Meet the all-female line up of chefs who will cook at Littlegig 2018

17 February 2018 sees SA’s one-of-a-kind 24 hour festival showcase all the best in food, music and fashion. 

Now in its third year, Littlegig has become synonymous with fabulous food cooked by some of the country’s top chefs and this year for the first time they’re introducing a paired food and wine tasting, featuring six of the country’s top female chefs and winemakers.

This will be a walk-through experience, from 1 – 4pm on the Saturday. Each chef will present 2 tasting dishes, and each dish will be paired with a wine. It will last around 30 minutes (or a bit longer if you’re the type who likes talking to chefs and winemakers). 

Want to stalk the chefs online beforehand? Here’s a quick sneak peek of who you can expect to see.. 

 Jenny Ward – Head Chef of CHEFS the new food concept start-up in Cape Town
“Food is essentially a social gathering. Littlegig is an amazing festival which allows people to celebrate food and culture in a highly artistic focused setting. One of CHEFS key concepts is the promotion of new and young culinary artists so we feel very excited to be part of the event. The food will be a beautiful combination of fresh seasonal produce with a touch of wood fire elements.” Nadia Barnard, Cellarmaster of Waterkloof Estate will present pairings with Jenny’s food. 

Ash Heeger – Chef Proprietor at Ash Restaurant in Cape Town
“I was thrilled to be asked to join the line- up for this year’s Littlegig festival. I’ve always wanted to be a part of it, so I’m very excited to be joining the other talented female chefs and winemakers. for me, Littlegig takes the best parts of a festival (great food, great music, beautiful setting) and packs it into one fun filled 24 hours. I’ve always enjoyed watching the event from afar but I’ve never had the pleasure of attending so I’m very stoked to be able to do both this year. Guests can expect playful food with an element of fire from me. We’ve got a springbok and mushroom kebab served on liquorice sticks and a smoky sweet potato with buffalo feta too.” Ash will be teaming up to present food and wine pairings with Nadia Newton Johnson of Newton Johnson Vineyards.

Vanie is born and raised in Durban where she studied at hotel school. Other than spending over 10 years in total working with Margaux Janse at Le Quartier Francais, she started a cookery school in Port Alfred and the restaurant at Grande Provence, and even did a Master Chef season prepping the guest chefs’ dishes. She opened Marigold in 2016 after training in Delhi. 

“When I was growing up Mondays evenings were always yellow dhal and rice. This for us is comfort food. Even today I boil a kilo of dhal at a time and freeze it in little tubs. When I feel sad I take out a pot, heat it up and cry into my dhal!”