Forget the culinary law of averages that all charcuterie kings or butchers all live in Italy, and speak fluent Italian with sausages on their wall like trophies. We have met Deon's idol, a bloke from the UK named Neil Jewell who is the proclaimed and famous chef of Moreson vineyard's Bread & Wine restaurant. From our first impression, he has a crooked smile with soft eyes, worked at many fancy pants restaurants and really just loves farming and farm-living. Our meeting was a 9:30am breakfast charcuterie/meat and more meat tasting paired with Moreson wine. He is a chef that was delayed (something I know all too well), all due to a water leak somewhere on the premises, friendly, and beyond passionate. I mean really passionate. He detailed the aging process of his meats (4 years on the prosciutto) and even snuck us in his refrigerator or butchery space. You would have thought that Deon had seen a two hundred pound tuna just hooked out of the water. Deon was NCIS in the Moreson farmhouse taking pictures of the cured meats, and even whittled Neil's biltong recipe from him. Deon has been making biltong for quite some time, so it was Barefoot Contessa versus Giada comparing notes, and I was in total amusement.
The best part was tasting the lusty, unpretentiousness of Neil's food, probably the most delightful meals we had in South Africa if I had to rank. We had such meaningful conversations with a UK expat that not only included food, but chats too deep for a morning sausage and wine tasting. The foliage around the old Dutch farmhouse and winery, the animals grazing, the gracefulness of the people...the only downside? I can't think of one. Thank you, Neil.
http://www.spill.co.za/cooking-classes/the-pig-a-charcuterie-course-with-neil-jewell/1162/
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