Chef Matt feeling the love preparing for Christmas at Amanzi

Honey soy brisket with Overgaauw Tria Corda 2013

IS Christmas a time to celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus, or an opportunity to get together with all the family, including the uncle who regularly pisses you off and the cousins from out of town who always arrive late? Is it a time for feasting on free range turkey and Christmas pudding, buying gifts for loved ones, and spreading peace and goodwill to all mankind?

Andrew Mama, MD of Amanzi Restaurant, is visibly excited about his preparations for the festive season this year. ‘Christmas Day is always big at Amanzi’, he said, looking out over Amanzi’s green lawns, banks of palm trees and bromeliads. No venue could be more different from Father Christmas’s headquarters in the North Pole than this lush, tropical destination, yet Andrew can confirm that Santa has interrupted his busy schedule and will be spending several hours at Amanzi on Christmas Day.

Last Monday evening, in advance of Christmas festivities, a rambunctious group of invited guests assembled to enjoy an evening of fine dining, sampling the new menu created by newly-appointed Executive Chef Matt Williams. A superb selection of wines to taste with each course was brought in by Mark and Veronica Oxley of Latilla wines. My starter of smoked duck, orange and exotic vanilla-flavoured tonka beans paired well with Oldenburg Viognier from Stellenbosch, rich with a tinge of acidity, perfumed with peach and vanilla.

Appetizing brisket with honey and soy was served with Overgaauw Tria Corda 2013, a silky, well-balanced Bordeaux-style blend, with grown-up aromas of tobacco and leather.

On to dessert, and honeycomb brandy snap, one of Amanzi’s favourite and enduring specialities. Another choice was chocolate with macadamia nuts and raspberries, served with a glass of sweet, sleek and perfume-laden Foothills Monogram Straw Wine 2014, from a vineyard in Stellenbosch.

A three course meal with choices based on the new menu is now available for $75 excluding drinks – ideal for early celebrations and corporate entertaining.

Amanzi Restaurant has the biggest selection of wines and sparkling wines ever, and thanks to a buoyant FCA, there will no shortage of seafood, Christmas crackers, party poppers and hooting tooters.

Decking the halls at Amanzi, floral designer Gwen Grier will be creating arrangements in Christmas colours of red, green and gold, with the occasional flash of blue agapanthus and cream and pink ginger lily. Mostly picked from the wild, her unusual combinations are sophisticated and elegant.

Chef Matt Williams is feeling the love as talks about his plans to cook up a storm for Christmas Day lunch at Amanzi Restaurant. Although still in the planning, starter platters to share may include angels and devils on horseback, blinis with smoked bream and cream cheese, and tempura prawns. Ballotine of churkey with home-grown honey-roasted carrots and parsnips, will sit on the buffet alongside roast lamb, roast pork, and lashings of pork crackling. Protein intake will be tempered with

spiralised beetroot with apples, pecan nuts, feta cheese and a dusting of chilli flakes, and with feisty three-cheese cauliflower cheese.

Chef Matt’s eyes glaze over when he talks about the Christmas spices of nutmeg, cinnamon, star anise and ginger, the citrus kick of clementines and naartjies, and seasonal plums, peaches and grapes. He was cagey when I asked about dessert, but he hinted that Christmas pudding and brandy butter, panettone fruit cake, cherries, chocolates and nuts might be included with whatever inspiration comes to him closer to Christmas.

If the weeks of planning and organising the cooking of Christmas dinner at home fill you with dismay, and your attempts to deep-fry your turkey last year ended in disaster, let Amanzi Restaurant take the strain. Book your whole family in for lunch on Christmas Day, and at $75 a head by swipe or EcoCash, you won’t go wrong.  A Matter of Taste with Charlotte Malakoff

Amanzi Restaurant

158 Enterprise Road

Harare

Landline: 263 242 497768

Mobile: 0772 336 224

Email: restaurant@amanzi.co.zw

Comments to: cmalakoff@gmail.com