Enoch home from naked chef
2005-08-25
A PAARLITE, Enoch Zaleni (24) of Fairview Wine and Cheese Estate, spent the past month working and gaining valuable experience in the restaurant Fifteen belonging to Jamie Oliver (The Naked Chef) in London.
Zaleni was one of two lucky Capetonians selected for this great opportunity. He and Mkhanyiseli Kapa (22) departed for London early July.
Zaleni’s training focused on the finer art of wine tasting and the serving of fine wines, while Kapa’s focus was on International Cuisine.
Zaleni found out that he would be working at Fifteen in early 2004 when Fairview owner Charles Back told him that he planned to send him to London.
Charles had met Matt Skinner, Fifteen’s wine buyer, in January 2004 where they started talking about the idea of work experience.
According to Zaleni it was a tremendous honour for him to be invited to London to work in a world class restaurant such as this.
“The first time I met Jamie Oliver, he came straight up to me smiling and said ‘I know exactly who you are - Enoch’.
It was a really nice welcome. He is truly an amazing guy. When he arrives at work he always takes the time to greet all his staff,” says Zaleni.
The most exciting part of his trip was getting to taste a huge range of wines from all around the world, including places like Italy, Argentina, France, Australia, NZ and the USA.
Each week they focused on a different grape variety.
“It’s really difficult to compare what I’ve tasted at Fifteen with all I’ve tasted in South Africa. All wine is great for different reasons. I tasted a lot of new things in London – not better or worse – just exciting,” says Zaleni.
According to Matt Skinner Enoch was fantastic, a valuable addition to his team.
“Enoch portrays an open mind when it comes to trying wine from all over the world and he is extremely positive, always sporting a great big smile,” says Skinner.
The reasoning behind Enoch’s visit was to learn as much as possible about the finer art of wine tasting and the serving of fine wines and then to relay this information to his fellow employees at Fairview.
According to Enoch he would also love to use both his knowledge
and experiences working as a Sommelier to help train and inspire other young black people to become excited about wine.
“My advice to young chefs and winemakers in South Africa is, work hard.
"There is room enough in the food and wine industry for everybody.”
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