Myoga restaurant has recently appointed Manley Communications as its PR company. At a Media lunch yesterday, Chef and owner Mike Bassett told us that it was the first media event in seven years.

Chef Mike has been at Myoga for eight years, having opened the restaurant after leaving Ginja, at which he worked with a number of younger chefs who have worked their way up the culinary ladder, some now owning their own restaurants, including Chef Chris Erasmus from Foliage in Franschhoek. All Chef Mike’s restaurants have been named after Japanese ginger: Ginja, Shoga, and Myoga. Chef Mike is passionate about sourcing best possible quality produce from reputable suppliers.

A mixed collection of writers, Manley Communications clients, and tourism consultants attended the lunch, which was hosted by Ian Manley. I sat next to Malu Lambert, who was announced as the winner of the Veritas Young Wine Writer 2015 award on Monday.

We were welcomed with Simonsig MCC.  Chef Mike introduced course by course, and addressed Graham Howe’s concerns, expressed in the past, saying that they no longer serve foie gras.

A bread selection was served on a palette-shaped board with interesting-looking breads, a nice change from some rather dull bread selections which I have seen in the past week in the Winelands.  The bread board consisted of a beetroot loaf, roasted turnip bread, potato/rosemary/feta rolls (delicious), rye crackers with mixed seeds, truffled butter, and baleni salt coming from a spring near Giyani in Limpopo. The Simonsig MCC was served with the bread course.

Chef Mike said that he had a ‘surprise’ for us, and asked us to ‘excuse the strangeness’ of the next dish, saying that we would understand it at the end of the lunch. It was the Amuse Bouche, which consisted of a sous-vide egg yolk, with Hollandaise sauce to create Egg Benedict, served with homemade bacon, aged pork belly, millionaire’s shortbread made from aged cheddar and duck liver parfait, beetroot gel, with white truffle sprayed on the plate. 

The third course was served in a glass bowl, consisting of dehydrated crackling served on salmon, with broccoli, a tamarind and chili paste, freeze-dried violets, and a mussel broth. The bowl had been placed on a salt slab, with leek ash sprinkled in front of the bowl. This course was paired with Springfield Wild Yeast Chardonnay 2014 by Food & Beverage Manager and Sommelier Carl Davis.

The fourth course was an unusual home-made duck pancetta served on orange sweet potato purée, with grapefruit slices, asparagus spears, fermented grapes, and a smoked Japanese squash. Carl paired Haute Cabriere Unwooded Pinot Noir 2011 with this course.

The fifth course was sous-vide beef, soft and tender, served with grilled sweet corn, dehydrated mushrooms, non-spicy curry tongue, and a slow-cooked sweet corn purée. Carl paired this dish with Kevin Arnold Shiraz 2011, the 8% Mourvèdre giving this wine the edge, he said.

The final course, or so we thought, was a study in coconut: a coconut sphere, coconut moelleux, butternut churros, burnt orange sauce, coconut marshmallow, soil, and coconut flakes. This course was served with a Tierhoek Straw Wine, made from grapes from the Piekenierskloof.

We were surprised when another set of cutlery was laid at each place setting, and it turned out to be a direct replica of the second course at first glance, but was made from different ingredients, a very clever ending to our generous lunch: a mango yolk, creme anglaise, pistachio paste, raspberry gel, and millionaire’s shortbread.

We enjoyed the creative lunch, some of the dishes (such as the coconut dessert) coming from the Myoga seven-course Tasting Menu, which costs R355 per person, and R620 including wine pairings, offering very good value.

Myoga, Vineyard Hotel, 60 Colinton Road, Claremont. Tel (021) 657-4545, www.myoga.co.za Twitter: @MyogaRestaurant  Lunch and Dinner Tuesday  – Saturday.

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.whalecottage.com/blog  Tel 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@WhaleCottage Facebook:  click here