A Table in the Corner
A Table in the Corner is the space where Russel Wasserfall chats to people in the food industry about their passion and their take on the business of eating. Russel has worked in the media and food space for over 3 decades. He's run bars, restaurants and a confectionery factory, written for dozens of food and travel publications and made a bunch of cookbooks. His show is about the nitty-gritty of the food trade in all its forms. Top chefs, food artisans, proprietors, bakers, farmers, foragers, cheesemakers, writers, photographers, bloggers... you name it. If they’re involved in the food industry, you will meet them with Russel at A Table in the Corner.
Episodes
116 episodes
115. Nic Charalambous - Ouzeri
Nic Charalambous, the driving force, creator and voice behind the wildly popular Ouzeri restaurant in Wale Street, was my fourth guest on the show. Way back on Episode 4 he'd been open a year and found his easygoing eatery - which celebrates hi...
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35:53
114. Roushanna Grey - Veld & Sea Foraging Experiences
Veld & Sea has one of my favourite Instagram pages, and the mission of its founder - to teach people about the land and the ocean of Cape Town's south peninsula through foraging and flavour - has long fascinated me. I finally got to meet Ro...
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42:27
113. Emily Robertson - Egg & Shoulders
Week after week I see the menus for Egg & Shoulders ready meals. They are seasonal, interesting and depart from the norm of the home delivery or frozen meal services. Of course there are the standards - the lasagne, the ravioli - but there ...
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39:24
112. Matthew Gordon - French Connection
Matthew Gordon has been there since the beginning. He is one of the architects of the explosion of restaurants in the previously sleepy Western Cape village of Franschhoek. Haute Cabriere put him firmly on the map, but the little restaurant he ...
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34:11
111. Chef Peter Ayub - The Intern Chat
Chef Peter Ayub runs the excellent Sense of Taste Cooking school with his wife Deb, teaching young hopefuls the trade of being a chef. He reached out, concerned about how some of his students are treated when they go out into the industry to do...
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40:52
110. Reuben Riffel - Reuben's & Let's Frite
It's taken a while to get the timing and travel right to sit down with South African culinary icon, Chef Reuben Riffel, to explore his incredible journey from a simple start in Franschhoek kitchens, to becoming a household name. In this episode...
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47:09
109. Hilde-Lee Olivier - Cooking on Yachts
Hilde-Lee Olivier left cooking school and quickly climbed the ranks in local kitchens. By the time she was 26 Hilde-Lee was running the Kitchen at Terroir and went on to be head chef for George Jardine at Jardine Restaurant in Stellenbosch. Aft...
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32:26
108. Jo Smith - Pillar9 Reputation Strategists
For some time now I've been wanting to talk to someone on the show who manages the marketing - and the profiles - of restaurants. I'm interested in how eateries, especially the top shops, market themselves. This is particularly tricky in a worl...
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52:45
107. Carlotta Sabbalini - Italy at Your Door
Carlotta Sabbalini is fantastic - she's a real entrepreneur who's built a food business on the back of a lasagne recipe she learned from her grandmother, Nonna Santina. Along the way she's tried new things, added elements to the business and le...
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30:31
106. Mario Gaito - Pizza Proper
It started with a dream and a little Piaggio three-wheeled scooter with a pizza oven in the back, but Mario Gaito has built a business that delivers delicious Napoli-style pizza to selected deli and supermarket chillers around Cape Town. It's a...
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41:12
105. Amori Burger - Upper Union
This was a conversation full of laughs with Chef Amori Burger of Upper Union restaurant. Her warm, engaging, fun personality permeates a restaurant which have quickly become an institution in Cape Town and a firm favourite among a legion of ver...
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43:06
104. Loubie Rusch - Local Wild Food Hub
Loubie Rusch knows a hell of a lot about local plants. How to grow them. What you can and can't eat. How to cook or prepare them for consumption. She also knows a lot about local food systems and how connection to the land preserves indigenous ...
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1:05:27
103. Sebastian Nico - Seb Steelworks
In this episode, I chat to Durban chef, photographer and knife-maker Sebastian Amadeo Nico. He's deeply connected to the food world through his father, Marco Nico of Ciao Italia fame, but his path has been somewhat winding - from working ...
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35:46
101. Turning the Tables on Russel Wasserfall
With 100 episodes of A Table in the Corner in the bag, I felt it might be time to do a biographical insert for episode 101. Some of my guests have asked when the spotlight would fall on me. A few of our regular listeners have also asked v...
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36:47
100. George Jardine - Fireman
George Jardine needs very little introduction if you've followed the Western Cape Restaurant scene for any length of time. There was a stretch when he was repeatedly named the best chef in South Africa and his restaurants have been in the local...
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47:52
98. Ayesha Bibi - The Charming Chef
Ayesha Bibi (Juwaley) runs a superb little patisserie business out of Makers Landing at the Ocean Cruise Terminal in the V&A Waterfront. We sat down for a chat about her journey from studying film and environmental science at University to ...
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28:57
97. David Higgs - Marble and Pantry
David Higgs made his bones in the local dining scene in the mid- to late-‘naughties’ when he helmed the multi-award winning Rust en Vrede restaurant in the Western Cape Winelands. Then he packed up and went to Jo'burg and chatter around this li...
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30:27
96. William Jardine - The Kitchin, Edinburgh
William Jardine is a young chef who, at 22, is a line chef (or chef de partie) in a prestigious Edinburgh restaurant. The Kitchin was the first establishment in Scotland to receive a Michelin Star and focuses on working with the very best in Sc...
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26:30
95. Andrew Nel - Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants
In this episode, I chat to Andrew Nel of Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants, an ethical butchery with branches in the Woodstock, Gardens and Claremont suburbs of Cape Town. FFMM was founded by Andy Fenner and his wife Nicole to honour the practice o...
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46:04
94. Johke Steenkamp - Grumpy & Runt
In this week's episode of A Table in the Corner, the first for 2025, we explore the delightful world of Grumpy & Runt, a vegan donut shop co-owned by Johke Steenkamp and Carla Gontier. This little beaut shares premises with Ditto, the...
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43:55
93. Abigail Donnelly - Taste Magazine & Eat Out
I've been wanting to chat to Abigail Donnelly on the show for absolute ages. Her recipes and food styling for local magazines have delivered global cuisines and flavours to South African homes for almost two decades. From the pages of Taste mag...
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58:28
