One of South Africa’s foremost restaurateurs, Michael Olivier has captured the very essence of local cooking and food in this beautifully illustrated and designed book. In it he takes us on a lively and engaging ramble through a lifetime that has revolved around food and wine, people and places.

Michael’s approach to food is unique. There are several recipes of traditional Cape dishes that he has reworked in his own inimitable style and many others brought about by the abundance of fresh produce available in the Cape and Australia, where he spends time consulting.

Wine features strongly throughout, and wine lovers will know where to go to find an undiscovered gem in a bottle or to meet the person ‘who made it’.

This book will appeal to all those interested in food and wine and in the people and places of South Africa.

Born in his grandparents’ house in Wellington Road, Durbanville, just after the Second World War, MICHAEL OLIVIER spent an idyllic childhood on a wine farm just outside the village. He trained at The London Cordon Bleu Cookery School and has worked in and managed such places as the Mayfair Hotel in London and Lanzerac Hotel in Stellenbosch and was PR Manager for the wine estate Boschendal. Having run three restaurants, Paddagang in Tulbagh, The Burgundy in Hermanus and the internationally renowned Parks in Constantia, he is a hospitality industry consultant, both in South Africa and on a project in Western Australia. Michael is also an occasional broadcaster and a food and wine writer for Winescape, a leading South African wine & tourism magazine. His monthly e-mail newsletter nosh! is highly acclaimed. His writing is informed by a deep love of South Africa and its variety of cuisines. Michael is married to Madeleine and they live in Kenilworth, Cape Town, with their two children, Amy and Peter. Michael’s website is www.noshnews.co.za.

ALAIN PROUST was born in Tarbes in France in 1952 and spent his childhood in the heart of the countryside in Brittany. While still a young child, he was given a camera by his uncle and this inspired him to take up a career in photography. He took an apprenticeship with a well-known French photographer in the Pas de Calais region in France and now makes his living as a photographer, particularly of wine and spirit related subjects. He cites patience and hard work as the key to the success of his photography and his hobbies mainly revolve around sporting activities.