The festival is an annual celebration of good taste with exhibitions from South Africa’s top restaurants, most acclaimed vineyards and most innovative breweries.
This year 11 of Johannesburg’s trendiest restaurants showcased their brands with three-course tasting menus. Of the restaurants, new kid on the block, The Blackinese in Maboneng was a festival favourite, selling out of most of their dishes within the first two hours of the festival’s opening night. Licorish Bistro in Morningside tantalised the taste buds with chili and lime squid in a cardamom mayonnaise, and took fusion cooking to the next level with their Nkomazi chicken bunny chow with a tangy butternut atchaar on the side.
Beer drinkers were spoilt for choice with numerous micro-breweries showcasing their creative concoctions at the festival. Soweto Gold Brewery was one of the exciting exhibitors, serving up ice-cold samples of their Soweto Gold Superior Lager, Soweto Apple Ale and a special cherry cider made specially by their brew master for the festival.
One of the highlights of the festival was the Pick and Pay wine and canapé experience, which saw guests making three delicious canapés, a smoked salmon crostini, chicken and plum wrap and a mini-Eton mess, paired with three wines to complement the flavours of each dish. Anyone with a taste for the good life did not walk away from Taste of Joburg disappointed.