Tag Archives: The Showroom

Chef Bruce Robertson returns to Cape Town, plain sailing at The Boat House!

After a three year absence from the restaurant scene in Cape Town, former The Showroom Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant Chef Bruce Robertson has returned to Cape Town to create The Boat House home eatery in Scarborough. His cuisine and plating is as exciting as it was before he left, and he is not only a perfect chef but the perfect host too.

We got to know Chef Bruce when he opened The Showroom with its open kitchen, which meant that he was in the foreground, showing his great ability to chat to clients, and to get them to return.  A change in career plan led him to cook at sixteen private camps in Southern Africa, spanning Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, and the Okavango, cooking his special dishes in often challenging kitchen conditions, and hosting guests.  The love for this extraordinary lifestyle grew from a link he had to an American tour operator company, which brought adventurous gourmet tourists to the Cape, and Chef Bruce led them on exciting culinary journeys, usually preparing their meals out in the open, enjoying the challenge of the outdoors to create unforgettable holidays for the visitors.  He has moved from cooking with passion, to lifestyle cooking, and his beautiful young daughter was the most important reason to bring him back to Cape Town, he said.  The setting of The Boat House in Scarborough, close to the beach, is perfect, and the beach house has a guest room he rents out too.

From the prim and proper Chef Bruce that I remember, in his white chef’s uniform at The Showroom, the new Chef ‘Barefoot Bruce’ is dressed in jeans and a white shirt, barefoot, and looking very relaxed and unstressed. The welcome was a warm hug, and included a tour of the house, his assistant Tom offering us a glass of sparkling wine, an exceptional Cederberg Blanc de Blancs Brut not commercially available elsewhere. We initially sat on the upstairs terrace, another four guests having booked too. A surprise was to learn that Chef Bruce grew up in Pretoria.

One should not think that Chef Bruce’s food is as casual as his dress. Effortlessly he was preparing the food in his open plan kitchen/dining room.  As one chats to one’s table companions one is not so focused on what Chef Bruce is doing in the kitchen.  He comes to the tables regularly, checking all the time that all is in order and to one’s satisfaction, and he provides snippets of information about his food or about the Cederberg wines.  Chef Bruce not only has culinary skills, but he could recareer as an interior decorator too. In eight months he has made a home of the house, with all his special things, creating groupings of this and that,  with lots of family photographs, and his past restaurant awards grace the walls with many other special pictures.  He has two rustic wooden tables covered with glass tops and matching chairs, with the odd ghost chair (Chef Bruce probably was the first restaurateur to use them in a restaurant, at The Showroom), a reminder of his great career.  If there is one thing that will stand out about the lunch then it is the most beautiful composition of half a lime, olive oil, salt and pepper, butter, and the cutlery, on a sheet of miniature tiles, providing perfect ‘compartments’ for the items, and doubling up as a side plate.  A beautiful warm mini-seedloaf was added to this collection.

There is no menu or winelist, and Chef Bruce told us that he almost exclusively serves Cederberg wines, ‘wines with altitude’, the area having a unique terror with very hot summers and snow in winter.  He found the Cederberg wines after an extensive search to find the perfect wines to match his cooking.  Chef Bruce explained that he wanted us to have three wines for our savoury dishes, and that he did not want to prescribe which wine we should pair with which dish.  The 2011 Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc wines have pronounced aromas, and the Sustainable Rosé is made from Shiraz grapes from a single block, a lovely pairing with the main course.  For dessert we were offered a glassful of Cederberg Shiraz 2008 as well as a lovely Bukettraube 2011, the latter playing the role of a dessert wine, Chef Bruce said.

Chef Bruce also told us that there is no choice on his menu, serving a “Table d’Hôte, lunch served to guests as a warm home gathering, where the host has prepared what the guests will be served.  My home is yours”. His menu is mainly fish-based, given his location and theme, and he gave us a little green SASSI-friendly lecture, confirming that he will not touch red nor orange categorised fish types, and therefore salmon and kingklip will not be prepared in his home.  He also said that 99% of his produce comes from within 10 km of his home, keeping it local and carbon footprint friendly.  One has the choice of a three course or five course meal, and we chose the former, while the other table had the latter. Chef Bruce adjusts the serving time to the number of courses each table orders, and we ran behind the other table because of all of our talking and Tweeting!    Not having a menu, it is hard to capture exactly which ingredients make up each dish, as Chef Bruce talks as fast as before, so I asked him to e-mail it to me afterwards, to make sure that I did justice to each dish. To date, Chef Bruce has not repeated any of his dishes, always challenging himself, and keeping it fresh for his guests.  Chef Bruce introduced Tom as his Restaurant Manager, sommelier, waiter, and right hand man, and he was constantly checking on my water glass, and poured the six wines.

Our first course was a Seafood Chowder with home-made gnocchi dumplings, chorizo, courgettes, baby basil, a spicy prawn bisque, and seaweed confetti, the latter most probably not seen or picked up by most.  Chef Bruce is proud of his handiwork, and because things are so relaxed, he comes to the tables to show the special little touches, something one would not experience in a regular restaurant.  For the main course Chef Bruce had prepared pan-fried Cape Gurnard, a fish I had not eaten before.  It is also called the Cape Sea Robin or ‘korhaanvis’. While not the easiest fish to clean and prepare, Chef Bruce likes using it because it is so plentiful.  He served it with baby spinach, his own spicy home-made tomato and olive chutney, finger beans, thyme, Niçoise cream, and cream of olive oil potato, all making for a beautiful dish with interesting flavours.

The ‘Cape Malay dessert’ required quite a bit of explanation.  Chef Bruce made a panna cotta-like melkkos Boerber jelly from sago, wonderful samoosas filled with stewed fruit and Old Brown Sherry, chocolate meringue sprinkled with Nachtmusik liqueur, malva pudding with rooibos liqueur, yoghurt, honey caviar, and pomegranate molasses, a beautiful collection of different tastes all served on a pure white tile, a proudly Cape Town dish! The ‘honey caviar’ would not have meant anything to us at all, and we probably would not even have picked up the little balls, had Chef Bruce not come to our table before serving the dessert, and asking us to guess what they were. We could taste the sweetness, but could never have identified them to be pollen. Although our 3-course menu did not include a cheese course, Chef Bruce wanted me to try it. Presented on a wooden board with textural bumps created via caramelised sugar, it consisted of ‘rondebokkie’ cheese I had never heard of before, mature cheddar, black fig chutney (‘suurvy’), mint, and a chilli bite. Eating at The Boat House is not only for sustenance, but it is most educational too, because Chef Bruce is so excited about his discoveries that he spontaneously shares them with his guests.  The second course in the 5-course menu is a home smoked snoek pâte served with a fresh pea and mascarpone cream on ciabatta, with Chef Bruce’s kitchen greens.

While Scarborough is as quiet and isolated from the rest of Cape Town as it was on a last visit more than ten years, everything has changed, now having one of the hottest secret eateries in this suburb, worth the drive of about 60 km from the city centre.  One can also book a picnic basket from Chef Bruce, and one is sure to be equally spoilt, given that Chef Bruce originally designed Warwick’s gourmet picnic.

The Boat House, 36 Beach Road, Scarborough.  Tel 083 305 8533. www.chefbrucerobertson.com Twitter: @ChefBruce  Monday – Saturday lunch.  Maximum of 12 guests.  3-courses R325, 5-courses R495. Must be pre-booked.

POSTSCRIPT 3/11: Chef Bruce Robertson moved from Scarborough to Simonstown, where he opened The Flagship, a restaurant and guest house.  Very very sadly he passed away from leukemia today, diagnosed only a few days ago.

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

Restaurant Review: Birds Café & Gourmet Eatery has lost some birds, gained great chefs!

I only went to Birds Boutique Café (a misnomer, there being nothing Boutique about it all!) once, and awarded it a Sour Service Award after the visit, due to the couldn’t-care-attitude expressed by the then owners. Speaking to its new owners Kevin Mink and Leigh Trout (on the right behind the counter), it is now understandable, given that the previous owners had been looking to sell the Café for a year already, and it showed!  The new Birds Café and Gourmet Eatery opened on 1 September, and is a huge improvement, in its decor, service and food quality.  There are no bird tweets anymore!

Birds Café on Bree Street is diagonally opposite &Union.  Chef Leigh used to work for Chef Bruce Robertson at The Showroom, whereafter he worked on the exclusive private North Island in Seychelles.  He was at Mont Rochelle Hotel for a year, cooking for its restaurant Mange Tout, moving to Birds Café from there.  Chef Kevin has had a catering company ‘Art of Good Food’ for eight years, and has renamed it Birds Catering, working from upstairs in the same building.

The interior was decorated with a bird theme by the previous owners, and some of these touches, such as a collection of bird cages on a wall, cute swan ground pepper and coarse salt holders, and birds on the menu, have been retained. Bird egg sweets come with the bill.  What has gone is the curtained off kitchen, at which one was originally meant to place one’s order, except that they did not say so, adding spaciousness to the restaurant, and allowing one to see the buzz and busyness of the seven kitchen staff working with Chefs Keith and Leigh.  They told me that their emphasis at Birds Café is to work with smaller suppliers, sourcing only local seasonal organic products where possible.  While the emphasis is on the Café side originally while they find their new restaurant feet, they will open for dinners next year, offering sophisticated dining in the evenings, and retaining the Café style during the day, for breakfast and lunch.

The back kitchen wall is painted an olive green,  and I loved the upside down ‘bucket’ lampshades in the entrance room and over the kitchen section.  Seating is in two rooms (the one at the kitchen is more homely and definitely more popular) at large communal tables, with ‘seats’ made from milk crates (now covered with hessian cushions) too high relative to the table top, and not to everyone’s taste.  Unbranded olive oil and balsamic vinegar jars are on the table, with Consol glass jars containing cutlery.  Service is friendly, and water in a carafe is proactively brought to each new arriving guest.  Chef Kevin interacts with guests too, taking orders, and there is an amazing friendliness, quite unlike what I experienced on my previous visit. Clients kept arriving around lunch time, and filled up the restaurant.

There are paper menus for Breakfast and for Lunch.   A guest who shared the table told me that some items seemed familiar to her from the previous Birds.   Breakfast is served until 11h30, and offers a selection of four health breakfasts (cooked oats; raw beetroot with apple, papaya and seeds; fruit salad, granola and organic yoghurt; and citrus with yoghurt, almonds and pomegranate, costing R25 – R39); toast, jam, organic roasted peanut butter, creamed honey (R25); pancakes cost R20 – 25 for two, either with cinnamon or chocolate; and five egg choices (R38 – R45): poached eggs and bacon, sorrel and goat’s cheese omelette with wild forest mushrooms, fried eggs and bacon, scrambled eggs with kippers, and egg white omelette and roasted tomato and basil.  A number of health ‘shakes’ are available (R14/R28), and LavAzza cappuccino costs R16, served in a beautiful white cup with gold stripes, without saucer, the teaspoon in a separate bowl. The crockery in which the food is served is partly ex-Birds and what the chefs owned, all unusual and with a home-made feel to it.

For lunch, it’s a choice of open sandwiches (I saw the generous rib-eye beef and mustard hollandaise sandwich being served to a table next to me, and it looked delicious), salads, light meals, and ‘sweets’.   Sandwich choices are the rib-eye beef (R55); tomato, avocado and feta (R40); and roasted spiced chicken with hummus and egg plant (R45).  Salads include chicken caesar (R60), baby beetroot with goat’s cheese (45), and spring greens with asparagus, artichokes, broad beans, and peas.  I chose the poached free-range egg with steamed asparagus, greens, and parmesan shavings served with toasted ciabatta (R45), the herbs and dressing adding a special taste, although I found it a little too salty.   Chicken pie with a garden salad costs R60, and quiche and a garden salad R45.  For dessert one can have pancakes, cakes at R30 (carrot cake and cheesecake were the two options when I was there on Saturday), and chocolate brownies.  Only Graham Beck wine is served: Chenin Blanc, Rosé, and Cabernet Sauvignon (R35 – R45 a glass).

I liked the refreshing new feel to Birds Cafe, that both Chefs Leigh and Kevin came out of the kitchen to say hello, the friendliness from the staff to their customers, and amongst the customers themselves as they share tables, and the emphasis on healthy unfussy food that offers good value for money.

Birds Café & Gourmet Eatery, 127 Bree Street, Cape Town.  Tel (021) 426-2534. www.birdsboutiquecafe.com (The website, containing only the phone number and opening hours, is that of the previous owners.  It will be amended and updated). Monday – Friday 7h00 – 17h00, Saturday 7h00 – 15h00.

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

Confectionery designer Martin Senekal opens classy take-away Cafeteria!

I know the name of Martin Senekal, from having been impressed with his beautifully designed quiches, cake slices, and other foods, at his stand at the Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill.  I was told earlier this week that he has opened a ‘hole in the wall’, as a resident of De Waterkant called it, in Jarvis Street, called Cafeteria, and selling a small selection of home-made take-away sandwiches, wraps, soup, and confectionery. They also offer a delivery service in the area.

Martin studied at the Institute of Culinary Arts in Stellenbosch, and then worked as a classic chef in a hot kitchen, as well as pastry chef at a range of hotels and restaurants, including the Cape Grace Hotel, Manolo, The Showroom, The Blue Danube, and 96 Winery Road.   Five years ago he went on his own, and created the brand ‘Martin Senekal Confectionery Design’, using the Neighbourgoods Market as his retail outlet on Saturdays, and taking orders for his amazing works of cake art (like the sweet potato and peanut cake above).  Martin assured me that he is not into doing theme cakes.  He does classic cakes, in full size as well as miniatures. 

The Cafeteria opened three weeks ago, and is difficult to see in Jarvis Street.  It is a surprise to see a very small white space, with only three wood and glass counters, made by Senekal himself, to display his sandwiches, wraps, macaroons, tarts, cake slices, and biscuits.   A blackboard lists the styles of häzz coffees, and another the sandwich and wrap options and prices.  There is couch-like seating, with some magazines on a table, but I got the feeling that it was more for design than use.  The space is cordoned off with a white muslin curtain, and the wrap that I ordered was made in the space behind the curtain.  In about six weeks Senekal will open the next door space, for a sit-down service.  Given Senekal’s reputation for confectionery creativity, and the intrigue of this almost hidden space, one can predict that Cafeteria will become a trendy spot.

I ordered a wrap containing a Waldorf salad, with apples, walnuts, raisins in yoghurt dressing and Camembert, a unique combination, and fresher than fresh.   There are three other wrap options: roast vegetables and goat’s cheese; coriander pesto chicken with Brie and watercress; Cape Malay spiced yoghurt with green beans and cashews; and Chermoula chicken, slow roasted plum tomato, and wild rocket, all costing an unbelievably low R20.  I didn’t see the soup of the day, at R25.  Sandwiches cost R30, and options offered on rye or sourdough are Chermoula chicken, mature white cheddar, gammon, and rare roast beef.  Baked phyllo vegetable roulade costs R20.  Parmesan-crusted quiches costs R20, and come as two options:  butternut and goat’s cheese, and oven-dried rosa tomato and olive.  Special dietary requirements and flavour combinations can be catered for, the menu says.

It is the sweet treats that make an impact, being in the central display cabinet, with their colour and beautiful design, clearly reflecting Senekal’s passion.  Petit Tartes, being Belgian chocolate and lemon meringues, cost R10; milk tarts R15; cake slices R20, with a choice of carrot cake and gluten-free chocolate cake; Belgian chocolate brownies cost R15; Macaroons are offered in twelve flavours (the more unusual ones are peanut butter, gooseberry, passion fruit, and raspberry) and cost R5, and miniature cakes cost R40.  The emphasis is on freshness, and flavours and choices change regularly.   The häzz cappuccino did not taste good because it was served in a paper cup, but understandable, given the take-away concept.

Cafeteria, 20 Jarvis Street, De Waterkant, Cape Town.  Tel (021) 418-2830.  www.martinsenekal.com. (The website has mainly photographs of Senekal’s cakes, beautifully shot, reflecting the range of creative ingredient combinations and beautiful ‘packaging’.  There is no information about Cafeteria on the website). Monday – Friday 9h00 – 15h00.

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

Restaurant Review: French Toast Wine & Tapas Bar also serves …. French Toast!

French Toast Wine & Tapas Bar opened about ten days ago, and is a homely cosy wine lounge that has been created in what was previously a warehouse in Bree Street.   It is the type of place that one would pop in to for a drink before or after a function, and have a bite to eat.  It has one of the largest collections of wines-by-the-glass in Cape Town, with over 108 choices of local and international wines.   It is not cheap to eat and drink there, and portions are small, but it does offer a good selection of price options.

French Toast has a heavyweight management.   Owner John Harrison was a stockbroker on the Paris Bourse, and told me that the French bug bit him there, hence the French feel through the name and the café style music that is played.  John was the CEO of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company for many years, and built up its business and introduced the new cable cars during his management of the company.  He was a client of my then-PR company many moons ago.   He spoke passionately about his new project, and how they renovated the double story building in an unbelievable three months, being hands-on in the renovation.   Raw brick walls give it a warm feeling, blackboards communicate the wine and food specials, and windows have been built to add light upstairs. There is a bar counter upstairs and downstairs, and the downstairs one will probably be the more popular one in winter, with its massive fireplace.  The upstairs section is huge, with seating for at least 80-100 persons.  A small boardroom downstairs can host meetings and functions of up to 10 persons, Shane told us.   The decor is upmarket, but the food is not fine dining, with an emphasis on wines, explained Shane.   The cutlery is shiny and new, the glassware is good, but only paper serviettes are supplied.

Karen Visser is a partner in French Toast with John, was a bio-kineticist, and is a passionate golfer and winelover, studying at the Cape Wine Academy.   She compiled the winelist in the main, and has no previous restaurant experience.  GM of the new wine lounge is Gidi Caetano, who was the GM of Salt Restaurant at the Ambassador Hotel, and also oversaw the opening of Salt Deli and Salt Vodka Bar until recently.   She also worked at The Showroom and was a hospitality trainer.   The Manager Shane has an interesting undefinable accent, having grown up in Hawaii, and lived in the UK before moving to South Africa.  He previously worked at the Protea Hotel Victoria Junction, the Devon Valley Hotel, and the 0932 Belgian restaurant in Green Point, which has since closed down.  Chef Jannie Mellis owned East London’s best restaurant, he says, the Two Dogs Bistro, and was at Bushmanskloof Lodge prior to that.  He said he came back to Cape Town “to get into the hub of food again”, a nice compliment for Cape Town. The staff are smartly dressed in black shirts and pants, a French Toast branded apron, and a turquoise tie.

We found it terribly chilly upstairs, but Shane assured me that the airconditioning was not on.  When we moved from table to table, to find the warmest spot, we discovered that a sliding door had been left wide open.  When it had been closed, all was fine.   The music was rather loud when we arrived, but seemed to have been turned down a little while we were there.  

The wines are closed with a wine preservation system Le Verre du Vin, being special rubber wine and sparkling wine bottle stoppers, allowing opened wines to be kept for up to three months.  I chose the same glass of wine I had a week ago, the Mullineux Shiraz 2008, at R83 for a 150ml glass.  The wine has the characteristic of an old-fashioned smoky shiraz, my favourite, but the very chilled serving, at 13°C, was too cold to my liking.  Four Cap Classiques are available, ranging from R44/R195 for Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel to R 81/R380 for Graham Beck Blanc de Blanc.   Seven champagnes can be ordered, Le Mesnil Blanc de Blanc costing R135/R650, and the most pricey is Dom Perignon, sold by bottle only, at R3000.   They also stock Veuve Cliquot, Billecart Salmon Rose and Guy Charbaut.  Seven Sauvignon Blancs are stocked, that of La Motte costing R31/R130, and the Cape Point Vineyard Reserve is the most expensive, at R57/R260.   Seven Shiraz/Syrah wines are served, starting with Rickety Bridge at R35/R165, and Haskell Vineyards is the most expensive at R111/R530.   Imported wines from France, Italy and Germany are also available, and range from R33/R142 – R153/R740.   The branded winelist provides information about the vintage and origin of each wine, but has no descriptions of the wines or the varieties.

The menu, on a laminated sheet without any branding, is broken down into Snacks, Tapas, Charcuterie, Cheese Platters and Desserts, and has a Mediterranean feel to it.   Snacks include olives, almonds, chillies (R30 each) and oysters (R10 each).    The Tapas selection of 16 dishes range in price from R30 – R50, with empanadas, prawns, smoked salmon trout, caprese skewers and more.   The charcuterie platter allows one to select three of a choice of imported meats, including chorizo, parma ham, salami and jamon serano, for R50.  Similarly, one can choose three cheeses for R55, from a selection of six.  Breads come from Jardine Bakery, a few meters away, and sometimes from Knead.   Chef Jannie makes his own preserves and pasta.

There is not much attention paid to the presentation of the dishes, I felt, being functionally presented on white plates.   I had the calamari and lemon (R38), and asked Chef Jannie not to add the chilli.   My (student) son had the delicious herb and pecorini croquettes (R35), as well as the parma ham and mozzarella aroncini fried stuffed rice balls (R45), but was still starving after the two tapas dishes, and therefore ordered patatas bravas with a homemade spicy tomato sauce (R45), which he proclaimed to be excellent.  I had to have the French Toast, after which the restaurant is named, one of the three desserts on the menu (R40), two tiny baguette slices served with not-so-nice almond ice cream. The cappuccino (R16) made from Origin coffee was excellent.   The specials board advertised white anchovies, Pisto bruschetta, and cheddar and rice balls.   Chef Jannie said that from the feedback received to his dishes since opening, he will be amending his menu next week. 

In general the tapas portions are small, and therefore French Toast is not the place to have a meal, but rather a glass of wine with a tapas snack.  We paid R385 for five tapas dishes and two glasses of red wine. 

POSTSCRIPT 15/1:  I have returned to French Toast a few times since I wrote the review two months ago.  Every time I have been warmly received by the management team.   Today I returned for a late Saturday afternoon cappuccino, and was impressed with the new summer menu.   My eye caught the asparagus tapas, at R35, crispy and crunchy, simply served with lemon, the best asparagus I have tasted.   Then I saw a Seafood salad advertised on a Specials board, for R55, and had to have it, when the Manager Gidi explained that it contained steamed prawns and crayfish, with bisque aïoli, beautifully presented, which had been a criticism I had expressed previously.  I felt that Chef Jannie has progressed by leaps and bounds, not only in terms of his menu selection, food preparation, but also in terms of the food presentation.  On the wine side an innovate wine trio 50 ml flight is offered for Sauvignon Blanc (Delaire, Hillcrest and Reyneke Organic), at R40 for the three wines;  the Sparkling wine flight is Steenberg 1682, Teddy Hall,  and Sterhuis, at R65, or R100 if served with a trio of oysters; and the Shiraz flight is from Eagle’s Nest, Haskell Aeon, and La Motte Shiraz Viognier, costing R80.

French Toast Wine & Tapas Bar, 199 Bree Street, Cape Town.  Tel (021) 422-3839. www.frenchtoastwine.com (website still under construction).  Twitter @FrenchToastWine. Monday – Saturday 12h00 – 23h00.  No BYO allowed, the winelist says.

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