La Colombe Restaurant reviewed June 2010 (24-Jun-10)
THIS is a story about a tomato. Not any tomato but a very special tomato that was selected from all the tomatoes in the field to be made, finally, to taste the way a tomato should and be celebrated on a plate with Springbok tataki and tartare with rolled cheese and baby-marrow cannelloni.
Like the foie gras which La Colombe continues to serve despite a fury of emails, this tomato is given the chance we all crave: to be its best, true self.
The psychotherapist or alchemist assisting in this individuation is Luke Dale-Roberts.
Faced with the heat from all sides of the crucible, Dale-Roberts has created a series of dishes and tasting menus that I think justify his vaunted position as a celebrated chef but I can’t agree that La Colombe should be ranked as the 12th Best Restaurant in the World.
Not only because I think it puts unnecessary stress on Dale-Roberts and his team but also because La Colombe is let down by its structural environment.
Irrespective how good the food is, and it is, I don’t accept that a restaurant with no major artwork investment or interior decoration and outhouse toilets with overflowing bins and exposed electrical boards can be so ranked. It is naïve to consider only the food when so many other factors also contribute to a standout experience.
The evolution in taste and texture is experienced in the first few moments. Previously, there was a make-your-own sauce farrago with mini pestles and mortars, confit garlic etc which I didn’t care for – as a lazy eater dipping my bread into the cheese fondue is the extent of my desired physicality during a meal.
Now, the tappas-style amuse bouche is served on smoothly rounded bosky tongue depressors and autumnal wooden boards such as you’d expect to see in Wallpaper Magazine.
The moment the foie parfait was in my mouth, I needed more. A primal, needy urge was awakened in me. JP didn’t eat his, which was a great relief, as, without an immediate, second creamy-mouthed hit, I might have lashed out at a passing staffer in desperation.
I noticed a young couple at the next door table. Perhaps it was the pain of the price (although the winter special is superb value for money) but they seemed unhappy with each other and, indeed, life.
I only had moments between courses, when my rapture dissipated slightly, to catch a glance of them. If it true that we are what we eat, then La Colombe’s transformation of ingredients into delight was infusing the unhappy couple with life-force. Just like the way the green radioactive stuff fills Peter Parker’s spidery veins, so I watched this couple unfurl into fullness because of the food.
I like that even in such a celebrated restaurant that service is friendly and efficient and the snootiness I judged previously was, thankfully, nowhere to be found.
Although every dish was faultless, I enjoyed the sweetbreads on aubergine with chickpeas, mushrooms and prawn most. Luke’s Asian influences show up in the Miso and Teriyaki notes.
Suckling pig three ways is served with beetroot and Jagermeister sauce, smoked chickpea and celeriac puree, creamed leeks and, of course, divine crackling. While a root vegetable and bone-marrow risotto, served in a mini fishbowl, topped with a wooden tile to retain the scents and the final addition of chive dust, is what you can look forward to on new menus.
A five-course degustation dinner menu with individual wine pairings costs R280 and R380 respectively, available until September 30, with the exception of the Sundays between August 9 –August 29, when they are closed.
La Colombe,
Constantia Uitsig Estate.
021-794-2390.
lacolombe@uitsig.co.za
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Pastis Restaurant reviewed and Jenny Morris moves. June 2010 (18-Jun-10)
Many people will agree those brave enough to open a restaurant should see a head doctor, so I’m not sure what to make of affable head doctor Derek Marshal’s hands-on ownership of Pastis restaurant in Constantia. Heads aside, start with the Onion Soup, sweet and hearty with lots of soft translucent onions waiting at the bottom of the bowl. As a lazy eater, I’d prefer not to fight to cut the cheese crouton in my bowl with a spoon and rather have smaller ones that I can effortlessly pop into my mouth. Lee seemed to enjoy her escargot that came, as expected, dripping in garlic butter with a wedge of fried bread.
If effortless eating is your goal too, order the steak au poivre. I was cataloguing all the pepper steaks I’d enjoyed over the years to see where this one was located and find it somewhere between the hot white pepper offering at Den Anker and the softer Madagascar green pepper option at Belthazar. It is certainly of a quality superior enough to drag me from the far North to order it at Pastis again.
Along with sensational garlic mash, the ox tail was very delicious with root vegetables bolstering the flavours of the red wine in which it was cooked but, for my preference, it needed another while slow cooking to release every bit of connective tissue from the bone.
A dish in which to toss bones would have been useful too.
Their pork belly comes with an interesting apple sauce but it didn’t provide enough moisture to dry roasted meat while the duck with Asian noodles was tasty enough but I found the sauce a little too sweet - not that it stopped me from scoffing the remainder of Lee’s portion.
We greedily ordered five desserts for the four of us as they were all so compelling. Although the apple tarte tatin wasn’t right – it should be served topped with pastry with a caramel syrup, but that said, the apple tartlet was very elegant and good to eat. The winner was the baked cheese cake, rich on the tongue but feather light in which to bite and the crème brulee had the perfect Goldilocks texture – not to stiff not to soft but just right. The lemon tart would have been stellar had the pastry been baked blind to give a crisp base rather than a raw one. I did love the crisp melted sugar topping against the freshly acidic lemon in the curd-based tart.
Pastis has a cozy downstairs bar area with a big wood-burning fireplace.
They’ve recently refurbished the main restaurant area but I was disappointed they opted for a gas fireplace with faux logs where they had a wood-burning one downstairs.
Pastis, High Constantia.
021 794 8334.
www.pastisrestaurant.co.za
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Jenny Morris for many years and am a great admirer of her recipes. In fact, my greatest baking achievement – the perfect carrot cake, is her recipe from her first book.
Last week we attended the launch of The CooksPlayground in its new modern multi-purpose facility where she’ll offer regular weekly recreational cooking classes, corporate team building, social parties like kitchen teas, baby showers etc., all of which are fuelled by her irrepressible fun and laughter. The facility can host 80 people seated restaurant style or 120 conference style and the kitchen has 30 work-stations.
There are also HD Plasma screen displays to watch Jenny’s every move or to use for presentations.
The CooksPlayground is at
32 Napier Street (across from Cape Quarter), De Waterkant
021 425 3000. www.gigglinggourmet.com
Brian Berkman assists clients with PR campaigns and writes about travel when he can leave the table for long enough. See BrianBerkmanZA on Twitter or www.BrianBerkman.com • Permalink • Comments [0]
Madame Zingara Love Magic Tour reviewed. June 2010 (10-Jun-10)
WHEN things go wrong at a restaurant, management can ignore it at their peril or make some gesture to indicate that they’re sorry. At most restaurants, that gesture is a free coffee, perhaps a drink or even a round of desserts. At Madame Zingara’s tented Love Magic Tour, it is feather boas, sparkly hats and fun specs with curlicue promontories. This tells you everything you need to know about what to expect in the company of Madame Zingara in her new Century City home.
Richard Griffin has long delighted us with his kitchen originality and, to steal from the Rocky Horror Show, his unconventional conventionalists – the quirky people drawn to work with him.
I remember him strewing rose petals at his restaurant Serendipity before seeing any other do it. Richard does it first and others copy, which is what, I believe, Vaudeville has done. A lot of the chatter at the media launch of The Love Magic Tour was comparing it to Vaudeville. I haven’t been there but from what I’ve seen in the media, it is also a dinner cirque spectacle.
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