Tag Archives: The Foodbarn

Restaurant Review: The Foodbarn’s Chef’s Table is a food and wine feast!

A Tweet by Chef Franck Dangereux about his Chef’s Table yesterday, with a link to the 8-course menu, caught my eye on Twitter earlier this week.  Given all the good things I have read about The Foodbarn of late, and the excellent summer weather forecast of 35°C, I booked a seat for the lunch. Although pricey at R595 excluding the tip, the eight course meal, paired with six sets of Groot Constantia wines, with two vintages of wines for five of these, was a proverbial Feast, true to the promise one sees visually on the wall as one enters the restaurant.

The table for twenty was festively set with white table cloths and overlays, a selection of glasses, and a material serviette, with yellow daffodils and white roses in the centre.  The walls are painted in a unique blue, and this colour is picked up in chair covers for outside, and inside the cloakrooms.  On the walls are photographs of Chef Franck with other chefs, as well as three handwritten letters to him from Oprah Winfrey, Juliette Binoche, and Leonardo DiCaprio. We were a mixed bunch of lunchers. I recognised writer Donald Paul (who looked like Chef Franck’s brother), and Guy Kebble.  Boela Gerber is the winemaker at Groot Constantia, leading the wine tasting, and he has been at Groot Constantia for the past eleven years, and recently became a member of the Cape Winemakers’ Guild.  Brand new Sales and Marketing Manager is Grant Newton, who attended as well. Everyone got on well, most not having met before, and Chef Franck came to sit down as well whenever he could get out of the kitchen, photographing and tasting his dishes.  Cleverly he made some of the guests change seats midway through the lunch, and this gave me an opportunity to ask him some questions, and for new connections to be made.  Chef Franck welcomed all, and asked us to be adventurous in trying what he was serving us, and to have an open mind.  He pulled out all the stops in his first test, being an amuse bouche of frogs legs, which very few present had ever eaten. It was served well flavoured with garlic and sprinkled with parsley, which most described as having a taste similar to chicken.  Boela introduced the two Groot Constantia Sauvignon Blancs, a 2008 and a 2011 (R94 estate price).  He said that the consumer expectation is to drink this wine variety as young as possible, laughingly saying they are demanding a 2013 already! The 2008 tasted of green pea and asparagus, while the 2011 had fresh tropical granadilla flavour notes.  These two Sauvignon Blancs were paired with Chef Franck’s oysters with a terrine of seaweed and cucumber, a beautiful dish served with aioli and tobiko (roe from flying fish), and most preferred the younger Sauvignon Blanc.  Open to a challenge himself, Chef Franck was able to conjure up alternative dishes for two guests who were allergic to shellfish, requested at short notice on their arrival.

An interesting contrasting combination was seared scallops which were served with crispy pig’s trotter samoosas, and served with a star anise jus.  The rich Groot Constantia 2007 and 2010 Chardonnays (R138 estate price) were paired with this course. Boela said their barrel-fermented Chardonnay is very popular, and they only produce 1500 cases.  This variety sells out every year.  The best dish by far was the pan-fried foie gras, which was served with Japanese mushrooms and pineapple, with a subtle liquorice jus.  The unusual pairing of this dish with the dessert wine Grand Constance 2003 and 2009 (R366 for 375 ml, estate price), the latter pairing particularly well with the foie gras. Boela told us that they tried to reconstruct the original sweet wine developed on the 327 year old wine estate, conducting research to check how it was made originally.  They work with raisins which were ‘vinified’. It has resulted in a caramel flavour.  Bread was brought to the table for the foie gras, but was not toasted, and melba toast or brioche would have suited the dish better.  To give the meal a break, a colourful ‘Drinking boozy sorbet’ was served, which was a refreshing watermelon and vodka sorbet.

At this point I could chat to Franck, and he told me that he came to South Africa about 20 years ago, originally using the country as a base to travel, settling at Constantia Uitsig, where he worked for ten years. He started The Foodbarn six years ago, it containing a deli too initially, but he has moved that to another part of the centre, serving light meals too.  He told me that he has broken the mould of fine dining, and he likes the journey and irreverence of it.  He looks happy, in his shorts and T-shirt, and says he is having fun. He wants his customers to be happy at his restaurant, and for them to bring their children and their dogs. His clients come from Constantia, Hout Bay and Noordhoek, Fishhoek and Kommetjie.  In winter his food cost goes to 47%, but his restaurant does about 60 covers, breaking even financially and his staff stay in training when they remain busy.  We laughed when he said that he cooks the food and his business partner Pete de Bruyn ‘cooks the books’!  His favourite restaurants, not that he has much time to go to them, are Bizerca, and new Thai restaurant Erawan in Wynberg. We chatted about MasterChef SA, and Chef Franck said that he likes Chef Bennie Masekwameng, for being kind to the contestants.  He knows Chef Pete Goffe-Wood.  He praised the camera work and production quality, but said that he hoped that the food quality would improve.  I explained the MasterChef Masterclasses to come, which Top 18 finalist Guy Clark had told me about (interview to be posted on Tuesday).  Grant Newton came to chat, and told me that he has a diverse background for his new job at Groot Constantia, having owned his own restaurant, having run a Social Media consultancy, and worked at the previous SFW (now Distell), the university of wine, he laughed.

I have never tasted Swordfish before, and it had a definitive taste, without bones (a childhood fear), which Chef Franck served with braised radicchio, a member of the chicory/endive family, and a red wine jus with persillade (a chopped garlic and parsley mix). Given the stronger taste of the fish, the flagship Groot Constantia Gouverneurs Reserve 2003 (Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend) and 2009 (Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc blend, at R233 estate price) were a perfect pairing.  A ‘steak au poivre’ (pepper steak) was presented with Cambodian black and red Kampot (peppers), and pomme Sarladaise (sliced potatoes sautéed in goose fat, and then sprinkled with garlic and parsley).  This dish was paired with 2004 and 2010 Groot Constantia Shiraz (R133 estate price), spicy, peppery and elegant, his favourite wine to serve with a main course, Boela told us.  As if we had not eaten and drunk enough, an elegant glass of ice cold Groot Constantia Cap Classique 2008 (R150 estate price) was served with an unusual quince carpaccio and quince sorbet, which had been placed on top of a refreshing lemon panna cotta, a perfect end to a perfect long meal.

Chef Franck is clearly a sauce man, and creative in his unusual ingredient combinations.  He told us that he would not tell us about his dishes, as they should ‘speak for themselves’.  However, he uses unusual ingredients and a number of culinary terms, so it would be interesting to have an explanation of each dish.  The service from his staff let him down, when a waitress stretched across us to place a fork on a number of occasions, and the requested water and ice refill needing a number of reminders.  It is advisable to not eat for a number of days before coming to a Chef’s Table at The Foodbarn, and to not have any dining plans for a few days thereafter, there is so much food to eat!  One should also not have to be anywhere after the lunch, as ours lasted from 12h00 – 17h00, even Chef Franck having to leave before the end, to see his son play rugby!  The Foodbarn logo promises 100% passion, and handmade real food – Chef Franck and his kitchen team deliver 100%!

The Foodbarn, Noordhoek Farm Village, Noordhoek.  Tel (021) 789-1390.  www.thefoodbarn.co.za Twitter: @TheFoodbarn, Tuesday – Sundays Lunch and Dinner.  50 % off a la carte menu dishes Monday – Friday lunches until the end of April.  Wine and food pairing evenings in winter.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage

2011 Eat Out DStv Food Network Restaurant Awards: a prediction!

On Sunday the long-awaited Eat Out DStv Food Network Restaurant Awards will be presented at the Bay Hotel’s Rotunda in the presence of 360 chefs and restaurant lovers. This year sees a number of changes in the Awards, with the Top 10 name having fallen away as a generic title, due to the introduction of additional categories which have been judged, and the controversial sole judging of the winning restaurants in each category by Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly.

As we have done before, we predict the following restaurants to make the Top 10 Restaurant list, based on write-ups we have seen, our own experience, and patron talk.  No offence is intended to the chefs we have not included.  The list is not intended as a ranking.  Not knowing the Johannesburg, Pretoria and KwaZulu-Natal restaurants, we are guessing those:

*   We have previously predicted that Chef Richard Carstens at Tokara will be Top Chef/Best Restaurant, for his creativity in food preparation and presentation, for continuously re-inventing himself and his dishes, for his quest to learn new things, and for the amazing El Bulli tribute dinner he prepared on 30 July.  The restaurant has just been selected by the Great Wine Capitals Global Network as the best Winelands restaurant in the country.

*   The Test Kitchen‘s Luke Dale-Roberts is most foodies’ prediction for Top Chef, and he does feature often in TASTE, the magazine that Mrs Donnelly is Food Editor of.  She told me recently that Woolworths chose Luke for a Christmas range, and that is why he receives so much coverage.

*   The Greenhouse at Cellars Hohenhort Hotel, with Chef Peter Tempelhoff, who has just been honoured as Relais & Chateaux Grand Chef, the first in Cape Town, and only the third in South Africa.

*    Jordan Restaurant with George Jardine is a stalwart, and while its restaurant building is not the greatest and grandest, George gets on with what he is excellent at, without any PR hype

*   The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais with Chef Margot Janse cannot be excluded from the list, for its listing as the only South African restaurant on the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

*   DW Eleven-13 with Chef Marthinus Ferreira in Johannesburg was a Top 10 restaurant last year. The only criticism I have seen about this restaurant is its location.

*  Hartford House in KwaZulu-Natal, with Chef Jackie Cameron, regularly on the Eat Out Top 10 restaurant list, the best that this province has to offer.

*   Chef Bertus Basson of Overture is another chef who reinvents himself and his food, and gets on with what he does well.  No PR hype.

*   Pierneef à La Motte with Chef Chris Erasmus has all the elements to make Top 10, but recently the food and service quality has started to slip.  The estate has been selected as top South African wine estate in the Great Wine Capitals Global Network.  Excellence drives everything that this estate does.

*   Babel is extremely trendy right now, and I hear lots of ooo’s and aaa’s about it, and is heavily booked, but it has only been open for lunch in its first year of operation.  Chef Darren Roberts of Grande Provence is a chef who gets on with things, quietly and creatively, and would be a more deserved Top 10 restaurant, this restaurant making the Top 10 every second year to date.

Other Top 20 Restaurant Finalists are Planet Restaurant, La Colombe, Nobu, Babel, Bosman’s, The Round House, Azure, Terroir, Roots in Johannesburg, and Restaurant Maison in Pretoria.

For the first time, Eat Out has introduced new Restaurant Award categories.  The Best Steakhouse Award could go to one of 29 steakhouses listed by Eat Out, and this may be where Johannesburg could have a winner, known to have a selection of good steakhouses, and making up almost half the Eat Out Steakhouse list.  In the Cape, Carne, Belthazar, and HQ are some of the steakhouses which feature on the list.

There are 18 finalists for the Boschendal Style Award, and this may be a little bit of a consolation prize for not making Top 10, and also gives newer restaurants which have not been open for a full year a chance at winning something.  The nominees for this category include Hemelhuijs, The Saxon, The Test Kitchen (an odd choice), Planet Restaurant, Thomas Maxwell Bistro in Johannesburg, Woodlands Eatery, Pierneef à La Motte, Kream, Makaron (at Majeka House, a consultancy client of Mrs Donnelly), Babel, Overture, The Grand Café and Beach (very odd!!), Rust en Vrede, Central One Restaurant (in the hotel at which David Higgs is the chef now), Dear Me Foodworld, Craft Trattoria, Pure, and Indochine.  If Babel falls out of the Top 10, it may win this award.

The Best Bistro Award finalist list has 43 nominees, and feels a little like a listing of every other restaurant which did not make the Top 10 finalist list.  Odd is how broad the ‘Bistro’ name has been stretched to include some restaurant nominees!  Bistro Sixteen82 should win this award, but stiff competition could come from Bizerca Bistro, Ryan’s Kitchen, Cuvee@Simonsig, The Common Room at Le Quartier Français, The Foodbarn, Dear Me, Franschhoek Kitchen, and Bread & Wine. Odd is to see Reubens Franschhoek on the list, which has continuous negative feedback.

I have not seen the Best Italian Restaurant nominee list, but Giorgio Nava’s PR machine has announced that 95 Keerom Street is one of the nominees.  He is a likely winner, embodying ‘Italianess’, but without charm!  The Best Asian Restaurant and Best Country-Style Restaurant nominee lists have also not been seen, and Mrs Donnelly did not wish to release the nominee lists.

Interesting is how the Eat Out Awards dinner has grown to 360 attendees.  If one calculates that each of the Top 20 Restaurant finalists will take a table, that leaves another 160 seats, not all filled yet, judging by e-mail reminders about the event.  With so many finalists and nominees, there will be many disappointed empty-handed chefs and restaurant owners on Sunday evening!

POSTSCRIPT 17/11: This Eat Out article has an interesting analysis of past Top 10 Restaurant/Chef winners, and some demographic break-downs of chefs as well.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Pendock Fleur du Cap ‘top’ Cape Town Restaurants PR paradox: knocks food writers and bloggers!

Neil Pendock, writing on his blog yesterday, knocked bloggers and food writers by applauding their absence at the inaugural Fleur du Cap 100 Places to Eat Cape Town 2011: “What made the awards cocktail party unusual was that the usual cast of thousands – journos, hacks, bloggers, twits and hangers on – was conspicuous by its absence..” Yet the ‘Awards’ were organised by ‘little Irish devil‘ (his words) blogger Clare (‘Mack’) McKeon-McLoughlin!  How embarassing for sponsor Fleur du Cap, wishing to gain support from the media and bloggers for its brands, given that Pendock no doubt had an organising hand in the ‘Awards’!

Neil Pendock can be a really nice guy, as I experienced at the Compass Box Whisky Co tasting and blending afternoon a week ago.  But he has a nasty side too, as poor Su Birch of WOSA well knows, being the target of regular attacks in his Pendock Uncorked Sunday Times blog.   We can attest to his fierce loyalty to McKeon-McLoughlin, as he has blocked us on Twitter, due to our criticism of Cape Town Tourism’s involvement in his and McKeon-McLoughlin’s organisation of the frivolous ‘100 Women 100 Wines’ in August.

Now poor Abigail Donnelly is the next target, being the sole judge and editor of the Eat Out DStv Food Network Top 10 Restaurant Awards for the first time.  This year the judging committee of Pete Goffe-Wood, Anna Trapido and Arnold Tanzer, who received a substantial remuneration, it is said, fell away, and whilst there has been some muttering about this, I have not heard any chef denigrate Mrs Donnelly because of the organisational change. The Top 20 Eat Out finalist list has been announced, and the only rumblings about it is that Rust en Vrede is not on the list, having been the winning restaurant on the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant list last year, but its Chef David Higgs left mid-year, and that Chef Henrico Grobbelaar has not been at Azure Restaurant of the Twelve Apostles Hotel for a full twelve months, which is what the Eat Out rules dictate.

On Sunday McKeon-McLoughlin had invited some of the Fleur du Cap ‘Top 100’ restaurants and announced the following (alphabetically listed) restaurants to be the Top 10 Restaurants in Cape Town, out of an initial list of 100:

95 Keerom – Giorgio Nava.

Aubergine – Harald Bresselschmidt

Bizerca – Laurent Deslandes

Dear Me – Vanessa Marx

The Foodbarn – Franck Dangereux

The Greenhouse – Peter Templehoff

Hemelhuijs – Jacques Erasmus

Planet Restaurant at the Mount Nelson – Rudi Liebenberg

Societi Bistro – Stefan Marais

The Test Kitchen – Luke Dale Roberts

If one compares the list to the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Top 20 Finalist list, Azure at the Twelve Apostles Hotel, The Round House, and Nobu at the One&Only Cape Town are obvious exclusions, while The Test Kitchen, The Greenhouse, and Planet Restaurant also feature on the Eat Out Top 20 list.  What makes the list above lose all credibility is the inclusion of Societi Bistro – whilst very popular amongst bloggers, who are regularly invited for lunch or dinner, and appears to be the McKeon-McLoughlin’s permanent dining room, it certainly does not feature on anyone’s top restaurant list for Cape Town!  Amusing is that Aubergine fell off the Eat Out Top 20 Finalist list, whilst having been an Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant last year, and appears on the above list!  A number of restaurant lovers queried its Eat Out inclusion last year.   Hemelhuijs and Dear Me Foodworld are great lunch venues, but only open in the evening once a week, and therefore are not in the same league as the other restaurants on the list, which serve lunch and dinner.

Ironic too is that Cape Town has lost its reputation as a top restaurant city, this accolade now having moved to the Winelands, Stellenbosch in particular, and therefore a list focusing on Cape Town only is like only handing out a second prize!   Pendock writes about the judges Bianca Coleman, Jos Baker and Anna Trapido that they are the ‘biggest culinary cannons’, an extreme exaggeration!  Trapido lives in Johannesburg, and hardly would have been able to judge all 100 Cape Town restaurants, especially given the short time between conceptualisation and execution of the Fleur du Cap Restaurant list.

A request sent to Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly for a list of the finalists in the new categories of the Eat Out Awards has surprisingly been declined, even though some restaurants on the list are ‘bragging’ about their inclusion.  All eyes will be on Eat Out and Abigail Donnelly on 20 November, when the country’s Eat Out Top 10 Restaurants will be announced, in ranked order!

POSTSCRIPT 8/11: Interestingly, the Fleur du Cap website has no reference to the Top 100 Cape Town Restaurants list, nor to the Top 10 Cape Town Restaurants.  The media release issued by the Fleur du Cap PR consultancy GC Communications oddly does not provide any quotes by nor contact details for the Fleur du Cap Brand Manager Danelle Kietzmann!

POSTSCRIPT 8/11: This evening I chatted to Jos Baker, one of the four judges of the Fleur du Cap Top 100 and Top 10 Places to Eat Cape Town 2011, at the Platter’s launch.  I asked what the criteria for inclusion were, and she said it was to find restaurants that would ‘not be intimidating‘, ranging from the top-end to the ‘hole-in-the-wall’, to give a good spread!  She told me that most of the judges’ deliberations were done via e-mail.  When I asked her about Eat Out having one judge only, she said ‘no comment’.  When I asked her if further regional lists would be published, she gave me a look that confirmed this, without answering directly.

POSTSCRIPT 9/11:  One would have thought that the Mount Nelson Hotel’s marketing department would have known better than to have described their inclusion in the Fleur du Cap Top 10 Places to eat list as ‘a most sought after achievement’ in their November newsletter today!

POSTSCRIPT 10/11:  Food24 has included a link to this blogpost in its newsletter today.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Crush! celebrates first anniversary – good improvement, still inconsistent quality!

We have written about six issues of Crush! since it was launched a year ago, and the initial excitement of opening a new copy of the digital food and wine magazine edited by Michael Olivier has faded, to such an extent that three issues of Crush! were sitting unopened in the Inbox.  The magazine appears to have developed a rythym, and regular features can be expected in each magazine, with few new surprises in it.  After reading Crush! 7, Crush! 8, and Crush! 9, and looking back at the pevious Crush! issues, our evaluation is that Crush! has settled down, that it knows where it is going, and that it has mastered most of its technical and design problems highlighted initially.  But its quality remains inconsistent:

1.   The design flashes have been largely removed, having been irritating in initial issues. Yet they remain in the focus on a personality (Squashed Tomato’s Linda Harding in Crush! 7; I’m no Jamie Oliver’s Matt Allisson – nice that the five point overview is about his lifestyle of food writer, stay-at-home father, and avid vegetable gardener – in Crush! 8; and Norman McFarlane in Crush! 9), distracting one in reading the content.

2.  The covers don’t need to sell a magazine as the print equivalent have to, but it was disappointing to note how the cover photograph choice in the last three issues was far more unattractive than those of some earlier issues.  The cover pic is usually one of four recipes developed by Sophia Lindop and beautifully photographed by Russel Wasserfall.  The problem lies in the choice of photograph for the cover, and the placement of text on the pics, often making the text unreadable.  Most front-cover flashes have been removed.  The Crush! design and publishing team has no print magazine experience, and it still shows!

3.  It is easier to navigate the magazine now, with clearer instructions of how to continue reading a story, but one does make the odd mistake in jumping to a next page, and not finishing a story.

4.    A problem that continues is that pack shots in the ‘Essentials’, ‘High Five’ and ‘Quaff Now’ features are too small to allow pack recognition, bad news for the marketers of these products, no doubt paying a placement fee. It was odd to see a sunhat in an ‘Essentials for the kitchen’ collection, in Crush! 9!

5.  Advertising support remains poor, and the state of the economy must be making itself felt at Crush! too, with the last two issues reduced to 42 pages, and carrying very few advertisements – only Old Mutual and Fairview having been regular advertisers.  Insurer 1st for Women started advertising, and Le Creuset and Tokara olive oils have had once-off ads.

6.  The contribution by ‘The Foodie’ blogger David Cope has changed dramatically – from initally having messy looking red-and-white check pages reflecting his blog design, the design linkage has been dropped in the past two issues.  This has been replaced by far smarter looking features, but they have no credibility, as the pot and the knife features have the Chef’s Warehouse branding on them, almost hidden in a corner, and Cope does not declare that he does the Public Relations for the Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School!   The photography however is excellent, probably the best ever seen in any issue of Crush!

7.   The main features vary in their quality, and there has never been consistency in their design and quality – the Hermanuspietersfontein feature looks fantastic, with many beautiful photographs.  The Glen Carlou and Hidden Valley features look less attractive due to black and white photographs on the first page of the features.  It seems as if Oliver has run out of material to write about, in featuring Hidden Valley, and Overture’s Bertus Basson, twice in the first year.

8.   Re-opened Massimo’s Pizza Club in Hout Bay is featured in Crush! 9, but does not have enough pizza photographs to create appetite appeal.  The oddest restaurant feature, a six page story by David Cope on Le Quartier Français’ The Tasting Room, does not contain a single photograph, and it takes Cope three pages to start writing about the Tasting Room, via a profile on Spanish chef Ferran Adria!  Cope did not make notes of his nine-course meal, and therefore he is quite vague about what he ate there!

9.  Recipe features do not interest me generally, but the most stunning feature ever is that of soups paired with Monis products in Crush! 9, including the lesser known Monis Muscadel and Port.  The photographs are outstanding, and one wonders why all the photography used for and design of Crush! cannot be of this quality. 

10.  The features on winemakers Morné Vrey of Delaire Graff and Russell Retief of Van Loveren, on charcuterier Richard Bosman, and on the Steenberg Hotel are ineffective, in being broken down into blocks, some profiles having as many as 27 blocks to click, a guarantee that one would lose interest to read it all.  Chef Christiaan Campbell of Delaire Graff, the Foodbarn, as well as the Vineyard Hotel are also featured.  However, none of the three issues contain a restaurant review anymore.

11.  The ‘Fine Print’ book page and ‘Crushifieds’ remain too busy, although the latter has improved greatly – ‘less is more’ should guide design in these features.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Twitter:@Whale Cottage