'The Spar is my food cupboard,' says Coenie Snyman laconically, leaning nonchalantly against the lime-washed butcher's block table in the centre of his kitchen. 'I pop in and see what I feel like on the day I'm cooking. Can I cook? Well, if you can read a recipe, you can cook.'
Vintage 19
Better still, because he's such a regular at the Spar down the road from his Stellenbosch home, he can call them up and have a friendly staff member come by the house and drop off anything he's forgotten for a meal; this time it's verjuice and rosemary croutons for the Caesar salad accompanying a sirloin steak with Béarnaise sauce.
'I can be pretty definite about demanding good service. I don't expect anything less, so I’m not afraid to complain.'
Things run like clockwork in the elegantly casual, open-plan home of Coenie and Caroline Snyman - or at least, if not always like clockwork, then pretty smoothly. They have to. She’s Business Director: Spirits of Distell Group Ltd, B.Eng. (Chemical), M.Sc. (in wine technology), PhD (on the development of yeasts for brandy), CWM (Cape Wine Master) Chairman of the South African Brandy Foundation... and mother of Claudia and twin baby boys Wilhelm and Peter.
Congratulated on the special blessing of twins, Coenie is inclined to say: 'Wish me strekte rather than congratulations!' Au pair Juanita is an integral part of home life and there’s a young student from the local college who comes in to help during 'suicide hour' around supper and bathtime.
Older sister Claudia is showing an interest in food by helping Dad in the kitchen. Not that dad looks in any need of assistance: he's perfectly happy, barefoot and in jeans, calmly wielding whisks and blowtorches, lighting fires, and opening bottles of wine.
Turns out he's been in the kitchen since boyhood. 'My mom was struck down with polio at six, losing the use of her one arm. My two brothers and I each had an area in which to help her: my older brother worked in the garden; I landed up in the kitchen. My oldest brother got away with being "the academic"!'
So he does most of the cooking. 'Caroline is great with vegetables. Even she says not to ask her to shop for meat; she'll always get it wrong, even when it's pre-packaged and labelled!'
'I don't like sauces unless it's Béarnaise. And I'd rather have five starters than dessert, except when it's crême brûlée.'
'I’m a fresh produce kind of cook. Our tastes are simple: light, easy meals throughout the week - mainly chicken, a bit of fish, pasta, vegetables and salads - and a spatchcock chicken or the odd piece of steak on the braai on weekends.'
Crème brûlée with compressed chocolate cake recipe by Coenie Snyman paired with Rust en Vrede Shiraz wine....
Sirloin steak and Béarnaise sauce recipe by Coenie Snyman paired with Rust en Vrede Estate wine....