07/09/2026
WYN-TUIN AT GROENHUIJS
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, this time with a little more photographic evidence:
Excellence is earned, not bought.
This is what it looks like when four very different cooks step into one kitchen and stand close to the same flame.
It is true that too many cooks can spoil the broth. But what happens when we step back, give each other room and let every cook create something special?
That was perhaps the most important part of Wyn-Tuin at Groenhuijs.
Lynette van Aarde of Groenhuijs, Suzanne Aucamp of Goldfields Game Ranch, Juan Ferreira of Flavor Foundry and Cindy Kapp of Heritage on Park.
Four cooks. Four restaurants. Four very different ways of looking at food.
Nobody needed to cook like somebody else. Nobody needed to surrender their own style or identity. Instead, each cook brought something of themselves to the table, and somehow it all made sense when those plates started leaving the kitchen.
Not everything tasted the same.
But everything belonged on one table.
And our guests noticed.
We have a few goals at the Independent Restaurant Guild, but one particularly close to our hearts is that real cooking and scratch-made food should remain at the heart of what we do.
On this particular evening, it wasn’t only homemade. A good deal of it was home-grown.
FROM THE GARDEN TO THE FIRST GLASS
The evening began with a welcome glass of Leopard’s Leap Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir and the first little taste of what was to come.
Groenhuijs has the wonderful advantage of having a garden right outside the kitchen, and when you are surrounded by ingredients that fresh, it seems almost rude not to use them.
Fresh herbs, vegetables and leaves found their way from the garden into the evening’s dishes, sometimes playing the starring role and sometimes quietly doing what good ingredients do best.
Then it was time to eat.
We called one of the courses simply Fish & Chips.
Our version started with beetroot and orange-zest cured gravlax, together with freshly picked dill, fennel and thyme from right outside Groenhuijs. The salmon was treated to a rather generous amount of gin and left chilled for 48 hours before being rinsed and sliced.
Then came a few more things from the garden. Pea purée, spiked with what can only be described as the ultimate green juice, made from a variety of leafy greens that were blanched, shocked and worked into that silky green purée. Alongside it sat a citrus salsa of blood orange, naartjies and pomelo, tossed with lime zest and olive oil.
And because we did promise Fish & Chips, there had to be chips.
Real potato, thinly sliced and fried until crisp and slightly golden.
Paired with the dish was the Culinaria Pinot Noir Chardonnay. This pink, blushing lady was very happy alongside the salmon, but perhaps even happier with the crunch and familiar comfort of those proper potato chips.
That was really the idea behind much of the evening. Take something people know, respect what it is, and then have a little fun with it.
Then came something about as South African and as ordinary as you can get.
A mielie.
And somehow it became one of the dishes people spoke about afterwards.
Mielie Sop.
The soup was served in a small little mug alongside a fresh sweet corn salsa. Nothing overly complicated or dressed up. Just a familiar ingredient treated with a little more attention than we sometimes remember to give it.
Alongside it we poured the Culinaria Chenin Blanc, a pairing that worked beautifully with the natural sweetness of the corn while still bringing enough freshness to the course.
One of our guests actually became slightly emotional over something as ordinary as sweet corn being given the attention it deserved.
And perhaps that says more than we could.
Something as ordinary as a mielie can become extraordinary.
It doesn’t always require expensive ingredients or something nobody can pronounce. Sometimes it simply requires somebody to stop, pay attention and treat an everyday ingredient with a bit of respect.
A little mug of mielie sop, a spoonful of sweet corn salsa and a glass of Chenin Blanc managed to do exactly that.
Tomatoes…
With Alma Kwekery supplying the kind of tomatoes that make cooks start changing menus in their heads, we really had no choice but to give the tomato its own moment.
May we present to you the Tomato Sorbet.
Yes, tomato.
It was fresh, unexpected and did exactly what a palate cleanser should do. It woke everything up and got us ready for what was coming next.
This was also one of those moments where the produce really did most of the talking. When something tastes that good before you have done very much to it, a cook’s job becomes less about showing off and more about knowing when to leave well enough alone.
The bigger guns…
As the evening moved towards the main course, the food became a little more substantial.
Here again, the vegetables weren’t simply something that had to sit next to the meat. They were treated as part of the dish.
That is one of the pleasures of working with produce that has either come straight from the garden or been sourced locally at its best. Even the simplest vegetable earns its place on the plate when somebody takes the time to treat it properly.
And then, of course, there was the beef short rib.
Good beef does not need a great deal of explaining. It needs good preparation, the right amount of heat and a cook who knows when to leave it alone.
By this stage, the individuality of the evening could be tasted on the plates. One cook might reach for sweetness where another reaches for acidity. One might find comfort in something familiar, while another wants to surprise you. One plate can be refined and delicate, while the next arrives with absolutely no intention of apologising for itself.
Those differences are not something we want to remove.
They are what make independent restaurants interesting.
And eventually we reached dessert.
Or, as they became known, ‘Dronk Peertjies’.
There are desserts that demand perfect posture, your best clothes and perhaps a little restraint.
These were not those pears…they remind you of home. Jy verlang na mense wat jy nie ken nie…and the best part is, they’re super pretty to look at too.
These are the sort of pears you could very easily enjoy sitting in your pyjamas without any make-up on…or in this case, be in a venue as stunning as Groenhuijs wearing your nicest dress.
Comforting, slightly indulgent and with just enough mischief in them to earn the name.
After several courses and several wines, that felt like exactly the right way to finish.
And with that, we lift a glass to Lynette van Aarde and the Groenhuijs team for opening their kitchen, garden and tables to us, and to Suzanne Aucamp, Juan Ferreira and Cindy Kapp for each bringing their own touch to an evening we certainly won’t forget.
And most importantly, to our guests.
You tasted, talked, chose favourites and tried things you perhaps would never have ordered. You noticed the work, the ingredients and the differences between the plates, and you reminded us why we enjoy doing this in the first place.
There are few things more satisfying to a cook than watching empty plates make their way back into the kitchen.
Every one of them makes our hearts just a little fuller.
Thank you for taking a seat at our table.
Until the next one.
The Independent Restaurant Guild
Free State Chapter
Excellence is earned, not bought.
Alma KwekeryHeritage on ParkGoldfields game ranchThe Flavor FoundryCindy Mac Nicol- KappSuzane AucampLynette Van AardeDe Rust Private Nature ReserveIndependent Restaurant Guild FSJuan Ferreira
