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Gourmet Factor
It all starts with an attitude, a state of mind, or a vision to achieve something which seems out of reach or not the norm. At Southern Wilderness we love food, and that is where it all started....
When heading out into the wilderness there seemed to be some unwritten rule that your diet had to be reduced to bland tasting or basic dehydrated food, the focus was on fuelling the body for the exercise, feeding the spirit with your wholesome environment was supposed to be enough.
After countless nights spent in huts and tents, the mindset that dehydrated potatoes and peas was part of the experience wore thin. Why not carry in fresh food that tastes great and can fuel your body even better then food that has all the goodness sucked out of it?
Here at Southern Wilderness we are unashamed foodies, we love wholesome tasty dishes, and we decided that we wanted to eat well while we were out in the wilderness. So the fresh menu was developed, Thai chicken curry, lamb backstraps, real tomato and basil pasta sauce, even salmon fillets formed a part of the experience! With the technology of vacuum packing machines, freezers and strong shoulders, all of a sudden we could do these wonderful hikes and be able to sit down to delicious and healthy food at each meal, a meal that we would have been proud of cooking for friends at home.
We also realised that people have different needs, Vegetarians, gluten free, celiac; there are many things that people have allergies to now, and as long as we know in advance we can cater for almost all dietary needs, and still keep the food tasty!
The attitude was formed, if we can change the rules about food what about everything else? We sat down, thought things through and decided that we were not going to waste time with mediocrity, we were going to be a world class guided hiking company. The term Gourmet would apply not only to the food we serve, but the way we dealt with things around us.
The Gourmet Factor at Southern Wilderness, simply means we are dedicated to making sure that we have a positive impact on not only our guests that come on journeys with us, but with ourselves (the crew), the environment and the community that we work within. The Gourmet Factor is in a nutshell not wasting time with mediocrity.