Dutch food designer Marije Vogelzang will be in the Western Cape for the Second Spier Secret Festival, taking place at Spier wine farm on Friday 25 October and Saturday 26 October.

In the past, Vogelzang has invented a range of imaginary animals for a meat-textured vegan food product, a pasta sauna in New York (now that’s a gym addition we approve of!), and, recently, an 18-metre long installation of bread-writing in Belgium. At the Spier Secret Festival, the designer will do an hour-long presentation at Friday’s conference, as well as host an interactive eating experience on Friday night. 

A key focus of the conference is food and wine trends, ethics, and biodynamic farming. Other local and international experts will present talks, visual presentations, workshops and tasting, and include the following people:

Andy Fenner (SA): The founder and owner of Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants has recently returned from the MAD Symposium held in Copenhagen, and agreed to share his experience, “MAD was incredible for me. To be in the same room as guys like David Chang, Alain Ducasse, Rene Redzepi, Chris Ying, Fergus Henderson and Alex Atala was pretty humbling.”

Lily Vanilli (UK): This London-based baker who made a name for herself with her sculptural, macabre cake creations (roadkill cake, gingerbread gravestones, marzipan beetles) will share some tales.

Robert Sayre (USA): The Creative Director of Conflict Kitchen in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a take away restaurant famous for serving cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict.

Sam Woulidge (SA): The Cape Town-based columnist and cookbook author will be presenting an interactive event around food and memory.

Spier’s winemaking team with Cellar Master Frans Smit will present a unique interactive wine-blending workshop, where conference delegates will get the opportunity to create their own wine.

The Spier Secret market on Saturday is open to the public from 9am to 3pm and entry is free. The market will host some of the Western Cape’s best small producers, bakers, street food vendors, pop-up restaurants and there will be plenty of farm-style entertainment for kids. The SA Chenin Blanc Association will also curate a tasting expo, showcasing the best of South Africa’s chenin blancs.

Tickets are still available to Marije Vogelzang’s dinner (R650 for three courses with wine); and a very limited number of tickets are still available for Friday’s conference (at R900 each). Bookings for tickets and accommodation can be made at 021 809 1100 or reservations@spier.co.za. Visit www.spiersecretfestival.co.za for more info.