This past weekend the annual Gaborone Food and Wine show themed ‘Are your taste buds ready’ was the ultimate destination for local food enthusiasts. Hosted at the Airport Junction mall, the show was filled with fun food and wine tasting activities that catered to Gaborone’s trendy, who came in the dozens to sample savory and sweet dishes, finger foods as well as a varied selection of the finest locally available red and white wines.
“The turn out for this show is great because we did not anticipate having so many people. The numbers are triple of what we had last year and everything is going according to plan because everyone is having fun. Even though there were a few hiccups here and there it is great,” said one of the shows organizers, Michael Hall.
The highlight of the event was the live demonstration by master chef McJon Mosenene at the Optima kitchen sponsored cooking station which was a new installment at this year’s show.
“This was my first time gracing such an event and it was such a great experience. I had the chance to prepare Thai dishes and show the audience the proper way of grilling steaks and making locally inspired cuisines that included madila and mogorogorwane deserts which people really loved. The good thing is that wines, since this is a food and wine show go well with almost all kinds of foods so I am sure my guests were in for a treat,” said Chef Mosenene.
The cherry on top was when South African celebrity and television presenter, Derek Watts of Carte Blanche fame made an appearance as the official taster. “ Derek is the kind of guy who likes trying out different types of foods so you can imagine how excited he was,” Chef Mosenene said.
When asked on his overall view of the show Mosenene, said even though the show was a success,
next year’s event should have more stalls to enable people to display more and different varieties of foods as well as for attendants to have a variety of food to taste and buy. Tshepo Ntshole, the event organizer also added that they needed to make improvements for next year’s show as they had noted from the crowd’s feedback.
The Gaborone Food and Wine show has grown to be the biggest event in the social events calendar hosted to celebrate good food, good wine with good people. The show is supported by The Botswana Gazette, Defy Botswana, OH Interiors, Optima Kitchens, Bokomo Botswana, GabzFM, @HOME, Air Botswana, O3 Beverages, Hawk Eye Risk Solutions, Airport Junction Mall, Robertson’s Spices and Ace Of Diamonds.