Ask any chef in the Western Cape where they found their truffle oil, their quail eggs or their guinea fowl, and chances are you’ll get the same answer. Wild Peacock started out twenty odd years ago, supplying oysters to four or five restaurants.

“My mother (Sue Baker) used to fetch me from school and we’d go and deliver oysters to Margot (Janse, of Le Quartier Francais), or Den Anker at the Waterfront,” Ross Baker of Wild Peacock tells me.

Since then the product list has grown somewhat, as has the list of restaurant clients. Today, Wild Peacock supplies around 400 restaurants in the Western Cape, many of the Eat Out top 10 restaurants included. And last year, Wild Peacock opened up a shop so that the general public could get in on the action too.

“Members of the public would come to us and ask to buy things, but it was tricky, because we didn’t have a showroom for them to look at. We’ve been trying to open it for about five years, and last year we finally found a spot,” says Ross. Their new home is Piet Retief Street, Stellenbosch, in a store with over six and a half metres of deli fridges.

So what can you buy in this foodie haven? There are between 400 and 500 products, most of which are sourced locally. You can pick up fresh duck from a farm in Stellenbosch, oysters and mussels from Saldanha Bay, quails from Stellenbosch and free-range chicken from Somerset West.

There are even local snails, from a company in the Hemel and Aarde Valley, which collects them from the local vineyards. They’re a different breed to the French variety, so Ross cautions that they need to be pressure cooked for forty-five minutes to become tender. He sells them frozen, freshly cooked or just fresh in their shells. “They go into hibernation when you put them in the fridge,” he explains, so there’s no need to worry about them escaping and demolishing your lettuce.

Another farmer provides the Wild Peacock with guinea fowl. Unlike the escargots, these are not the local variety, but a French strain more suitable for eating.

For fish fans, there is SASSI green listed kabeljou from East London, and sustainable farmed salmon, which is yet to get its SASSI licence.

Fans of Joburg charcuterie, Fama Delicatessen, will be pleased to hear that Roberto Sa Gimenez’s range of cured meats is also available at Wild Peacock. “We’ve got his prosciutto, Serrano-style ham, salami and pancetta,” Ross tells me.

They’ve also recently become the SA agents for top French chocolatiers, Valrhona, and even stock a range of professional level couvertures.

Imported truffle oil and fresh truffles are also available on request, if you’ve got the cash – white truffle prices can reach around R20 000 a kilo!

“We also recently got an off-premises liquor licence,” says Ross, revealing to me that they’ll be opening a wine shop. Listening to Ross rattle off his list of top quality products, it’s hard not to get inspired. This is one speciality food store not to miss.

By Katharine Jacobs
Photographs: Hendrik Steytler