A FEAST OF fusion
Having worked in various fields between 2000 and 2011 – from cold-call sales and clothing promotions to owning and running a music booking agency – Ilse started her blog, thefoodfox.com, in early 2011.
“Because of my passion for food and writing, it was a natural progression that led me to start writing the blog. I closed my agency within a year and have been active on the food scene full-time since then,” she shares.
Born and bred in Stellenbosch, Ilse graduated with a Bachelor of Consumer Science in Clothing and Textiles from the University of Stellenbosch. A true enthusiast of the culinary world, she says she has always dreamt of hosting her own television cooking show. And, after eight years, this dream came true with the airing of Klankbord (a production where beautiful melodies by local artists and fine food by South African chefs converge) on VIA TV (DStv channel 147) in February 2019. But, this ambitious wife and mother of one – Ilse and her husband, musician and historian, Schalk van der Merwe, are parents to eight-year-old daughter Valki – did not stop there: she followed this up with the publishing of Cape Mediterranean – the way we love to eat in July.
Ilse explains that when she hosted her cooking demonstrations – which she did at her home and other private homes, as well as
