East Coast Tables is a celebration in print and pictures of the food of different communities living on our KZN coast. Veteran foodwriter Derek Taylor of the Sunday Tribune describes it as a "great and original book" and says its success is well-deserved.
This success comes hot on the heels of another recent triumph for East Coast Tables - it has won the South African section for "Best Local Cuisine" cookbook in the Gourmand World Cookbook competition, and now goes forward to the final round in Paris, to compete against other winners in this category for the "Best in the World" title.
The 154 countries represented by food and wine books in this prestigious competition range from Argentina to Venezuela, and include all the usual "big guns" such as France, India, China, US and England plus more exotic entries like Bhutan, Laos, Ghana and Venezuela.
Trish Taylor, CEO of East Coast Radio - the publisher of East Coast Tables - and authors Erica Platter, Clinton Friedman and Gwyn Platter - are delighted.
Erica Platter says: "While this is only the first round of the competition, it does recognise what our book is all about and proves what we all know - that KZN is not only better than the rest of the country at rugby, but our local food is also more fabulous!"
Will this home-grown, home-inspired book featuring local cooks, chefs and home-grown, freshly-caught subtropical ingredients stand up to competition from around the world? Will the Durban neighbourhood feature at the gala opening event of the World Cookbook Fair in Paris on March 3, 2011, where the international prize-winners will be announced?
Erica, a previous World Gourmand winner with her husband John, for Africa Uncorked, a wine and travel book, is counting no chickens (free range, traditional "Zulu chickens" of course, as featured in the book).
"We are up against internationally-known specialist publishers, TV chefs and celebrity food writers. On the other hand, our coast is so beautiful and our food so simply delicious, that perhaps the judges will be as knocked out as locals seem to have been!"
