On Friday last week we wanted to spoil Chef Pavel Dimitrov of Zest Restaurant on his birthday, and took him on a surprise trip to Homespun by Matt at The Andros Boutique Hotel in Claremont.  Both Zest and Homespun at The Andros opened in June, a few days apart.

I have experienced two amazing meals at Homespun by Matt in Blouberg, the restaurant which Chef Matt opened seven years ago. I was invited to the Soft Opening of Homespun at The Andros, so I was excited to see the Homespun restaurant settled in and operating smoothly.

Matt’s Homespun opens second restaurant, at The Andros Boutique Hotel in Claremont

I was grateful that I could make the booking telephonically, and that Chef Matt could confirm that he would be in the kitchen at lunchtime.  A provisional booking was made and no deposit of R200 per head was taken, which is the norm.

We were one of two Lunch tables, and told our waiter that we had exactly two hours for the Lunch, given that Chef Pavel and our Managers had to be back in the Zest kitchen to prepare for a busy dinner.  We were offered water to drink, and received the menus and the wine list.

Due to time constraints we ordered the three-course Menu, a Starter, a Main and a Dessert, available  for Lunch and Dinner at R475. A two-course Starter and Main option is available for Lunches too, at R325.  The 7 course Tasting Menu is available at R595, with R375 extra for the wine pairing, and in essence offers the same choice of Starters, Mains and Desserts, but with an Amuse Bouche, palate cleanser, and petit fours added.

Wine pairings per course cost R199 for 2 courses and R275 for the 3-course menu. We chose to order a bottle of Julien Schaal Chardonnay 2019 instead, perfect for the four of us.

Head Chef Chris De Jongh came to greet our table, and he was asked what his recommendations were. We spoke about Jackfruit Dumplings, one of the starter options, a fruit imported from South America, and not well-known in our country. In ordering, we tried to chose a different dish each, so that we could taste each other’s dishes.

Cutlery is impressive-looking Salvinelli. The dining table was relatively bare, with a branded gauze serviette on a side plate, and a delicious smelling perfume-like Charlotte Rhys sanitizer, decanted into small spray bottles.

Our starter choices were :

#. Pork belly pancake, one pancake, a slice of pork belly confit topped with crackling, miso, salsa verde, and char siu, presented in a mini pan brought to the table on a wooden board.  Chef Pavel raved about the layers of taste and the textures.

 

#.  Beef tataki looked very different to any variations of this dish that  I have eaten elsewhere. It is prepared with beef fillet, pickled ginger, wasabi and onion. Instead of it being lightly seared, it was served coated in a pastry shell.

 

#. Prawn dumplings are served with dashi, togarashi, katsuobushi, and a crayfish consommé. The Bonita dried fish flakes start moving when they are in the consommé, a theatrical dining touch.

 

For Mains we ordered the following:

+   Line Fish, with hake served on a bed of creamed leeks, with avocado mousse, corn puree, mussels, squid, dukha, and a yuzu sphere, a dish that takes Chef Matt back to his childhood he told me on a previous dining occasion, when his dad took him and his siblings to Hout Bay for Fish and Chips, but this story was not told to us at this lunch.

 

+   Matt Special, consisting of a fillet steak, wasabi, ponzu and walnut, a very pretty presentation, with mash and carrot purée.

 

+   Lamb, served with chicken, sweet corn, and sweat breads.

 

Our dessert choices differed across the four of us:

 

#   The Beetroot was a first for me, a white chocolate ball coloured red with beetroot, and once tapped open with a spoon its contents was a mix of various textures of beetroot, but with no explanation of them. It was ice cold, and the liquid nitrogen poured over it gave it a smoky presentation, smoke apparently coming out of my nostrils as I ate it.

 

#   Chef Pavel ordered the ‘Not Banana’ presented in the most dramatic and unusual way, in the lap of a brass monkey! A granadilla posset was created to resemble a banana, with peanuts, both monkey foods, making this dessert striking in its presentation and such a surprise in not being a real banana.(Photograph at the top).

 

#   Cry Baby also has a story which was not told, namely the childhood memory of the heartbreak of one’s ice cream cone falling over and landing on the pavement, the presentation showing the ice cream splashed over the slate plate. The cone contains strawberry and chocolate, served with vanilla ice cream.

 

#   Olive Chocolate Garden was made with toffee, Tonka bean vanilla, and chocolate olive torte.

 

At the end of the meal we had the pleasure  of the company of Chef Matt Schreuder, who sat with us
and gave more depth to his Menus. He explained that while many chefs focus on taste, texture and balance in their dishes, he has designed his menus on the basis of emotions evoked by his own childhood memories. Examples are the Cry Baby and Fish dishes. He also explained how the use of Bonita flakes in the Prawn dumplings starter had come about.

The service charge message is in the finest print possible at the bottom of the menus, 12% being added automatically, ‘added for impeccable service’. While Christian rattled off the ingredients in each of the dishes, far more than are listed on the menu, when he brought the dishes of each course, there was no explanation of what the many unknown ingredients were, nor of the story behind the dish. This detracted from the dining experience. The most irritating part of his service was calling all of us ‘guys’ at the table, to which I took exception as a woman, and not finding it respectful of the diners in this top restaurant located in the five star The Andros Hotel. Lastly, I had told each of the three Homespun persons I communicated with about the Lunch booking that it was Chef Pavel’s birthday, but there was no acknowledgement of this in any way, and not the way in which my restaurant clients would react to receiving such information about one of the diners.

 

Homespun by Matt, The Andros, 16 Phyllis Road, Claremont, Cape Town. Book via Dineplan. www.homespunbymatt.co.za Instagram: @homespunandros @homespunbymatt

 

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.whaletalesblog.com  www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide