Bring romance into your life on Valentine’s Day

HAVE you lost that loving feeling? The feeling the Righteous Brothers sing about in their ultimate pop song in 1964? In case it slipped your mind, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and the perfect opportunity to bring romance back into your life.

Maybe you decided to give the celebration a miss this year, and spend the evening at home in front of the TV, with a bowl of pot noodles on your lap. But when your friends and colleagues start telling you that after the romantic evening they spent celebrating Valentine’s Day, life has never looked rosier, you’re going to feel like a loser. So make a plan, book a table for two for dinner, and make it a special occasion.

Table for two at Tiffany’s Restaurant.

Tiffany’s Restaurant at the Cresta Jameson Hotel has just undergone a stylish makeover, and will be presenting a Valentine menu on Friday 14 February. Starters, under the heading ‘Love at First Bite’, will include Nyanga trout, and roast tomato and butternut soup. ‘Burning Passion’ main courses will offer ravioli, Beef Wellington and roast chicken. For ‘The Climax’ and a classic dessert with ‘wow factor’, try maitre d’ Norman Sande’s table side crepe Suzette flambe, spiked with Grand Marnier.

The Cresta Jameson has been undergoing a major re-furbishment, due to be completed in April 2020. Tiffany’s Restaurant, a favourite destination in the 70s and 80s, now has a sophisticated new look. Large paintings of water lilies in the style of Monet, gilt framed mirrors, comfortable upholstered dining chairs, and white table cloths with a fleur-de-lis design lend a French atmosphere to the restaurant, ideal for fine dining.To make sure everything goes well, Cresta Group Executive Chef Brian Ndlovu has been sharing his expertise in Tiffany’s kitchen, and guests should expect to enjoy some of the exceptional meals associated with this award-winning chef.

Once destined to be a farmer, Chef Brian was enrolled at Chibero Agricultural College until his older brother convinced him to become a culinary professional. Before you could say Heston Blumenthal, Ndlovu had left Chibero, and made his way to the Hotel School in Bulawayo. After graduating, his first job was at Elephant Hills Hotel, a resort overlooking the Zambezi River. Later he moved to Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, where his dishes at Makuwa-Kuwa Restaurant became legendary. Since 2012, Chef Brian has been with Cresta Hotels, and as Group Executive Chef, spends time maintaining culinary excellence in the kitchens of Cresta’s numerous properties in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia.

If eating out is not your thing, you can celebrate Valentine’s Day in different ways. There can be no better start to the day than sipping a well-brewed cup of Tanganda tea, with a couple of Lobels cream cracker biscuits on the side. So be the one who wakes up early and goes to the kitchen to make tea. Choose your best teapot and china cups (no chipped crockery to be used today) and decorate the tea tray with a rose picked from the garden. Even if a mosquito or your neighbour’s alarm disturbed your night’s sleep, and you’re not feeling your best, greet your partner with a happy smile and a lingering kiss.

Let the magic continue with a Valentine’s gift of chocolates or flowers. If the florist has sold out of red roses, a bunch of flame lilies or St Joseph’s lilies from the flower vendor down the road will do the trick.

Having decided to spend the day at home, switch off your iPhone, take that bottle of Prosecco you were keeping for a special occasion out of the fridge, and celebrate your most romantic Valentine’s Day ever.   A Matter of Taste with Charlotte Malakoff

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