Brian Berkman Publicity ~ (http://BrianBerkman.com/)

recent

archive

Casper Oelofsen on Bizerca (12-Nov-08)

Review of Bizerca by Casper Oelofsen

I was fortunate. I bailed out of a group gathering at Ocean Basket and decided to make a late unbooked entry at Bizerca on a Tuesday eve

• More • Permalink • Comments [0]

Azure summer menu and Dornier's new chef (31-Oct-08)

ESTATE agents will sing-song position, position, position which is never truer when one’s outlook is onto the sea or arrestingly beautiful mountains. Azure Restaurant at the 12 Apostle’s has such a view over the Atlantic that it is hard to remember that one is in a hotel just 20-minutes from Cape Town and not on an ocean liner on the deep blue. Like its name suggests, Azure is blue. Not in sad way like people who mope but like those who sing bada bi, bada bum at the views and long-time chef’s Roberto De Carvahlo’s cuisine.
There are twelve new items on the menu which we previewed as a three-course plated meal with four samplings per plate. Starter stand-outs included the Crayfish Bisque, rich and flavourful with wild fennel, diced crayfish, white wine and brandy enriched by double cream and served with prawn and sesame ginger toasts. The gravlax of Scandinavian salmon was good and attractively served with poached quail’s egg.
Although I really enjoyed the Cape Malay chicken curry very much, the fish of the day made the biggest impression on me with its perfectly cooked chunky prawn, tomato and smoked Spanish paprika sauce. The accompanying spinach and ricotta Panzarotti crescent is like eating a silk pocket of flavour. Azure is one of the few restaurants (too few to my mind) that make cooking with fynbos a focus. The Buchu Crème Brûlée is example of how to create a perfectly delicious and uniquely Cape dish.
Azure at 12 Apostles Hotel. 021-437-9000.

The view of the mountains from Dornier wine estate on the Blaauwklippen, Stellenbosch road is achingly beautiful and I’m pleased to say the food matches perfectly.
I have always enjoyed what I’ve eaten at

Dornier’s Bodega restaurant but after feasting with new chef Naas Pienaar (whom I stupidly called Morne throughout the meal) the restaurant could be in line for culinary awards.
His emphasis is on sourcing farm-fresh ingredients and treating them respectfully with slow cooking that plays pied-piper with flavours drawing them out from the flesh’s deepest recesses.
The lamb shoulder, for example is cooked for many hours in a wood-fed oven that it offers up its own scents on a garlic magic carpet. The accompanying carrots and potatoes look and taste beautiful, still glistening from being cooked in duck fat. Madagascan pepper steak is a winner while catch of the day is dressed with vanilla and lime butter reduction.
Chef Naas, it seems, has affairs with ingredients. When we dined he’d added fresh porcini to many dishes. Unlike some restaurants where they work the same few ingredients into as many dishes as possible, here, buoyed by his culinary abundance, it reads as generous rather than money saving.
He has an impressive CV with Londolozi and three of Cape Town’s five star hotel kitchen’s listed. The proof as always is in the eating and at Bodega you can do so with pleasure and confidence.
Be sure to book first. I noticed at least five groups being turned away who arrived without reservations.
Bodega at Dornier. 021-880-0557
• Permalink • Comments [0]

Meloncino and Cape Colony from www.48hours.co.za (24-Oct-08)

PEOPLE talk about great Italian restaurants like La Perla in its heyday and Magica Roma, but it wasn’t until 95 Keerom opened with its Milanese offering that regional cuisine came into its own.
With the opening of Meloncino in the Victoria Wharf at the V&A Waterfront (where the Sports Café was previously) diners have an opportunity to explore Romanesque dining - one of the most ancient and yet contemporary cuisines.
We shared two mixed starter platters with the most exciting and delicious on the Antipasti Misti being tortino di zucchini, a soft round of baby marrow. The snail-shell spiral shaped rotollo di mozzarella and salmone marinato with a yielding bite and tronchetto melanzana (baked eggplant) are all delicious. The four portions are sufficient as a starter to share.
The mixed platter of cheese and meats was more pedestrian but when eaten with Focaccia Bianca con Rosmarino (pizza with rosemary) could have been a meal of its own.
Prosciutto cones filled with ice cream of Parmesan and Mascarpone cheeses which takes its a cue from sushi hand rolls scores an A+.
In keeping with the Roman feasting tradition, we ordered a pasta before our main courses. Many years ago I was taught to make Carbonara by a great Venetian cook with egg yolk, cream, black pepper and parmesan cheese.
Meloncino, however, prepares it with bacon, egg, black pepper and a Pecorino sauce that gives it an intensely rich flavour. As I’d enjoyed the Saltimbocca alla Romana (sliced veal with Parma ham in a sage, white wine and black pepper sauce on previous visit), JP ordered it.
My Tagliata di Manzo alla Righetto is a subterfuge of a dish as it has the innocence of a simple rocket salad bejewelled by cherry tomatoes and crowned by slices of parmesan until you probe deeply to reveal slices of warm, perfectly grilled sirloin. We barely managed to share the melon sorbet to end.
The Protoulis Family own the excellent City Grill and Greek Fisherman restaurants also at the Waterfront and are in partnership at Meloncino with the Carrara’s who own Piatta Ricco and Righetto al grappolo d’oro in Rome.
Alberto di Grisostomo is your wonderful host. Providing you’re not keeping an eye on the budget, allow him to order for you.
www.meloncino.co.za
021-419-5558.

Ian Mancais, The Mount Nelson Hotel’s executive chef shared more than his culinary skills at a media chef’s table in his kitchen recently. His pedigree is well known having launched major hotel projects across the globe.
What is less well known is that the reason he moved abroad so frequently while growing up was that his father worked for the British Secret Service.
This new intrigue, and an impressive collection of tattoos he was coaxed to reveal, makes him even more likeable.
The champion dish is Vietnamese lacquered rack of karoo lamb. I asked for second portion as if begging for the last puff of a heroin pipe. The delicate aniseed lifts the lamb’s own herbaceous flavours and the accompanying braised daikon (radish) and bok choi makes the dish a wonderful East meets West experience.
As a starter we were served a smoked salmon consommé in a Martini Glass with slices of smoked salmon at its base and a few slices of spring onion that looked like seaweed floating in a fragrant sea when looked at from above.
The accompanying lollypop - a crisply fried mouthful of salmon added another texture layer to the experience.
A wild mushroom risotto (with heady truffle scents) created a yearning only eventually placated by the lamb.
King scallops with carrot puree was the only dish that didn’t wow. Although I enjoyed the firm marshmallow texture of the scallops and the spicy carrot and cumin notes, I would rather have saved myself for a third helping of the lamb.
The wine selection, especially the luminous FMC 06 Chenin by Forrester/Meinert wrapped the entire evening in a delicious fug of culinary addiction.
The Cape Colony. 021-483-1737.

• Permalink • Comments [0]

Telephone +27 (21) 447-6398 e-Mail info@BrianBerkman.com

Site developed by Crest IT