09/08/2026
WYN TREIN WITH IRG AT GGR
For those of you who still haven’t seen what real cooking, with real ingredients, for real people looks like, it has now been a week since the morning after what can only be described as one for the books.
Good food takes time. Great food takes planning, patience, a good team and, most importantly, the best ingredients you can get your hands on. We are fortunate enough to have all of those in our repertoire.
But what turns an ordinary meal into a memorable one is actually pretty simple. Good music, a glass or two of wine, or whatever it is that you fancy, food prepared with care and, of course, the people sitting around the table with you.
We know that sitting down with the people we hold dear somehow makes the food taste just that little bit better. And that is exactly what this evening was about.
The Dream Team at Goldfields Game Ranch
The Independent Restaurant Guild would like to extend a very special thank you to Goldfields Game Ranch and their Team, led by Chef Suzanne Aucamp.
If there were ever a textbook example of generosity, dedication and true mastery of a craft, Suzie would be it.
For the evening, Cindy Kapp of Heritage on Park stepped in as Suzie’s Sous Chef, working alongside her in the kitchen, while members of the Heritage on Park team assisted with the wine sales.
Lynette van Aarde of Groenhuijs was another set of hands behind the scenes long before the first guest ever sat down. She helped set the tables and did her fair share of carting equipment and décor up and down from Welkom to make sure everything came together as it should. Later, Lynette and the Groenhuijs baristas made sure that guests could finish the evening with a properly made cup of coffee.
Perhaps that collaboration says more about what we are trying to build through the Independent Restaurant Guild than anything we could put into a mission statement.
Different restaurants. Different teams. Different skills. But when the opportunity arises, we step in, lend a hand, share what we know and help one another create something memorable.
That is what a Guild should be.
From carcass to table
Almost every part of the venison served that evening started with Suzie.
Carcass after carcass was broken down. Meat was trimmed, minced, portioned, skewered, seasoned and marinated with the kind of care that goes into cooking for your own family.
Her combined knowledge of butchery and cookery makes her a force to be reckoned with. She cooks with purpose, fights the clock like every chef does and, in the middle of everything happening around her, still manages to repeatedly ask:
“Do we have enough food?”
For anyone who has ever cooked for a crowd, you know exactly what that question means. It isn’t simply about quantity. It is about generosity. It is about wanting people to leave your table satisfied, and it is about remembering that the number one ingredient was, is and hopefully always will be love for the craft.
And speaking of enough food, there certainly was.
Without intentionally leaving anything out, and with apologies if we do, guests enjoyed Sosaties soos Ouma dit gemaak het, Schnitzels, Bobotie, Chilli con Carne, Regte Outydse Bredie met Droëvrugte, Stasie Pastei, Vlakvark Porchetta met appel, Beef Brisket, Roast Chicken and Krokodil. Ja, julle lees reg.
And that was only the beginning.
Alongside all that meat came Turmeric and Pumpkin Seed Bread, Citrus and Masala Salad, coleslaw, tomato and onion salsa, Patat Tert, Geel Rys and Stampmielies. Because really, what is a proper dinner without the last two?
Then came dessert. Not bought in and not opened from a box. Homemade.
Koeksisters, melktertjies, ystervarkies and lemon squares, many made from the kind of recipes that have been handed down through families and generations.
And then there was the wine
One part of the evening we certainly cannot fail to mention was the launch of two of Goldfields Game Ranch’s very own wines, bottled especially for them.
Introducing the GGR Express Collection: Sydney’s Sauvignon Blanc and The Conductor’s Cab.
The wines are wonderfully unique, right down to their presentation, capturing something of the personality and spirit of Sydney and Goldfields Game Ranch itself. But they are not just pretty bottles.
Sydney’s Sauvignon Blanc is lively and refreshing, with a gentle frizzante character that makes it exactly the kind of wine we can imagine enjoying on the GGR deck on a beautiful Free State summer afternoon, overlooking everything the ranch has to offer.
The Conductor’s Cab wants something completely different. A fire, a hearty red meat dish, a few good friends and preferably nowhere else you need to be.
What the Guild is really about
For Chef Kapp, one of the driving ideas behind the Independent Restaurant Guild is that we should do more than simply educate people about real cooking and what it actually takes to put real food on a plate.
“We want people to understand the journey behind that plate”
It begins with the farmer who grows it or raises it. It passes through the hands of producers and suppliers, the butcher who understands how to respect and use the whole animal, the baker who gets up while most of us are still sleeping, the real cooks who takes those ingredients and turns them into something worth sitting down for, the team who serves it, and finally the customer who chooses to support it.
All of these sets of hands matter.
When we buy from a local farmer, that matters.
When we choose an independent butcher, baker or producer, that matters.
When one restaurant lends another a hand, that matters. When we teach a young person a proper skill in a kitchen or on a restaurant floor, that matters.
And when a customer chooses an independent restaurant because they understand the value behind the meal, that matters too.
That is what we want the Independent Restaurant Guild to stand for.
A stronger network of independent people supporting independent people.
Next stop: Wyn-Tuin at Groenhuijs, 5 September
Spring deserves a proper welcome.
We will be celebrating Spring, everything that blossoms, good food and exceptional wine at Groenhuijs with five courses and five wines, carefully curated by Chefs Cindy Kapp and Suzanne Aucamp.
The evening promises to be relaxed and intimate, with beautiful food and carefully selected wines. The kind of evening designed to give you some much-needed time around the table with someone special.
After a Free State winter, there is something rather wonderful about celebrating the beginning of Spring.
Spring comes but once a year.
Then, 26 September: The Heritage of Padkos at Heritage on Park
There is almost no way around it.
If we are going to celebrate our Heritage, then we are going to celebrate something almost every South African understands.
Padkos.
Not simply food for the road, but the memories, traditions, families and stories that travelled around the world with it.
Join us at Heritage on Park for six courses and six wines, with live music, open fires, outdoor dining and a menu celebrating the food and memories that have travelled South African roads with us for generations.
There is plenty still to come from the Independent Restaurant Guild. More tables, more collaboration, more local producers, more skills being shared and, definitely, more good food.
To everyone who joined us at Goldfields Game Ranch, thank you for taking a seat at the table.
We hope you enjoyed eating it as much as we enjoyed telling it.
See you at the next table.
The Independent Restaurant Guild
Free State Chapter
Excellence is earned, not bought.
Goldfields game ranch
Heritage on Park
Alma Kwekery
Independent Restaurant Guild FS
Cindy Mac Nicol- Kapp
Lynette Van Aarde
Suzane Aucamp
Sydney Wiggett
