The other day I was invited to attend the very first 2Beans Chocolate and Coffee event.
There was no way I was passing up the opportunity to learn about two of my favourite vices.
Held at the Wanderers Club, I met up with Laura and in we went.
Oh my, coffee everywhere!
Jacobs, Nespresso, House of Coffees, Chay.wa just to name a few.
We found our table and then went to get a cuppa.
Our table was covered with yummy chocolaty goodness too.
Soon Laura and I were joined by Nicki and Bron
The first part of the morning was a panel discussion moderated by Jeremy Maggs.
The panelist were:
- Martin Riedesser, founder of Saeco (Italian Lifestyle)
- Executive Chef at Tsogo Sun and Masterchef judge, Benny Masekwameng
- Anso Spencer, graduate of The London Cordon Bleu School
- David van Staden, Tsogo Sun chef
- Angela Todd, Head of Training at CIRO
- Debbie Shepard, marketing lead at Kraft Foods South Africa
They discussed marketing and trends in the coffee and chocolate industries. There were two things that stuck with me. One, the coffee that we have in South Africa is all very good coffee, so there should be no excuse for receiving bad coffee at a restaurant, if you do receive a bad cup you must send it back, the barrista needs to know that it wasnt good so that he/she can learn and know that the next cup needs to be made properly. The other thing I learned is that no matter what the trends, no matter how wild or out there they are, they will always come back to basics, coffee and chocolate or luxurious treats, especially plain and simple, just like you had when you were younger.
The next part of the morning was such a treat, Callum Hann, runner up in Master Chef Australia Season 2 gave us a cooking demo. He made a flour-less chocolate cake and a 5 minute chocolate mousse that only has 2 ingredients. You can find the recipes here.
Our very own Nicki got called up to assist with some egg beating and got herself a copy of Callum’s new book The Starter Kitchen, which looks amazing.
Im so glad I got to go to this amazing event, I certainly learned a lot and had fun to boot!
I am so sad I missed it! I need to wangle me an invite to events like this!