingredients and flavourings – unusual varieties of vinegars and salts, cuts of game, local truffles and fynbos – and about where to find the best produce. Reuben Cooks Local is for food lovers with a passion for produce and a desire to appreciate the very best that South Africa has to offer.

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photographs by craig fraser


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