Buchu and Bobotie in the Boland : culinary heritage in Franschhoek, Western Cape

From a confit tomato and potato tumbleweed with buchu to a cured snoek terrine rolled in wilde kruie and Cape bobotie puff pastry with blatjang, chefs that mix indigenous plants and local cuisine with European inspiration and training have proved popular in Franschhoek’s restaurants. In this boland town, the particular constructions of heritage through food, not only showcases regional flavours, but gestures towards the search for an elusive place-based ‘South African’ cuisine that is seen to be rooted in the land. Harkening back to old culinary practices and drawing from their own heritages, Franschhoek’s chefs are foraging, butchering, gathering, growing, fermenting, pickling and cooking over open fires with renewed vigour as they attempt to ground their cuisine, and indeed, themselves, in the soil around them. This thesis considers how, through the culinary repertoire of chefs in Franschhoek, food is constructed as heritage. Within this I look at what heritages are considered desirable, how food’s sensory and symbolic properties are used to their full potential, and who is behind these constructions of culinary heritage. Following on from this, I explore postcolonial and post-apartheid anxieties of place and belonging, as well as desired and emergent identities that are expressed through this culinary heritage