Why we cook the way we do.
Food is more than something we put on a plate. It is where we come from, what people taught us, what grew around them and what could be made with skill and patience.
At SALT & PEPPER, we have been cooking German, Swiss and European food in Hartbeespoort for more than two decades. We keep asking one question: What if we did it differently?
The answer is simple. It would not be German.
Take the Schweinshaxe. The back leg only, never smoked, never pickled. It is the prime cut of the pig. Served bone upright, the way it is eaten from Munich southwards. Cracked skin. Six hours in a Sud, the German cooking broth, then woodfired. The ultimate Schweinshaxe, and what most restaurants in South Africa only pretend to produce.
Eisbein is a different dish. It is pickled and smoked. When the sun shines on the skin, the fat looks like ice. In German: Eis, ice, and Bein, leg.
Italian food is no different. There is no cream in a real Carbonara, yet most food outlets still use cream. That is not a new idea. It is a cultural atrocity.
That is what Food culture is all about.
What if we did it differently? It would not be German.
