Thursday: 31 July 2003

This site will be updated on: 07 August  2003 at 17:00

People - Mense

• Hy's 'n duiweman
• Marc his words

OOM GAWIE ROSSOUW (80) is 'n duiweman deur en deur. In die duiwehok in sy agterplaas in Treurnichtstraat in die Paarl is dit omtrent 'n gefladder van vere.

Trots wys hy hoe "daardie een nes 'n wynglas lyk - pootjies reguit vorentoe en 'n ronde lyfie".

En dit is hierdie einste duiwe wat op die onlangse Suid-Afrikaanse Sierduifvereniging se jaarlikse kampioenskou op Oudtshoorn, drie pryse vir hom ingepalm het.

"Ek was die tweede oudste deelnemer op die skou en het sowat dertig duiwe ingeskryf. "Van dié was my Schietti as die beste swart

Modena-jonghen derde."

Italiaans

Met die entoesiasme van 'n jong seun begin hy vertel hoe hy aan sy voorliefde vir dié geveerde diere gekom het.

Al van die brose ouderdom van agt jaar 'n duiweliefhebber, spog hy deesdae met 'n hele hok vol Italiaanse Modena-duiwe, wat in skakerings van room, bruin tot swart met 'n perserige skynsel voorkom.

Nou pryk die skild wat hy hiervoor ingepalm het, saam met sy ander horde bekers en trofeë, op 'n rak in die voorkamer.

"Toe ek my verstand kry destyds, was daar al duiwe op ons werf in Porterville," vertel hy,

"My ouer broer was ook 'n duiwe- liefhebber. Daardie tyd het ons maar net die gewone pou-sterte gehad.

"Ek het in standerd agt, toe ek nog op Porterville Hoërskool was, begin boer met wedvlugduiwe.

"Ek het toe gewerk by 'n slaghuis as afleweraar en met die tien sjielings wat ek per week ontvang het, het ek duiwekos gekoop.

"Toe, in 1942 as 19-jarige jongman, het ek by die Departement van Gesondheid in Grahamstad begin werk en het ek geen duiwe gehad nie.

"Drie jaar na my troue het ek egter weer hokke begin opsit en dit is vandag nog steeds my stokperdjie."

Hy het destyds ook met hoenders geboer, maar kan weens munisipale regulasies nie dié tydverdryf in die Paarl beoefen nie.

Intussen hou sy geliefde duiwe en tuinmaak hom besig genoeg.

* An eighty-year-old Paarlite is one of the top fancy pigeon breeders in the country.

VISITING Marc Friederich is like sampling a dish garnished with Bonne Volonté - good will, for those who do not hail from the friendly food artist's native France.

Marc (39) not only speaks French - albeit with a German accent - but also English and German.

The accent, he confesses, has much to do

and was allegedly his best English teacher.

Marc has come a long way since those days, and to the day last year that he opened his Mediterranean restaurant, Marc's, in the Main Street of Paarl.

After graduating as Sommelier in 1984, he worked in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and Scotland. He went on to win countless awards as Best Sommelier.

He was chef sommelier from 1989 to 1993 at the distinguised Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne, Switzerland.

After opening its doors in Paarl, Marc was approached to take over as restaurant manager at the Grande Roche Hotel in 1995.

Although he meant to stay only for a year, he remained at the hotel  until 1997.

"It was hard work, but it was exciting," Marc remembers the time when he and his bride, Maya, moved to South Africa.

From 1999 to 2002, as chef and managing director, he planned and built the Il Casale restaurant at Ashanti in Klein Drakenstein and made it one of the most coveted eateries.

At their home in Strasbourg Marc's mother was an excellent cook, he says, while his father enjoyed the wines. His family is honoured with winemakers, famous chefs and cheesemakers.

Marc also taught French students and executives about wines.

"Eating healthy food and trying wines is very important," Marc says.

Maya met her husband in the early nineties, through a winemaker friend of Marc's.

"At that time I knew nothing of wine," Maya says. "But I knew I had to learn because that was all they ever talked about."

And she did learn. A journalist by trade, Maya worked as a correspondent when they moved to Paarl.

"It was not easy," she confesses. With a Swiss mother and a Lebanese father, she is French speaking and still struggles with Afrikaans. She worked for the KWV, escorted French groups and wrote about the wine industry.

Today Maya runs the Wine Emporium at the KWV, a joint venture with KWV International.

"You have to be passionate about what you do," Maya says, "and you have to be flexible."

Like in the kitchen: "I don't think I cook too badly, but Marc and I cannot cook together."

Says Marc about his 20 years in restaurants, "I was lucky to have good teachers, not only at the hotel school, but also afterwards.

"You have to know your subject. That's why I have professionals, a bookkeeper and a lawyer, for the business side that I know nothing about.

"Together with Thomas, my good chef, we make it happen in the kitchen.

"Food is about sense and feeling, flavour and taste. I give my customers fresh, healthy, honest food. It is back to basics, to simplicity, quality, with lots of expression in it.

"At Marc's we wanted to offer something different from the normal large steak everyone knows in Paarl. People must want to visit us for our moussaka, paella or my special chocolate mousse."

For Marc the secret to success in business is "knowledge, hard work, honesty and lots of good will - Bonne Volonté."

Marc, Maya and their two sons have snuggled themselves into the Boland. When a customer recently asked him from where he hailed, Marc replied, from France.

"But I know that the next time I am asked that question, I will reply - from Paarl."