Alan Coxon arrived in Johannesburg, from the end of a British winter, and embarked immediately on the promotion of his new series, Coxon’s Sporting Feast. He set up shop in the Melrose Arch Hotel. On the balcony he drank sparkling water and reflected on his commitment to South Africa’s culinary arts.
On May 9 BBC Food began airing the new series, which takes viewers into the homes of South Africa’s top sports personalities. If you think that our outdoor achievers are a bunch of conscientious health nuts — think again. Coxon had to teach them about smart breakfasts and how to transform bad burgers.
In its presentation, Sporting Feast draws on Coxon’s Royal Feast. The previous series found the affable Coxon trading culinary secrets with King Goodwill Zwelithini, among others.
Once local audiences have ogled at the kitchen habits of the country’s sporting royalty they can get their hands dirty with Coxon’s new, locally produced cookery book Ready in Minutes (Struik). Here, he teaches one how to cook just about anything in less than 30 minutes.
This month sees the launch of Coxon’s own range of gourmet vine-gars, prepared by and for the local food market. Sometime in the future he hopes to market his goods in the United Kingdom.
What did the Melrose Arch Hotel serve you for lunch?
I can’t say that. These are secrets. I had a very light salad. I’m trying to eat healthy. At the end of the day, don’t forget, I’m from England — I’ve had six months of miserable, cold weather. The body sets into overdrive and says, ‘We need starch.” Six months down the line, you’re ready to get some sunshine, some lettuce. So I’m happy to eat salad.
How do you live? Humbly in the centre of town? Or outside town? Are you making South Africa your second home?
I live in a 300-year-old converted malt house that I purchased seven years ago, which I’ve been doing up. The first job was the kitchen. I totally gutted the whole premises. It’s full of oak beams, full of character. I’ve got my office in the building as well. It’s on different levels. My kitchen is on a platform. A psychologist would probably say that’s because of the showmanship.
Is every day devoted to food?
Absolutely, totally, whether it’s a new book, whatever. I’ve got a new food range that I’ve created and developed. It has been in creation for three years. I’ve got a South African company that’s producing it for me. The bottles are all hand-made. I’ve become a bottle specialist. I know the inside core millimeter, the cork size dimensions. I created the bottle, designed it, drew it — the labels, the whole works.
With this particular range I’ve delved back in time. It is a vinegar range. There are ancient Greek and Roman period items, and from an ale we’ve developed a 15th-century period vinegar. I’ve recreated recipes over those periods of time. I’ve replicated them. I’ve had them tested and developed and made with organic quality produce.
It’s a fresh, totally top-notch product that has been brewed over here in South Africa. Basically I’ve recreated the taste of time.
Is it specifically for South Africa? Will it export?
Yes. I launch here on May 26 at the Gourmet Food Festival. I introduce it to the South African market primarily. For the event I’ve got a Roman centurion and a Greek goddess, who is beautiful, all in formal regalia and attire. The process will bring more employment to South Africa, which is good. Then I hope to ship over to the UK, to hopefully start a distribution network there.
Royal Feast was unique, quaint and very South African. But you’ve got royalty and sports people in UK — why didn’t you just do a cookery programme about them?
The protocol is a little more challenging. I would love to, but I was invited here. The Royal Feast programme started off in Birmingham of all places. I was doing a demonstration at an event and an Indian lady approached me and said, ‘If ever you’re back in South Africa, I’d like to arrange a dinner with you and King Goodwill Zwelithini.” I said, ‘Who?” I was totally ignorant. ‘Do you have kings in South Africa?”
Six months down the line, I called her about her offer and she arranged it. His majesty arrived in two bullet-proof Mercedes and four security cars. There were sirens and we travelled in a cavalcade to a Durban hotel. He had 46 bodyguards who sat at the tables all around him. We had an amazing evening. Towards the end we were talking about food and I said, ‘Next time I’ll bring an apron, you can cook me some Zulu food and I’ll cook European.” It went quiet at that point and his aide said, ‘You might have insulted him because a Zulu king doesn’t cook.” The following morning there was a phone call and he actually said he would like to do the demonstration.
And sports people? You must have thought that because we manufacture good sports people the same concept would work.
With Royal Feast we hit the right note. On the basis of that success we said here is a cycle with which to ride into people’s lives. Basically I always wanted to do an interview-type programme with food. When they’re doing a second, or third job, people’s minds are not so much concentrating on the political correctness of what they’re saying, or thinking about their hair or the delivery of the lines.
We have some of the most proficient sports people in the world. But, apart from Gary Player, who is a type of elder statesperson of the sports world, we don’t look on them as enlightened and outspoken people.
I wouldn’t say that. Francois Piennaar is worldy. He has travelled. He’s also very efficient in the kitchen. Straight away I can tell how a person cooks by how they are in the kitchen, by their knife-handling skills. Straight away he picked up the knife and he was chopping away.
The ethos of the programme was to try and find out what individual sports people eat on a daily basis. Not what they would like to eat in a restaurant. What do they eat before they go for a run? Before they go for a game of golf?
Are they all good?
No. Which is great. One of them, particularly, was a food junkie. It was Allan Donald — he’s open about it. He has a burger for an afternoon snack and curry at night time. These are not the typical examples that you’d find in a dietician’s plan for a successful sportsperson. On that basis, I thought, let’s do a curry but let’s make it healthy. Let’s do a burger, but let’s make it healthy.
Do you find yourself instructive as you uncover their personalities?
My first worry, when I started writing down recipes and ideas, was to find a 101 recipes with yoghurt — or what to do with muesli. But I didn’t want to turn it into ‘Dr Coxon”. That can alienate a lot of people.
At the same time, what I wanted to do was bring a good healthy aspect into the programme for up-and-coming sports people, schoolchildren and sports people wanting to attain professionalism. And it all boils down to the motto: every-thing in moderation. That’s a common fact.
It’s common sense we’ve lost.
Yes, but there are also many temptations, and we all yield to temptation. I do. The smell of meat, the juices and the crispy fats.
But sportspeople can eat it — they get rid of it.
Of course they burn it off. But at the end of the day you do not get all the nutrients and vitamins from one source alone. It’s got to be over several small amounts, which in my opinion gives you a healthy, balanced diet. You’re not going to get everything you want out of life from porridge.
Zola [Budd] has porridge every morning for breakfast — straightforward porridge with water and salt. And a rusk in the afternoon. She’ll have the same pasta dish three times a week. I had no intention of knocking that. But it’s a case of saying, ‘Do you have that for a purpose? What are the health issues? If you don’t like cooking, let’s look at something which is going to give this a twist.”
Alan Coxon’s Sporting Feast airs on BBC Food on DStv on Mondays at 7pm