Mariclaire Day | The Barefoot Cook Hermanus
Barefoot In The Kitchen…
The restaurants in Hermanus are considered some of the best. Why, you ask? The chefs that head them up have access to local, freshly produced and farmed goods. You know what you will be served is true and wholesome! Food has seen a revival in smaller towns like ours and that is due to passionate, honest chefs like Mariclaire Day who is the owner and chef of The Barefoot Cook.
Mariclaire Day is well travelled but had her heart set on Hermanus from way back when. Saucy Marie Claire is dedicated to serving only the best, her menu is inspired by her moods and what she feels like cooking on the day. This practical outlook on life reflects in her ever changing menu and mouth watering dishes. Ironically her ease and style is reflected in the name of the restaurant – The Barefoot Cook and in the fact that she is found to be, most of the time, barefoot!
See what she had to say about food, fun and everything else…
What inspired you to become a chef?
The creativity ingredients offer me and the fascinating history and origin of foods and dishes.
Chefs are nuts…(why?)
Because we thrive on working odd hours, heaps of adrenaline and smelling of food all the time.
If you weren’t a chef you would be…
Travelling the world eating foods of faraway lands.
If I am not in the kitchen I am…
Enjoying our awesome outdoors hiking and horse riding and spending time eating and drinking good food and wine with friends and family.
If you date or marry a chef you need to know…
You will be home alone a lot!
What’s a trendy food or ingredient that you are sick of by now?…
Foam of whatever kind!
Have you ever been served anything that you found totally disgusting and lied?
So far, no.Thankfully!
Does Hermanus inspire your food, if so how?
Yes, I like to think small towns have not lost touch with what is real.
If Hermanus was a dish what would it be?
Paella…..a whole list of ingredients, some of which you wouldn’t think to add,on one plate to make a dish with all sorts of flavours.
If Hermanus was a wine what would it be?
Pinot Grigio…..light, fun, fruity and uncomplicated
Hermanus is…
My home!
My best childhood memories are…
Of meal times from sandwiches on the beach, Mom made the best! To huge old rambling 1820 Eastern Cape farmhouse dinners or breakfast with the family to Mom’s home cooked supper on a school night to special occasion restaurant outings!
I wish I knew then what I do now about…
People, definitely people!
She holds no grudges, no airs and no flairs…exactly how cooking and food should be!
More info on the town of Hermanus |