Flavourcape

Our reservation for six was confirmed nine months in advance. What started as a fantastic idea between four friends became a foodies’ mission. The destination: El Bulli restaurant in Spain. Two days before the 2007 season closed, six South Africans arrived for dinner by taxi along a winding coastal road.

Billed as the “best” restaurant experience in the world, El Bulli opened for only six months of the year in an out-of-the-way location, so the waiting list was long. Our table included two Cape Town chefs, two journalists, a winemaker and a skilled hostess/cook. Our common ground: a commitment to adventurous eating and fun.

El Bulli’s 32 courses of nibbles, liquids and textures were unlike any recognisable set menu. They arrived as warm foam in martini glasses, as liquid bursting from edible clam enclosures, as pineapple and beetroot snacks on metal stands or as candyfloss-like Parmesan air inside Styrofoam boxes. Waiters’ prompts encouraged sniffing, touching and tasting in a specific number of bites. Visual attention was imperative. The meal was intellectually challenging and witty, yet tasty and light to digest. The Tasting Menu cost €185; the wine prices were incredibly good value for a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Q&A: Probing the remarkable mind of chef Ferran Adrià the next day – via a Spanish translator, but he understood most English questions – was inspiring. As with the food prepared, this wasn’t a chef who could easily be pigeon-holed.

Kim Maxwell: What is your opinion of the label molecular cuisine, as some describe your food?
Ferran: Molecular cuisine does not exist. It’s a lie! I’m asked this question in every interview. Whatever you ate yesterday, the concept was started in 1994 or 1995. So it’s not new or even recent. This label is harmful for me, because people who are anti my cuisine use this term to fight me. Nobody eating at El Bulli doesn’t know exactly how the food is cooked. What is important instead is the result. It doesn’t matter if the food is machine-made or hand-made; what matters is that it is there. People always think this type of food is very complicated, but sometimes it’s very simple. Take the oyster leaf I served with the hare jus and red jelly in your meal. People don’t know the leaf so they think it’s from a machine, but it’s only a new European plant tasting like an oyster.

Kim Maxwell: Your food is very labour-intensive. Are you saying it isn’t complicated?
Ferran: But it is complicated. People see this oyster leaf on their plate and think: what is it? For a chef to eat it, is very complicated, because he will think the chef preparing the dish has gone mad! A normal person could also complicate his life by just thinking about it. Cooking is a language in a way. I’m trying to send a message. Sometimes it’s a message people don’t understand. Then there are those who see more than the food is. It means whatever is in life. I want each diner to have their own experience.

Kim Maxwell: London’s Restaurant Magazine panel repeatedly voted El Bulli first of 50 global restaurants. Is it important to be ‘the best’?
Ferran: It’s not my objective to be the best. The best does not exist. What is measurable are the influences some chefs have over other chefs. Restaurant Magazine’s list shows these chefs are among those that influence cuisines around the world. It’s very difficult to be the best so I don’t pretend to be the best restaurant or most influential chef. I’ve never worried about being number one; it’s more a consequence of what I’m trying to do. The best recognition comes from people in the same profession, when you’re not included in a list.

Kim Maxwell: Doesn’t El Bulli have an unusual format for a restaurant?
Ferran: Yes. We are open for only six months, only for dinner. We have 50 cooks in the kitchen, way above the average. So nothing at El Bulli is the norm. We create 140 completely new dishes each year, and use 180 ingredients on our menu. Spanish journalists use me as model, as a temperature gauge.

They’ve asked other Spanish chefs the same questions, and realised that other restaurants can’t do it … all our new dishes, our format. Your menu for six was created for your table. They ask how we can structure a restaurant business model this way. The answer? El Bulli is not a restaurant in the usual sense because it’s not structured as a business. It is a place where a creative team looks for the limits in cuisine. We use a known format that fits into usual restaurant traditions, so there is connection and feedback to the world and to the team. But we would like to be more radical in future. This El Bulli format could be transformed into a restaurant table open only every 15 days. Why shouldn’t it be? You need to understand this or you don’t understand El Bulli.

Kim Maxwell: How does the menu creation process happen?
Ferran: Talent is not something you can structure. I have the best creative team in the world. I couldn’t do it alone. From 1994 to 1997 I was alone here. But now the El Bulli standard is so high. We close the restaurant at the end of September. On the following Monday my creative team and I pack our bags for London, Paris and perhaps Chicago, to search for creative ideas. The team of five includes my brother and me. We visit museums, markets, Chinatown, or spend time in bars, talking and brainstorming. We are looking for the meaning of happiness in our food.

Kim Maxwell: I noted Asian ingredients in my 2007 menu: imitation caviar made of miso, teriyaki mackerel belly, miso sesame sponge cake and shimeji mushrooms. Was the Asian focus intentional?
Ferran: I used 180 ingredients in your menu, of which only eight were Asian. Your razor clam dish with seaweeds had 10 ingredients alone. Maybe Asian ingredients are more noticeable because they are less usual. We use a lot of Spanish dishes and ingredients from the Roses area too — we used pistachios from Tarragona nearby.

Do you know what was missing on your menu? Bread! For a European diner, to have no bread during the meal is unimaginable. So I included black sesame bread crumbs in the mackerel dish.

Kim Maxwell: What inspires you to travel?
Ferran: I visit places for cooking promotions if I think I can learn something there. But if I travel with my wife, it’s very different to travelling with my team. What impressed me after visiting Japan is the greater respect Asians, and the Japanese in particular, have for a dish. Also, the way dining rooms are set out. El Bulli’s dining room isn’t very suitable as it’s too sociable for eating as an individual experience.

Kim Maxwell: What constitutes an ideal eating experience?
Ferran: I was involved with Dokumenta, a contemporary art festival, during 2007, where two mystery guests were sent for dinner at El Bulli over 100 days. These weren’t foodies, but art people.

One of them sent me the most wonderful sentence about her experience. “I went out of El Bulli with a sensation of not having eaten anything dead,” she said. Eating is a very individual experience, so this situation confirmed to me that two diners are the ideal number. In special cases, a group of four or six can work if people are concentrating as professionals. But an experience for two is preferred so as not to loose concentration, as people eat at different speeds at larger tables.

Concentration on a dish is based around the senses – it’s very important. People don’t use their senses enough when in a restaurant with friends. My ideal at El Bulli would be 20 minutes per dish, but with 32 courses it is not possible. The speed of dishes arriving is fast so the information is concentrated. If El Bulli’s creative team of five travels, we eat and study with concentration, and analyse. But this is not normal behaviour!

Kim Maxwell: It’s hard to fathom your intention with some dishes, the Parmesan air in Styrofoam, for instance. Is cooking a language everyone can speak?
Ferran: There could be 1000 different meanings, depending on the person opening that Styrofoam box. You could think about 15g of Parmesan air which is very light, but eating it provides the sensation of being heavy. It could be pop art if you were an artist, or similar to a box found in a supermarket. To speak my language of cooking, you have to go through all the steps to understand it. But others who know less can still enjoy it. You don’t always understand a poem, but you can enjoy it. It’s the same with eating.

Kim Maxwell: Could you create the El Bulli experience outside Roses, Spain?
Ferran: I could and I couldn’t. Whatever I can change, I change. What I can’t, I don’t. What’s more important is the format. If I take that format of operating a restaurant every 15 days, I could do this in Roses or in Barcelona. But doing it somewhere else, the food would be different.

EL BULLI, Cala Montjoi, Roses, Spain. The restaurant closed permanently in 2011.

First appearances can be misleading. A pristine white tablecloth in a conservatory restaurant suggests a formal mood and stiff dinner service. Similarly, a head chef whose left arm is tattooed with stars, alien creatures and planets comes across as anti-establishment to some. Ashley Moss has probably raised eyebrows greeting mature guests in a short-sleeved chef’s jacket at The Greenhouse restaurant. We are talking the flagship eatery of Cellars-Hohenort hotel in well-to-do Constantia.

This kitchen team is shaking up The Greenhouse – during the eight-course menu, chefs serve a dish and chat with guests.

Moss is doing the same in the kitchen. But his is no rebellion, rather about stamping culinary identity gradually. ‘I have no problem with people wearing T-shirts if they’re there for the food. But there’s definitely a market for people dressing for dinner and after good linen,’ he says.

‘We’re seeing more younger diners though. Now we’re trying to break the mould with our table set up.’ It’s a small detail, but a knife and fork lie together at an angle in the top right near the wine glass, instead of on either side of the plate.

Moss seems older than 28, and his food reflects this maturity. Recently married, he joined The Greenhouse as head chef in July, after positions in serious UK restaurants. He proved his worth on a previous four-year previous stint at The Greenhouse, departing in 2011 as sous chef.

This nature-lover is a fit, early riser who cycles 30km before work. En route he fills plastic bags with foraged wild dune spinach on the False Bay coast. It’s used in a tempura dune spinach snack, dipped in Asian dashi with smoked snoek.

‘I did a bit of foraging in England but here it’s a practical thing,’ says Moss. ‘We’re hesitant of spending on micro-herbs or whatever else is “trending” at The Greenhouse – we’d rather use what we find. But our number one priority is deliciousness.’

The five-course spring menu (R550) features sashimi with farmed abalone, seaweed and kelp. ‘I waded into the Atlantic for the kelp, which we cook,’ says Moss. ‘The sea lettuce just had to be rinsed.’

NATURE’S SUPPLY
He’d be stupid to ignore the magnificent produce from the hotel’s vegetable gardens. The gardener consults the kitchen before planting. So a few courses into the spring menu, you’ll eat an earthy quail and wild leek dish that skids to a halt with sweetly acidic raw guava puree zing.

It was Moss’s idea to combine guavas and macadamias, but he struggled with its pairing. ‘Then the wild leeks came out in our garden. It’s such a strong flavour we use it with milder regular leeks,’ he says.

If you’re splurging on the eight-course menu (R850), an African theme is introduced early on with tapas snacks. So local gemsbok on a slab of salt partners fermented waterblommetjies. A carved bowl holds indigenous madumbi potato ‘chips’ alongside the tastiest mushroom crème brulee you’ll eat.

‘I have a lot of work planned before the end of the year. I’ll go Japanese,’ says Moss. ‘I’ve had it on the cards for six years. It’s not something you jump into.’ This time he’s not discussing food but the next set of tattoos.

THE GREENHOUSE, The Cellars-Hohenort, 93 Brommersvlei Road, Constantia. Tel 021-794-2137, Collection Mcgrath

This appeared in The Times on 8 October 2014.

Woodstock is a peculiar location for South Africa’s most recognised restaurant.

Victoria and Albert Roads carve arteries through lurid shop signage advertising zips and fasteners, mingled with autoworks, furniture upholsterers and lawnmowers. Trucks hurtle past windows secured with unsightly metal grilles, pedestrians on pavements clutch tightly to belongings. Chef Luke Dale-Roberts selected this environment to open The Test Kitchen in November 2010.

The restaurant blueprint appealed to locals and visitors from the start. Four years in, a five-month year-round waiting list is real. Last-minute cancellations are the way to buck the system.

Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul was at a nearby table the night I dined. He was impressed, saying as much to 2.2 milllion Twitter followers. The restaurant boasts ‘best in Africa’ and position 48 in The World’s Fifty Best Restaurants, and Eat Out’s Restaurant of the Year title for the second time.

‘Within a 10-minute drive I can get anything I need: carpenters, metalworkers, concrete … That’s why I love Woodstock so much,’ says a grinning Dale-Roberts, showing off barbed wire he nickel-plated to look like jewellery, to hold candy floss for petit fours.

Seeing sheep’s wool snag on fences gave him the idea: ‘I took this down the road to be made and they all thought I was a bit mad when I said it was for candyfloss and marshmallows.’ Whether you buy into the barbed wire analogy or not – keeping sheep in and criminals out – Dale-Roberts is subtly pushing an African sentiment.

So kicking off his 11-course gourmand menu, you’ll find Franschhoek trout with amasi (fermented cow’s milk). Four courses later, seared springbok has pureed turnip milk ‘stencilled’ decoratively on a plate alongside red cabbage. The headline act is the lamb smiley, a cleaned up version of the township special. A sheep’s brain, tongue and cheek pair creatively with capers and anchovy, kale and a cauliflower smear.

Anybody who’s eaten at The Test Kitchen knows that while the food is innovative and skilled, diners enjoy themselves. ‘You’re selling fun. People want to leave feeling they’ve had a good night. It’s not just about the food but also the banter with the waiter,’ says Dale-Roberts. He enjoys a chat himself.

It’s also the view of kitchen action as 15 chefs and interns chop, stir, sear or plate at their stations. ‘I put a helluva effort into training,’ says Dale-Roberts of his chefs. ‘I’ll give them everything if they give it back.’

The team is one chef short on the morning we chat, so Dale-Roberts fills in. ‘If I’m having a really shitty day I go on the grill. I find it really cathartic. You stop thinking about anything except getting it perfectly cooked.’

Dale-Roberts manages the pass four nights a week. Head chef Ivor Jones handles the rest. There’s bustle, activity and music in a creative warehouse-type space, while plates are swiftly sent out. Multiple waiters expertly explain dish complexities and the suggested wines or blended teas partnering them.

What of the creative process? ‘The menu has to evolve, offer new things. I keep a running list in my phone of what I want to try. I think people like working with me cause I always have some wacky idea,’ says Dale-Roberts.

Take the visual aspects of the ‘TK concrete ball’, where two concrete flowerpots arrive steaming, containing kingklip grilled on hot charcoal. The finished plate pairs the fish alongside potato-skin puree and other elements. ‘If you’re being clever, you’ve got to deliver. There can’t be too many theatricals either. It’s got to taste good and work,’ he adds.

‘Before, I was obsessed with what people thought. I’d mull on it for days. Now I’m proud of what we’re doing, and don’t hang on to it,’ says Dale-Roberts. His wife of 14 years, Sandalene, is integral to his business and happiness. She designed the restaurant’s pink copper chairs.

Thanks to systems being in place, Dale-Roberts finds time to kick a ball with his seven year old, and sneaks off for long-board surf weekends with chef mates. But the pressure to stay on top is big. ‘I’m a control freak, yes,’ he smiles. ‘Complete.’

THE TEST KITCHEN, The Old Biscuit Mill, 375 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town. Tel 021- 447-2337, The Test Kitchen

A version of this appeared in The Times on 1 October 2014.

Looking for something different to do on a Friday summer evening in Cape Town? Tobabo’s Restaurant & Terrace at the Radisson Blue Hotel Waterfront has teamed up with Tangent Charters and they’re offering affordable sunset cruises. The boat sets off at 5pm on Friday evenings and the deal is that the Radisson Blu provides the snacks and drinks, while boat designers Tangent Charters take you out into the Atlantic in the direction of Clifton beach for a couple of hours.

Their 39-foot catamaran departs from a private mooring adjacent to the hotel’s terrace, where in good weather conditions are comfy enough to balance a glass of wine or two in moderate swell. I joined some jetsetters on a catamaran cruise this week, and once the engines were switched off and they’d hoisted the sail, a few of us spotted a few dolphins surfing nearby. A few poor victims were struck by seasickness, but I thought it was a pretty cool experience …

If you have no dinner plans, stick around and enjoy three courses on the Tobago’s Restaurant sea-facing terrace afterwards. They cater for vegetarians and while the menu won’t rock your culinary world with innovation, it’s tasty fare offering fairly good value for a hotel restaurant when packaged with the cruise as a total night out.

RADISSON BLU HOTEL WATERFRONT, Beach Road, Granger Bay. Cruise from 5pm – 7.30pm.
R250pp for the sunset cruise, a glass of Champagne and salty bar snacks.
Or R495pp for a Tobago three-course dinner plus sunset cruise, glass of Champagne and salty bar snacks.

Tel 021 441 3000, contact capetown.reservations@radissonblu.com or see tangent charters

Justine Drake has the solution to healthier eating after the festive excesses. Simply Good Food is her fifth cookbook.

This appeared in Indwe inflight magazine in January 2011.

How does your love of food translate into earning a living? I’ve been cooking since I was old enough to wield a wooden spoon. I currently edit the Fresh Living consumer food magazine. I’ve hosted Just in Africa, a culinary travelogue TV series, and I coordinate the restaurant line-up as director of the Taste of Cape Town and Taste of Joburg food shows annually.

Describe yourself. Outspoken, loyal, honest, fun-loving, food-mad.

Healthy eater or prone to gourmet binges? Hmm, I suppose for the most part I’m a pretty healthy eater – low fat, low salt, no preservatives. But I do love Sauvignon Blanc and my job is prone to gourmet binging. Enough said.

Suggestions for over-indulgence sufferers? Lots of water and milk thistle. Mind you, a good spicy Bloody Mary and a bacon sandwich go a long way too!

Always in your grocery bag? Lemons, garlic, tomatoes, olive oil, assorted fresh herbs, free-range chicken, Sauvignon Blanc. And a recent discovery, Primitiv Vodka produced locally from spelt grown in the Cederberg.

A “good” eating day at home? I presume you mean healthy and well behaved. On a regular weekday it’s homemade Bircher muesli, an office lunch of Ryvita, chunky cottage cheese, tomato and Danish herring. Dinner of chicken breasts stuffed with anchovy, lemon and herbs, with baby potatoes and salad. Or spaghetti Bolognaise, or maybe grilled fish with a curry rub, raita and basmati rice.

Favourite Cape Town restaurants? We mostly eat in our neighbourhood – so Il Leone for great, modern Italian, Manos for heavenly Prego rolls, Posticino for good, affordable pizza. I love Bizerca Bistro for friendly “posh” food, and Carne for meat in another league.

Is Simply Good Food for dieters? Yes and no – it’s for healthy eaters and anyone who wants or needs to eat better. It caters for weight loss, diabetics or those with high cholesterol, and provides salt-free recipes for high blood pressure. Sometimes people need to change their cooking and aren’t sure how to go about it. Eating bland, unexciting food often means they binge because it didn’t satisfy. Simply Good Food aims to change that.

What sorts of cooking suggestions are provided? Desserts using xylitol or Sugar-lite – I dare you not to find the low-fat crème caramel utterly delicious! Stabilising yoghurt so it doesn’t curdle, then using it instead of cream. And the age-old trick: adding lots of herbs and spices to make up for the lack of salt and fat.

Which ingredients were vetoed by dieticians in the book? Salt – almost entirely - and sugar. They are bigger killers than fat and far more frequently used. You know when you’re eating saturated fat – and feel appropriately guilty – but you don’t feel the same when tossing loads of soy sauce on a platter of sushi. I used to use a lot of stock powder, but I took to making my own salt-free chicken stock. It was the only way to get around the fierce dieticians – bless them!

Simply Good Food is produced by Lannice Snyman Publishers and retails at R162.50. ISBN Number: 9780620474016.

Chic South African Marlene van der Westhuizen is inspired by French flavours and classic techniques. When in Cape Town this industrious woman whips up gourmet meals, while in France she hosts tasty tours.

This appeared in Indwe inflight magazine in Nov 2010

What keeps you busy in food? I’m a classically trained chef and I’ve produced a few cookbooks. I own a space I call the Food Studio in Green Point. Three times a year I host cooking holidays for foodies in Charroux, Auvergne in France.

Please explain the concept of the Food Studio. It’s a venue where we strive to cook excellent food at affordable prices. We offer lunches or dinners for 10 to 22 guests – I pair my dishes with wines on request - or host small groups of friends or colleagues for stress-free cooking classes.

How did you transform the Food Studio space? We renovated a semi-detached Victorian building in 2007. Upstairs my open-plan kitchen leads to a terrace and a dining area, plus guest bedrooms and bathrooms. It’s decorated with a few serious antique shop pieces plus some easygoing, fun items. I love the antique Murano chandelier I found in an Italian shop in St Germain in Paris.

We’ve heard tasty rumours about dinners on offer. Yes, I have capitulated under pressure from clients. We opened the Food Studio for individual dinners every Friday at eight. We’ve been running these since 19th October, charging R280pp for three courses. It’s a set menu and people can bring their own wine. Booking is essential.

What could I eat at the Food Studio? Comfortable “brasserie luxe” food. Onion soup, coq au vin, osso buco, oxtail, tarte tatin, orange pudding… Served with bread on the table while I cook with a glass in hand! All recipes are from my cookbooks: Delectable, Sumptuous, Lazy Lunches, Decadent Dinners, Kuierkos vir die Middag and Kuierkos vir die Aand.

You recently went to France to lead your gourmet tour. What happens? Guests stay with me at Bagatelle, our home in the medieval village of Charroux. We shop at local food markets, cook, walk and cycle. During a weeklong experience, we might browse for antiques at the Sunday brocante, eat at a local haunt, cook some more and taste wines.

Ingredients always in your fridge or pantry? Fresh eggs, full cream milk, tomatoes and ripe Brie. Collectively these make a perfect meal.

Your treasured foodie collectables? I love napkins… large antique ones. I have more than is strictly proper. And I have heaps of silver and bone cutlery.

Catering, Friday dinners and Charroux gourmet tour details at Good Food Tel 021 433 2259.