From floating feasts to Winelands

Between prawn platters on a ship and Brookdale's new menu, the season tastes of sunshine and abundance

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The first time I met Hillary Biller, she had jet-black hair and was Angela Day of The Star. The second time, she was seated in the lounge lobby of the Sky Hotel on the Cape Town Foreshore reading a book - an older version of herself. Aren't we all?

We found unexpected and somewhat alarming common ground that day over a shared misadventure involving scores of influencers who kept us waiting for hours while they primped and glad-ragged, donning outfits that would make a peacock blush just so that they could all have their "I've arrived!" moments as the presenters of awards to other, more deserving people.

They were nothing if not self-important beyond their abilities. They actually thought it was all about them, yet all they were really doing was doling out gongs to hardworking chefs who rarely get a moment to dine out because they're too busy keeping us happy at their tables. Chefs, like journalists, are religiously punctual.

It was November 2022 and Hillary and I were very late for that edition of the annual Eat Out Awards, thanks to these posing peacocks. The online piece I wrote about it had tens of thousands of reads. Hillary, who was representing the Sunday Times, has, with typically blunt humour, called these popinjays "influenzas" ever since. That's one strain of it I'd hate to catch.