It's time to embrace the turn of the season. We bring you a new winter warming menu at Catharina's, as well as winter food and wine evenings at The Plettenberg and The Marine in Hermanus. Also remember to book for our first, exlusive Eat Out Supper Club at La Colombe, where Luke Dale-Roberts will reveal the trend of "preserving your harvest".
	Gourmet food and wine evenings at The Plettenberg and The Marine
	New winter warmer menu at Catharina's
	It's time for the SA Cheese Festival
	Eat Out Best Of: vote for your favourite seafood restaurant!
	Remember to book for the Eat Out Supper Club
The whole country has election fever - join in by voting for your favourite Seafood restaurant in the first installment of Eat Out Best Of. Whether it's a happening sushi haunt in Johannesburg or a friendly seaside cafe on the West Coast - cast your vote now!

I know it may sound a little strange, but I have spent the week surrounded by copper pots. I was at a photo shoot at the gorgeous Mosaic restaurant at the Orient in Pretoria (shooting the perfect chocolate puddings made by Coco from Sel et Poivre in Jo’burg, Frank Lubbe from the Mount Grace and Chantel Dartnell from Mosaic for the July issue of Taste magazine).

I can't tell you who won the cook-off, but I can tell you that Chantel's kitchen is kitted out with seriously high tech stuff, including her ovens. But she also has an impressive array of copper pans, ranging from the tiniest saucepan that she fills with steaming lobster bisque to those big mamma crepe pans.

She told me about one of her favourite shops in Paris. Whenever she’s in the city she heads straight for that shop to find pans – old and tarnished or new and shiny. I recently visited The Culinary Equipment Company's showroom in Lanseria, where they showcase a large array of copperware, including the well-known Mauviel brand, for chefs or serious cooks. I have never really been enticed to buy one but more than a few chefs have said, "Nothing is better than whisking egg whites in a copper mixing bowl." Perhaps I'll start with one of those.

Mike Basset from Myoga in Claremont has taken the copper bowl to another level altogether. He has used them as funky washbasins and even accessorised them with a whisk!

Funnily enough, it was just the other day that I thought about the over-size, light-as-a-feather pancakes that I ate with such gusto as a child (we had to call them crepes – after all we were eating them in the luxurious Meikles Hotel in Harare).

Here’s to all things shiny and bright – and to great eating out.

Happy eating

Abigail
Eat Out Editor